Chicago`s CBS-owned-and-operated television station, WBBM-TV (Channel 2), is expected to add Lester Holt, a 27-year-old newscaster now with WCBS-TV in New York, to its lineup of anchormen and women.
An official of Operation PUSH, the Chicago-based civil rights organization that targeted Channel 2 for a boycott over minority hiring practices, claimed victory Wednesday upon hearing the news.
Holt, who is black, will join Channel 2`s anchor rotation next month, assuming a contract agreement can be reached. He will be the first anchor hired by vice president and general manager Johnathan Rodgers, who assumed control of the station in March.
The Channel 2 boycott by PUSH began last October in reaction to the demotion of veteran black anchorman Harry Porterfield last fall. Porterfield eventually moved to WLS-TV (Channel 7).
Since his appointment, Rodgers has met at least four times with representatives of Operation PUSH. According to sources, the issue of racial quotas in hiring has been a sticking point in the negotiations.
The original demands in PUSH`s ”economic covenant” included the hiring of two black male anchors, as well as financial considerations. And Tuesday, the Rev. Willie Barrow, national executive director of Operation PUSH, claimed a victory with word of Holt`s apparent hiring.
Rodgers, who is black, took exception to the characterization of the Holt move as a concession to PUSH.
”People can claim whatever they want to claim,” he said Wednesday.
”These remarks won`t hurt Lester Holt. I`m interested in him for the same reasons I was interested four years ago, when I hired him at KNXT (now KCBS)
in Los Angeles. He`s an up-and-coming star in the broadcast business and he`ll succeed on his own terms.”
Rev. Henry Hardy, head of PUSH`s CBS negotiating team in Chicago, said his organization would ”celebrate” Holt`s arrival, but maintained that ”the issue is not who gets the credit.”
”I am not prepared to claim any sort of victory,” Hardy said.
”Obviously, if sensitivities at CBS over minority hiring practices have been heightened by our boycott and our demonstrations, we`re pleased. But we feel this approach is in the best interests of WBBM as well as the interests of the black community.”
Hardy said the local boycott of CBS would continue, as would negotiations with Rodgers and the network.
Holt is expected to anchor weekend shifts in the beginning, though a shuffling of anchor personnel, as well as changes in Channel 2`s 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. news schedule, are a distinct possiblity.
Efforts to reach Holt for comment were unsuccessful.
