Jim Rosenfield broke in
at 2:28 this afternoon with a minute-long special report to announce "a potential bombshell rocking New York politics at the very top." Sourcing The New York Times, Rosenfield reported that Governor Eliot Spitzer had told advisers that he was involved in a prostitution ring.
Rosenfield returned
at 3:01 with exclusive word that, according to multiple sources, Spitzer would not be expected to remain as governor. He also mentioned that Spitzer was expected to make a public statement within a few minutes.
CBS 2 News broke in again
at 3:11 minutes to carry Spizter's short statement via 1010 WINS-AM in which he apologized to the public and said that politics is about ideas, not individuals. A few minutes later, Rosenfield tossed to Marcia Kramer, who was live with more information from her sources in Albany. She was the first on the station's air to mention that Spitzer might be "Client #9" and said that rumors first began swirling last week. Rosenfield tossed from the newsroom at 3:25 to Chris Wragge in the studio. Wragge was joined by Andrew Kirtzman with analysis at the desk. This special report was 17 minutes long.
CBS 2 News
at 5:00 with Wragge and Kristine Johnson covered the story with a team of reporters beginning with Lou Young at governor's office on East Side.
Next up, CBS News correspondent Bob Orr, who broke the "Client #9" part of the story, joined Johnson live from Washington with more details.
Kramer had more on what's next,
John Slattery had New Yorkers' reactions from Times Square and
Dave Carlin was in Brooklyn Heights with a closer look at The Emperors Club. At 6:00,
Sean Hennessey profiled Lieutenant Governor David Paterson, the man who is next in line to replace Spitzer.
Wragge and Johnson returned with a special half-hour broadcast at 7:00. Young, Rosenfield, Kramer, Slattery and Hennessey all provided reports and Kirtzman was back in the studio with more analysis. Wragge and Johnson also spoke via phone with New York State Assemblyman James Tedisco, a Republican, who called for the governor to resign. Tom DeLuca, a Fordham University political science professor, was in the studio for more discussion. This broadcast was repeated on C-SPAN 2 at 8:30 and at around 9:10 on C-SPAN with the two commercial breaks taken out. It can be watched at
wcbstv.com here:
Part I,
Part II.
Kirtzman joined CBS 2 from NY1 News on November 13, 2002, joining Marcia Kramer on the station's political team. He often contributed "Kirtzman's Columns" to the end of the 6:00 newscasts on Fridays, a political week-in-review of sorts. He began hosting "Kirtzman & Co." on September 7th of the following year. The show originally alternated with Marcia Kramer's "Sunday Edition" on Sunday mornings, but the shows aired back-to-back beginning in January 2005 and were later merged into "Kirtzman & Kramer" before eventually being discontinued. Since last year, Kirtzman most often served as a general assignment reporter.
Weinberger joined the station from NewsChannel 4 in October 2005 and served as its chief investigative reporter. He was behind several heavily promoted exclusive interviews, such as with the captain of the Staten Island ferry that crashed and the "Son of Sam."
