Rick Kaplan: Biographical Info

TV Week bio: “Mr. Kaplan, a big man with a big personality and a big resume, came to MSNBC 2 and a half years ago. A broadcast news veteran who had spent much of his career at ABC in the Roone Arledge era, Mr. Kaplan ran CNN for several turbulent years that included the 1998 Tailwind scandal in which CNN retracted a story that U.S. troops had secretly used nerve gas on U.S. defectors in Laos during the Vietnam War. After being off the network news radar for a while Mr. Kaplan signed on to help ABC News produce coverage of the war on terrorism.”

TVNewser flashback: “Rick Kaplan was the president of CNN/US from 1997 to 2000. He was fired — that’s his word — “a victim at least in part of depressed ratings,” Howard Kurtz said in ’00…He got his start at CBS, helping produce the Evening News. In 1979, he joined ABC News, acting as executive producer for Nightline, World News Tonight, and other programs.”