Salant's Jump

To early rehirement at NBC

Nearing retirement at 65, Richard Salant, the acerbic president of CBS News since 1961, told friends he was planning to fill his days by writing a book and, perhaps, giving lectures to journalism students. But last week, in a move that amazed the television industry, Salant announced that on May 1, the day after he leaves the CBS payroll, he will become vice chairman of rival NBC, responsible for news and corporate planning. "I'm terrified of retirement," Salant explained. "The truth is, I don't know how to teach or how to write a book."

Salant's term at CBS was ended by the network's policy of mandatory retirement for network brass (but not for on-the-air personnel) at 65, the same policy that led six years ago to the reluctant departure of Frank Stanton, the network's longtime president. (The only exception: CBS Godfather William Paley, who continues at 77 as chairman of the company he founded.) Like Stanton, Salant was offered a consulting contract, but he preferred a full-time job instead. Said Walter Cronkite, 62: "It's a darn shame that our policy doesn't permit us to keep him."

During Salant's reign, the CBS Evening News passed NBC'S Nightly News in the ratings (ABC has generally been a distant third), and became the first network newscast to expand from 15 minutes to half an hour. CBS News under Salant also launched the popular TV newsmagazine 60 Minutes, mounted controversial documentaries, and otherwise cultivated an image as the classiest of network news operations. A Harvard-trained lawyer, Salant was initially viewed with suspicion by CBS journalists, who feared he would succumb to commercial pressure from network higher-ups. But he won journalistic respect for his tough, sometimes prickly defense of CBS News against pressure not only from the network's own entertainment-first programmers, but also from White House officials who were outraged over coverage of Watergate and the Viet Nam War. One of his greatest regrets, says Salant, was authorizing payment of a reported $50,000 to ex-Nixon Aide H.R. (Bob) Haldeman in 1975 for two hour-long--and unilluminating--interviews.

Salant has long pressed CBS brass, unsuccessfully, to expand the evening network news to a full hour and give documentaries a regular time slot in the programming schedule. "All those ideas I've been pushing at CBS all these years, I'll now try out at NBC," he promised last week at a farewell party at CBS News's studios on Manhattan's West Side. "They've got a good organization at NBC; it's just that their morale is shot."

His departure did not enhance morale at the network he is leaving. "We're being interfered with more and more by 'Black Rock' [the charcoal-gray granite building that serves as corporate headquarters]," sighed CBS Veteran Hughes Rudd. "I feel sad." Cracked Cronkite: "I wished him a reasonable amount of luck." Observed CBS's old-pro Newsman Douglas Edwards: "It's the best thing that's happened to NBC since Jack Benny."

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