Burt Reinhardt dies at 91: Newsman helped launch CNN

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Source: The Washington Post

Burt Reinhardt, whose broadcast journalism career began in the newsreel era and spanned well into the age of the 24-hour cable news cycle when he became one of the first presidents of CNN, died Tuesday at his home in Marietta, Ga., of complications following a series of strokes. He was 91.

An Army combat cameraman during World War II, Mr. Reinhardt later was managing editor of Fox Movietone News and executive vice president of UPI Newsfilm, the television film service of the United Press International wire service. He helped establish the agency’s worldwide television operations in the 1960s.

He was executive vice president of the non-theatrical and educational film division of Paramount Pictures before CNN creator Ted Turner enticed Mr. Reinhardt to help launch the start-up news network. “He was also a seasoned professional who knew how to get things done,” Turner wrote in his autobiography, “Call Me Ted.”

As executive vice president from 1980 to 1982, Mr. Reinhardt approved all financial decisions and helped hire most of the network’s initial 200 employees, including the network’s first anchor, Bernard Shaw.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/burt_reinhardt_dies_at_91_newsman_helped_launch_cnn/2011/04/14/AFMd9mkG_story.html

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Of course, back in WWII, Fox Movietone News, named after Fox Studios namesake William Fox, actually was a decent, honest news service, not to be confused with the modern-day stinkhole Fox News Channel (owned by the same company that owns the Fox movie studios).