Big Apple Reporter Gets Bumped Up

WABC Reporter CeFaan Kim is getting called up to the mothership, but will also continue to work at the local ABC O&O.

New ABC News President Kim Godwin sent out an email saying that Kim will be joining ABC News as a Correspondent but he will also continue to report for WABC New York splitting his time between both newsrooms.

Here is the internal email:

Team –

I am thrilled to announce that CeFaan Kim is joining ABC News as a correspondent. He will continue to report for WABC-TV New York and will split his time between both newsrooms.

CeFaan is a passionate storyteller with stellar journalistic instincts, which he has demonstrated in his reporting throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since joining WABC-TV in 2015, CeFaan has covered a wide range of important stories. During the pandemic shutdown, he reported nightly from the streets of New York City, speaking with health care workers, gravediggers, farmers and others impacted by the health crisis. CeFaan also reported daily on the Black Lives Matter protests that followed the murder of George Floyd. He covered the 2020 presidential election recount in Pennsylvania, the Chelsea terrorist bombing and protests of President Trump’s travel ban at JFK airport. CeFaan has consistently reported on poverty within the AAPI community, including an exclusive report in 2016 on Asian-American seniors who were riding casino buses to help make ends meet and how the pandemic has impacted Chinatown in NYC.

Throughout the pandemic CeFaan has been at the forefront covering the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes, interviewing and telling the stories of countless victims. His reporting helped spark a national conversation on anti-Asian hate and led to the NYPD reversing its posture on how it communicated its investigatory process on anti-Asian hate crimes. CeFaan has contributed to multiple primetime specials on the topic including, the ABC News Live special “Stop the Hate: The Rise in Violence Against Asian Americans,” the 20/20 special “Murder in Atlanta” and most recently, ABC Owned Television Stations’ news special, “Our America: Asian Voices” which rebroadcasts across the station group’s owned channels this weekend, and is set to air on National Geographic on May 20 and available on Hulu at the end of the month.

Before joining WABC-TV, CeFaan was a reporter for News12 Westchester/Hudson Valley and NY1 News, where he extensively covered local politics and breaking news. CeFaan is also a veteran who served as a U.S. Army Reserve Sergeant. He is currently the co-chair of the Asian American Journalists Association’s Media Watch Committee.

Please join me in welcoming CeFaan!

 Kim