Mark Whitaker joins CNN Worldwide
Integrating news
Mark Whitaker has joined CNN Worldwide in a newly created role as executive vice president and managing editor, reporting directly to Jim Walton, president of CNN Worldwide.
Whitaker was most recently senior vice president and Washington bureau chief at NBC News and the former editor of Newsweek. In this new role, Whitaker will lead editorial coverage across CNN’s multiple platforms and influence the overall approach, tone and direction of CNN’s reporting. He will assume this new position on Feb. 14, 2011 and will be based in New York. As managing editor, Whitaker will be responsible for overseeing and integrating news and editorial content across all of CNN’s domestic and international networks and digital platforms, and charting long-term editorial strategy for the organization.
Drawing upon CNN’s global news-gathering infrastructure, he will be tasked with leveraging the best of CNN Worldwide’s reporting to create a more powerful and distinctive dialogue about the top news stories of the day.
A community prayer vigil was recently held in Detroit for Aretha Franklin. The legendary queen of soul is reported to have undergone surgery last Thursday, which caused her to cancel all concert dates and personal appearances through May. City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson was one of the hundreds in attendance to offer support. Franklin wasn’t at the vigil, but in a statement she thanked the City Council, saying, “all prayers are good.”
Disgruntled New York City resident Jimmy McMillan stole the show at a debate for the state’s gubernatorial candidates as he introduced himself and his self-created political “Rent is Too Damn High” party to the public. “The people I’m here to represent can’t even afford to pay their rent.”
National
Juan Williams, a longtime NPR news analyst, was fired two days after claiming that Muslims make him “nervous” and “worried” on planes, when asked if the country was facing a “Muslim dilemma” on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor.”
NPR announced that same evening that they were ending Williams’ contract with the company.
COMPTON, Calif. — Former Compton Fire Department Deputy Chief Marcel Melanson is scheduled to be arraigned Friday on grand theft and arson charges related to a fire at the department’s headquarters.
Melanson is suspected of stealing thousands of dollars worth of Motorola radios, selling them online and intentionally setting the Dec. 11, 2011 fire to destroy evidence of the thefts, Steve Whitmore of the sheriff’s department said.
LANCASTER, Calif. — A registered sex offender accused of using a cellphone camera to capture video up hundreds of women’s skirts in Lancaster and elsewhere in Los Angeles County was in custody and facing prosecution, authorities said.
