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for an interview this afternoon…
“Rome Hartman, an award-winning and prolific 60 Minutes producer since 1991, has been named Executive Producer, CBS Evening News with Bob Schieffer,” the network announced today. The appointment is effective Jan. 9, 2006.
Hartman will report directly to Sean McManus. He will also “serve as an advisor to him on other elements of organization and news gathering, including evaluation and deployment of correspondents and producers and talent recruitment.”
“The selection of Mr. Hartman provides the strongest indication yet that in rethinking the CBS Evening News, Mr. McManus intends it to have a heavy dose of hard news,” Jacques Steinberg says.
“Most people are familiar with the exemplary work that Rome has done on 60 MINUTES,” McManus says in the P.R. “Rome’s production experience, journalistic integrity and vision uniquely qualify him to take the CBS EVENING NEWS to the next level. I will also rely on him to assist me in some key areas, including staffing and recruitment, as we continue to build CBS News into the leader in broadcast journalism.”
Hartman’s biography is after the jump…
Hartman joined 60 MINUTES in 1991 as a producer for Lesley Stahl when she joined the broadcast as a correspondent. He has produced more than 100 reports for the program, a figure reached by only four other producers in the 37-year history of the program. Among his most notable reports are one of the first stories about identity theft which caused the postal service to alter its change-of-address procedures, the first and only television profile of “Star Wars†creator George Lucas and the first behind-the-scenes look at Google after its 2004 stock offering. Hartman also served as the senior producer overseeing and responsible for 60 MINUTES II from January to early September of this year.
The datelines of his 60 MINUTES assignments have included Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Africa, Greece, India and Latin America, as well as cities and towns across the United States. Hartman has received two Emmy Awards, a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and a Gerald Loeb Award for business journalism.
Before his 60 MINUTES tenure, Hartman was the senior producer for the CBS EVENING NEWS in Washington, D.C. (1989-91), supervising the broadcast’s coverage of politics and all other Washington events. Prior to that, he was CBS News’ White House producer (1986-89), covering Ronald Reagan’s second term and the first year of the George H.W. -Bush presidency.
Hartman joined CBS News in 1983 as a field producer in the Atlanta bureau, covering events throughout the South and Latin America, including leading the Network’s coverage of the American invasion of Grenada.
He was a producer of the 6:00 and 11:00 PM newscasts at WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C. (1981-83) and a producer of the 11:00 PM newscast at WTVJ-TV, the then-CBS affiliate in Miami (1980-81). Hartman’s broadcast journalism career began at WPEC-TV in West Palm Beach, Fla. (1977-80), where he held positions ranging from desk assistant, reporter, cameraperson, film editor and producer.
He was born in West Palm Beach. Hartman was graduated from Duke University in 1977 with a degree in political science. He lives Bethesda, Md., with his wife and two sons.