Newscasters

Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather says he'll be pulling for Katie Couric when she takes over the job this fall and says that what it takes to succeed is leadership and a passion for news. "The role is basically a leadership role, and the organization begins to take on the personality and the character of the anchor," Rather said Monday at the National Assn. of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas.

Latinos have long been a fixture of the local news, dutifully assimilated types who fold themselves into a circus industry of news-o-tainment, genially denying their heritage -- any accent airbrushed -- in the interest of career in a gringo world. Monday, though, they were thrust into the maelstrom of what was, at heart, a Latino pride day, and the tension this produced made local news something it rarely is: a window into the immediate experience of living here.

ABC anchor Bob Woodruff, who suffered serious wounds while traveling in Iraq in January, has nearly recovered from his physical injuries and is undergoing intensive rehabilitation with the aim of returning to his post as soon as possible, one of his brothers said in an interview. Much of the treatment is focused on restoring his cognitive functions through "thinking processes, talking with therapists," said David Woodruff, the anchor's older brother. "It's exercising the brain."

Charlie Rose is recovering from the heart operation he underwent in Paris in March but says he hopes to return to his PBS talk show next month. He's grateful things aren't worse. "You're talking to someone who's very, very lucky. It could have gone the other way," Rose, 64, told the Daily Dispatch of Henderson, N.C., his hometown. Rose, who lives in New York City, said he's spending his time reading, walking, visiting with friends and dining out.

ABC anchor Elizabeth Vargas' recent announcement that she would be giving up one of the most prestigious jobs in broadcast news because she is expecting her second child was viewed with skepticism among some television industry observers, who noted the sharp ratings decline at "World News Tonight" this season.

Charlie Gibson this week officially occupied the anchor desk on ABC's "World News Tonight," becoming Charles Gibson in the process but otherwise remaining recognizably himself. Other anchors have kept their nicknames when they took the job: Tom Brokaw was never Thomas, nor Dan Rather Daniel, nor Bob Woodruff Robert, in his brief term. (Will Katie Couric be Katherine at CBS?).

Viewers of stodgy state-run television were in for a surprise this week when they tuned in to the 7 p.m. news. In place of stone-faced anchors reading dry news reports, a mainstay of the CCTV network for decades, they were treated to two young, smiling faces.

He has covered the London bombings and Paris riots for ABC News, reported on globalization from China and India. Now Bill Weir is poised for an even greater role on ABC's "Good Morning America" as it takes a renewed run at NBC's perennial breakfast leader "Today" in the post-Katie Couric era. Not bad for a guy hired almost 11 years ago from Green Bay, Wis., to be a third-string sportscaster for Chicago's WGN-TV Channel 9.

His four-decade run at CBS was headed toward the finish line, but former anchor Dan Rather continued to press the network where he'd made his name to send him back into service on some big stories. The longtime correspondent, known for his travels to hot spots around the world, said he had asked to go to the Gulf Coast last fall to cover Hurricane Katrina and to visit Iraq and Afghanistan to cover the conflicts there, but his requests were denied. "They just said, 'Not interested,' " he said.

CNN anchor Daryn Kagan announced Thursday that she is leaving the cable news network to start a new Web venture she aims to make "an inspirational online community." Kagan, who will continue to anchor the morning news block "CNN Live Today" until Sept. 1, has been with CNN since 1994, when she was hired out of a local Phoenix station to be a CNN Sports anchor. She began anchoring news coverage in 1998.