Veteran CBS News director Eric Shapiro will direct his last “Evening News” broadcast tonight — 51 years to the day after he first joined the network as a mail room employee.
CBS News staffers gathered for a champagne toast honoring Shapiro after “Evening News” Thursday night. CBS News chairman Jeff Fager and “Evening News” anchor Scott Pelley were on hand to praise the veteran director, who has worked with every anchor since Walter Cronkite and has directed all of the network’s political coverage since 1992.
“I can’t possibly have had a more exciting and gratifying career. I have been to some amazing places and have met many fascinating people along the way. I have witnessed first-hand television news’s coming of age (along with my own!),” Shapiro wrote in a goodbye note to CBS staffers. “But the most satisfying part for me has been the honor and privilege of working with all of you…the most talented and professional journalists, broadcasters and craftspeople in our industry.”
Read Shapiro’s full note after the jump.
From: Shapiro, Eric
To: @CND News
Subject: Thank you
Dear friends and colleagues,
It’s hard for me to believe that this time has come. I have decided to retire at the end of February, exactly 51 years from the day I first walked in to the CBS mail room in February of 1963.
I can’t possibly have had a more exciting and gratifying career. I have been to some amazing places and have met many fascinating people along the way. I have witnessed first-hand television news’s coming of age (along with my own!)
But the most satisfying part for me has been the honor and privilege of working with all of you…the most talented and professional journalists, broadcasters and craftspeople in our industry.
I will miss the excitement of the day-to-day challenges we all deal with, but I think it’s time to step aside and let others have a chance at the director’s chair.
I will say goodbye to as many of you as possible in person over the next few weeks. Thanks again to all of you.
Regards,
Eric