John Roberts (television reporter)

Infobox journalist
name = John Roberts (JD Roberts)


caption = John Roberts, 2004-06-05
birthname = John D. Robertson
birth_date = November 15, 1956 (age 51)
birth_place = Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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education = University of Toronto at Mississauga, 1978
occupation = News reporter, television anchor, journalist
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gender = male
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URL = http://us.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/roberts.john.html

John D. Roberts (born November 15, 1956 in Toronto, Ontario) is a television journalist for CNN, where he is a co-anchor of CNN's morning program "American Morning". He anchors from Washington D.C. and New York. Roberts became a United States citizen after the 9-11 terrorist attacks; under the law of both countries, he was able to do so without renouncing Canadian citizenship.

He also served as the first anchor of "This Week at War" and served as the Senior National Correspondent based in Washington. He has also substituted for Anderson Cooper on "Anderson Cooper 360".

Prior to CNN, Roberts served as Chief White House Correspondent at CBS from 1999 to 2006, and regularly anchored a Sunday-afternoon 3 p.m. ET newscast for the CBS Radio Network. He had been widely considered a potential replacement for "CBS Evening News" anchor Dan Rather after Rather stepped down from the anchor desk in March 2005, but Bob Schieffer was chosen on an interim basis to be the next "CBS Evening News" anchor, and in subsequent months, it became clear that Roberts was not under consideration for the job. In February 2006, Roberts left for CNN.

Roberts grew up in Mississauga, Ontario. He attended Lorne Park High School and later the University of Toronto at Mississauga, and worked for many years in Canadian media before joining CBS News in 1992.

Roberts first started working in radio at the local college station CFRE-FM, in Mississauga, Ontario. He briefly worked on-air on radio station CJBK in London, Ontario in 1977, moving back to Toronto to top-40 powerhouse CHUM that year, where he was heard as weekday evening host. In 1979, he branched out from his music personality work to function as an entertainment reporter and co-host with Jeanne Beker of the music newsmagazine "The NewMusic" until 1985. Roberts also worked briefly with CIXK in Owen Sound, Ontario in the 1980s. He was a video jockey with CITY-TV owned MuchMusic, a music video channel on which he and Christopher Ward appeared as the first on-air personalities when the network launched in 1984. At MuchMusic he also hosted a one hour Heavy Metal video show called "The Power Hour." He also served as an entertainment reporter and anchor on CITY-TV's "CityPulse", and became anchor of "CityPulse Tonight" in 1987 when Anne Mroczkowski moved from anchoring that newscast to join Gord Martineau on the 6 pm edition.

Starting in 1989, Roberts began his 17-year association with CBS television and radio. Between 1989 and 1990 Roberts was an anchor/reporter for WCIX-TV (now WFOR-TV), the CBS-owned and operated television station in Miami, Florida. Roberts returned to Canada in September 1990 to co-host the national CTV morning show "Canada AM", initially with Deborah McGregor, and later with Pamela Wallin. He also anchored the 5 and 11pm newscasts at CBS's flagship station in New York, WCBS-TV.

In March 2003, Roberts was embedded with the 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion of the U.S. Marines during the initial invasion of Iraq. In October 2006, he returned to Iraq to anchor several editions of This Week At War and report for the Special Investigations Unit documentary "Death Squads".

On July 19, 2005 he introduced CBS's coverage on the announcement of the nomination of John G. Roberts, Jr. for the Supreme Court of the United States. He once joked in a newspaper column that he asked to be referred to as "Your Honor" because he and Justice Roberts bear the same name.

Soon after, Roberts left CBS and joined CNN. Together with CNN colleague Anderson Cooper, he won critical praise for his work covering the Hurricane Katrina disaster which devastated New Orleans and the American Gulf Coast.

In July and August 2006, Roberts reported from the front lines in the Israel/Hezbollah war and at one point, embedded with an Israeli infantry unit, marching 10 miles into Lebanon. CNN's coverage of the war was recognized with an Edward R. Murrow Award.

In September 2008, Roberts was criticized for not being a journalist after an interview concerning Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, he ignored a proven lie Alex Castellanos restated and suggested the discussion could go on 56 more days. [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/10/11152/9338/466/592439]

External links

* [http://us.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/roberts.john.html Biography at cnn.com]
* [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/07/20/opinion/main710424.shtml What's In A Name?] - Commentary by John D. Roberts on the Supreme Court nomination of John Roberts, and his opinion on the name.

Persondata
NAME = Roberts, John D.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
SHORT DESCRIPTION = television journalist
DATE OF BIRTH = November 15, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH = Toronto, Ontario, Canada
DATE OF DEATH =
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