Newscasters

The Mirthala Salinas affair isn't going away -- at least not as quickly as Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa or the Telemundo television network would like. On Friday, a day after NBC Universal's Spanish-language Telemundo division suspended Salinas for two months without pay for a conflict of interest because of her romantic relationship with the mayor, questions about the company's internal probe persisted. But NBC Universal and Telemundo declined to address them.

NEWS anchors just don't hang around for more than four decades anymore -- if they last a contract term or two these days, they're lucky -- which is one reason Hal Fishman's tenure at KTLA-TV was remarkable. Fishman, who died Tuesday at age 75, was the iron horse of Los Angeles broadcasting, the anchor who kept his voice steady and his mien serious even when the television station he called home lapsed into on-air silliness.

Robin Roberts is expected back on ABC's "Good Morning America" on Monday, only 10 days after undergoing surgery for breast cancer. "She is still awaiting her test results but is feeling great and looking forward to getting back to work," show spokeswoman Bridgette Maney said Thursday. Roberts, 46, told viewers last week she had been diagnosed with breast cancer after finding a lump in a self-examination. She had surgery last Friday and has been resting at home since.

NEW YORK -- While it's hard to think of positives to come out of a severe brain injury, here's one: It helped ABC News' Bob Woodruff score a scoop. South Dakota Sen. Tim Johnson turned to Woodruff for a "Nightline" report on his recovery and return to public life this week after a brain hemorrhage. The Democrat probably figured no other reporter would better understand what he went through.

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.

DAN RATHER took the best seat in the house that Murrow built and then left the place a ruin. Now he has returned to torch the rubble. The former "CBS Evening News" anchor has a filed a $70-million suit against the network where he worked for 44 years, alleging that the network breached his contract when it asked him to step out of the anchor's chair and pushed him into broadcast obscurity.

NEW YORK -- After 15 months at the helm of MSNBC, legal analyst Dan Abrams is stepping down as general manager and returning to hosting full-time, the cable news network announced Monday. In a statement, NBC News President Steve Capus praised Abrams and said his return on-air will help strengthen the network's lineup.

Edwin Maher was having a "Broadcast News" moment, feeling a flicker of self-doubt, an attack of the sweats waiting to happen beneath the white-hot studio lights. The veteran Australian TV reporter and weatherman was starting a new job abroad as a prime-time news anchor. But decades of on-camera presence couldn't prepare him for this gig, mouthing the party line for an imposing state-run TV network with armed soldiers posted at the entrance gates. He was reading the news in communist China.