Cbs News

The bullet-riddled body of an Iraqi newspaper reporter was recovered Tuesday in Baghdad, and police in the southern city of Basra began an intensive search for a Western journalist working for CBS News and his Iraqi interpreter. Journalists have been frequent targets in Iraq, which the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said remained the world's most deadly country for media workers despite recent security gains.

An Iraqi interpreter for CBS News kidnapped in Basra was freed Wednesday, but a British journalist remained in captivity, police said. Aqeel Khadhir was handed over to authorities at the hotel where he was seized in Basra, 275 miles south of Baghdad, Police Brig. Gen. Shamkhi Jassim said. Journalists at the hotel saw police officers escort the Iraqi interpreter to headquarters.

When veteran Los Angeles news anchors Harold Greene and Ann Martin were felled by a round of jobs cuts last week, they were in good company. At least 160 employees at CBS Corp.-owned television stations in 13 cities were let go, including such seasoned broadcasters as prominent Chicago anchor Diann Burns, renowned Boston sportscaster Bob Lobel and longtime Minneapolis meteorologist Paul Douglas.

Faced with the need to replace Ed Bradley in midseason, "60 Minutes" won't even bother. His workload will be spread around, and, in a unique arrangement for the CBS program, his top producer will run a reporting unit for stories available to all on-air correspondents. "It's a long-term project to find the next full-time person who can show the abilities that are expected of a '60 Minutes' correspondent," said Jeff Fager, the show's executive producer. Even before Bradley's death Nov.

Sometimes a makeover can be too extreme. Faced with moribund viewership of its flagship newscast, CBS News is trying to stanch audience attrition by recasting the "CBS Evening News with Katie Couric" in a more traditional mold and tapping a veteran news producer to run the program.

Allen Pizzey, a 60-year-old veteran war correspondent who considers himself a bit of a Luddite, never imagined that he would embrace blogging. But the CBS newsman found himself turning to the Web during a recent stint in Baghdad after he noticed the numerous pieces on the network evening newscasts devoted to the pet food recall in the U.S.

Veteran CBS anchor Dan Rather filed a $70-million lawsuit Wednesday against his former employer of 44 years, alleging that executives at the network damaged his reputation and broke the terms of his contract by sidelining him during his final months at CBS News and then forcing him out.

Former CBS anchor Dan Rather is vowing an aggressive pursuit of his $70-million lawsuit against the network, saying he's determined to get his former bosses under oath and prove that they caved to government pressure in forcing his ouster. "I didn't take this on to have it dwindle away," Rather said in a phone interview Thursday. "I'm prepared to fight it all the way. . . . I don't have to be afraid anymore of standing up and speaking out."

If Dan Rather is going to set himself up as our last defense against corporate corruption of news organizations, he's going to have to get better writers. Fielding softball questions from old pal Larry King about his $70-million wrongful dismissal suit against CBS on "Larry King Live" on Thursday night, Rather dutifully trotted out enough boilerplate to raise the eyebrows if not the suspicions of much less seasoned journalists than he.

As Hollywood braces for its television and film writers to go on strike as soon as Monday, more than 500 CBS News employees represented by the Writers Guild of America under a separate agreement with that network are contemplating their own job action.