Friday, June 17, 2005
It's Hemmer's Time
Well there will be one less CNN'er on the payroll later today when Bill Hemmer leaves the network after a 10 year stay.
With CNN since 1995, Hemmer has anchored several news programs and reported on numerous events. He has anchored CNN Tonight, CNN Early Edition, CNN Live Today as well as CNN Morning News. In 2002 Hemmer became co-anchor of American Morning, based in New Yok City.
In 2004, Hemmer covered both the Democratic and Republican national conventions from the floor of the convention centers. He also served as one of CNN's prime-time anchors on the CNN Decision Desk on election night. Earlier that year, he was dispatched to Florida on two separate occasions to cover hurricanes Ivan and Jeanne and to both Simi Valley, Calif., and Washington, D.C., to cover the funeral and tributes for former President Ronald Reagan.
In 2003, Hemmer traveled to Kuwait City, Kuwait, to report live the ongoing and escalating tensions with Iraq. When the war began, Hemmer stayed on, anchoring and providing daily updates on the war.
Soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., Hemmer began reporting from Ground Zero in New York City, providing constant updates and detailed descriptions of the devastation. In December 2001, Hemmer traveled to Kandahar, Afghanistan, to report about the war in that country from the frontlines. He has also reported live from Jerusalem on the tension in the Middle East, specifically the West Bank.
In May 2001, Hemmer played an instrumental role in the
network's coverage of the Timothy McVeigh execution, reporting from Terre Haute, Ind., where McVeigh was put to death for his part in the Oklahoma City bombing. Additionally, Hemmer also played an integral role in CNN's Election 2000 coverage, conducting interviews with the presidential candidates and reporting live from the floor of the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. Following election night, he reported live from Tallahassee on the ongoing dispute over Florida's votes for president, gaining exclusive interviews with Democratic and Republican leaders, while breaking some of the biggest developments in the protracted saga.He received an Emmy Award for his work on CNN's coverage of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta. He also covered Hurricane Floyd from various locations across the Eastern Seaboard and reported from Fort Worth, Texas, on the aftermath of church shootings there. He also spent more than a month covering the crisis in Kosovo, where he reported on the aerial bombing missions from Aviano Air Base in Italy, the refugee crisis from Skopje, Macedonia, and on the latest NATO developments from Brussels.
Good luck Bill!
UPDATE: 3:00PM EDT CNN Fan has the transcript of Bill's goodbye and a pic of the group hug this morning on AM.
6:02pm EDT ALSO should have mentiond the above Hemmer info came from Hemmer's bio on CNN.com. An e-mailer makes the observation that the bio does not mention Hemmer's part in covering the Pope's funeral earlier this year.
# posted by ATN @ 12:19 AM 
