David Schechter announced he was leaving WFAA 8 Dallas last week and now we know his "interesting opportunity" is a job with CBS-owned stations as well as CBS Television affiliates across the United States.
Here is the official CBS release:
"CBS Stations announced David Schechter as national environmental correspondent and Ash-har Quraishi as national consumer correspondent. Both of these award-winning journalists will be part of the CBS News and Stations team at the Company’s recently launched CBS Local News Innovation Lab. The announcement was made today by Chad Cross, vice president of content development at CBS Stations.
Schechter and Quraishi will report to Cross and be responsible for national-scale stories and longform reporting that will air on CBS-owned stations across the country and CBS Stations’ local news streaming channels. In addition, their reports will be made available to CBS Television Network affiliates via CBS Newspath, the Network’s affiliate news service.
Cross also announced the hiring of four additional members of the CBS Local News Innovation Lab team: Schechter’s longtime colleague Chance Horner has been named senior photographer, editor and producer; Amy Corral and Haley Rush have been appointed investigative producers; and Jose Sanchez has been named investigative photographer, editor and producer.
Schechter, Horner, Rush and Sanchez (who will all based at the lab’s home in Dallas-Fort Worth), Quraishi (based in Chicago) and Corral (based in Los Angeles) will be joining several other recently hired CBS Local News Innovation Lab journalists. The team is empowered to experiment with next-generation storytelling and test new products, workflows and production models for the future.
“We are thrilled to continue building up our CBS Local News Innovation Lab team roster with this esteemed group of investigative journalists,” Cross said. “David, Ash-har, Chance, Amy, Haley and Jose are all among the best of the best in their respective areas of expertise. We look forward to having them support the lab’s mission to produce data-driven, insightful reports for our CBS Stations group as well as all of our Network affiliate partners.”
Schechter’s new role marks a return to CBS, where he spent seven years as an investigative reporter for WCCO-TV, the CBS-owned station in Minneapolis-St. Paul, from 1999-2006. He has spent the past 16 years with WFAA-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth, where he was a senior reporter as well as the host and co-producer (with Horner) of the franchise, “Verify Road Trip.” Schechter and Horner won a 2021 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton for reporting about climate change. Their accolades for “Verify Road Trip” include a national Edward R. Murrow Award, Scripps Howard National Journalism Awards and the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Political Reporting.
Horner has spent the last nine years at WFAA and most recently served as the station’s director of photography. He has worked as a photojournalist and producer in markets from Abilene, Texas to Miami, Fla. In 2015, Horner was named the National Press Photographers Association Central General Photographer of the Year. In his senior role with the CBS Local News Innovation Lab, he will set standards and provide direction for advanced photography and editing, including training for CBS Stations’ visual storytellers and advising on equipment and technology.
Quraishi is an Emmy award-winning journalist with more than 20 years of experience in local, network and investigative reporting. He most recently served as a national correspondent for the E.W. Scripps Company. Previously, Quraishi was a news reporter and fill-in anchor for WMAQ-TV in Chicago. Before that, he was the chief midwest correspondent for Al Jazeera America. Quraishi also reported for WTTW-TV in Chicago and contributed to the PBS NewsHour. He was also CNN’s Islamabad bureau chief/correspondent, based in Pakistan. In 2011, Quraishi co-produced the award-winning documentary “Fordson” about the Arab American experience in post 9/11 America. His work has been recognized with numerous awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association, Investigative Reporters & Editors, the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the Press Club of Atlantic City and the Chicago Headline Club. Quraishi has been awarded a CINE Golden Eagle award, a Peter Lisagor award, four National Headliners, and in 2010 was an IRE Award finalist.
Corral is an award-winning news producer who has driven impactful investigations that have altered public policy and triggered reforms in local and federal laws. As executive producer of the I-Team at KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, she uncovered corruption and government failures as well as consumer scams and rip-offs. Corral was awarded an Emmy for her undercover work exposing the dangerous and deceptive practices of the Hollywood tour van industry, and a Golden Mike Award for an undercover investigation of health care providers paying for fake online reviews.
Rush has spent the past five years at KPTV-TV in Portland, Ore., where she served as an investigative reporter and then producer. While there, she produced policy-changing investigative stories. When patients in Portland were missing appointments for surgeries and chemotherapy, her series about a medical transportation service led to state action and reform. She previously reported for KRQE-TV in Albuquerque, N.M., and KPLC-TV in Lake Charles, La.
Sanchez has 25 years of experience as a passionate visual storyteller. His experience producing investigations started early in his career in El Paso, Texas. Most recently, Jose has been an instrumental part of the investigative team at KXAS-TV in Dallas-Fort Worth, where he has helped transform the look of that station’s investigations. His accolades include a Peabody Award, an IRE Award, a National Headliner Award and several Edward R. Murrow and Emmy Awards."
As Schechter mentioned in one of his final channel 8 broadcasts, WFAA Director of Photography Chance Horner, will be joining him at his new gig.
I recently blogged that former Houston TV meteorologist Collin Myers joined the CBS Local News Innovation Lab out of Dallas - Fort Worth. Brittany Rainey is also with the lab too.
