Former ABC News chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross and chief of investigative projects Rhonda Schwartz have landed on their feet after their controversial departure from ABC last month. (TVNewser)
Starting in September, Ross will be leading an investigative unit at Law & Crime, serving as chief investigative reporter and on-air host for the trial network, where he will host a weekly show. Schwartz will join as executive investigative producer. (Mediaite)
Ross, 69, and Schwartz have been a team since 1991, and together have covered everything from the Sept. 11 attacks to Bernie Madoff, racking up 17 Emmys and six Peabodys, among other honors. Still, Ross’ tenure at ABC didn’t come without its fair share of stumbles, the final of which landed him a four-week suspension. (New York Daily News)
Last December, Ross made one of the defining media errors of the Trump era when he reported that Michael Flynn, the short-lived national security adviser, was prepared to testify that Trump urged him to contact Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign. After much pushback, Ross and ABC News corrected the report. ABC News suspended him for four weeks without pay. Upon his return, he ended up not at the hopping ABC News newsroom but at ABC’s Lincoln Square Productions. (WaPo)
Law & Crime was founded by ABC chief legal affairs anchor Dan Abrams and is part of a portfolio of popular online publications that includes Mediaite, which covers primarily political media and cable news. (The Hill)