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Susan Roesgen is an American reporter based in Chicago. Roesgen has worked in radio and television broadcasting for more than two decades, including prime time news anchor positions at several TV stations. She has worked as a general assignment correspondent for CNN since 2005.

Early life and career

Susan Roesgen is the daughter of William Roesgen, former publisher of several newspapers and editor of the Billings Gazette, and sister to Andy Roesgen, a freelance television reporter. Roesgen graduated magna cum laude from Montana State University in 1983, majoring in English Literature. Roesgen says she "never planned to be in journalism. I thought I'd be some kind of writer, but not in the media." She started as a copyeditor for the MSU Exponent newspaper, and her first television job was writing commercials. She eventually joined the news department, and worked her way up to anchoring the news at WABC-TV in New York City.

Roesgen's reporting has taken her to an Army barracks in Haiti, the Sea of Galilee, and to the pyramids of Egypt. She and two colleagues at WDSU-TV received regional Emmy awards for the documentary A Grave Injustice, on the theft of artifacts from New Orleans historic cemeteries. She also won a Louisiana Associated Press Award for her reporting in Israel.

Roesgen has worked as an anchor or host for the following stations:

• WABC-TV Channel 7 (New York)
• KFMB-TV Channel 8 (San Diego)
• WITN-TV Channel 7 (Washington, NC)
• KATV-TV Channel 7 (Little Rock)
• WDSU-TV Channel 6 (New Orleans)
• WGNO-TV Channel 26 (New Orleans)

She has also worked as for WWNO-FM, a member station of National Public Radio. Roesgen was a classical music disc jockey, worked on the local show Getting There, and filed news stories for NPR's national broadcasts. She was honored by the Press Club of New Orleans with first place awards in the category of general news in 2004, 2005, and 2006 and in series category in 2005.

National Geographic

She joined the National Geographic Channel in 2000, and co-hosted an international travel show, National Geographic Today.

CNN

Roesgen was hired by CNN as the first news correspondent for their Gulf Coast division in 2005. She was based in New Orleans and covered Hurricane Katrina. Other significant stories she covered for CNN include the Jena Six events in Louisiana, the Drew Peterson case, and the death of Michael Jackson. Roesgen's coverage of the 2009 Red River flood in Fargo, North Dakota, in which she "talks to the camera while passing sandbags and riding a forklift" according to one observer, was mocked by Jon Stewart on Comedy Central's Daily Show.

She moved to CNN's Chicago bureau in September, 2007. In July, 2009, CNN indicated it would not be renewing Roesgen's contract.

2009 Chicago Tea Party

On April 15, 2009, Roesgen interviewed a number of people at a 2009 Tea Party protest in Chicago, including one protester calling US President Barack Obama a fascist and carrying sign depicting him as Adolf Hitler, and another protester that praised Abraham Lincoln. After the interview, she concluded, "I think you get the general tenor of this. It's anti-government, anti-CNN, since this is highly promoted by the right-wing conservative network, Fox. And since I can't really hear much more, and since I think this is not really family viewing, I'll toss it back to you, Kyra." On April 17, 2009, it was reported that Roesgen heard obscenities shouted from the crowd. In 2006, when a protester likened George W. Bush to Hitler (by costume), Roesgen did not challenge that protester as she did the Tea Party protester likening Obama to Hitler. Instead, she referred to him as a Bush "look-alike."

The interview drew significant criticism as confrontational and unprofessional from some in the media, including Mona Charen of the National Review. New York Times media and culture columnist David Carr wrote, "she could not have been more contemptuous of the people she was interviewing". George Washington University professor of media, Frank Sesno, defended Roesgen for not letting statements go unchallenged. A CNN spokesperson said, "She was doing her job, and called it like she saw it." Roesgen has not commented publicly on the situation.

References

1. ^ National Geographic News July, 2001
2. Suncoast Regional Emmy Year 2000 Emmy Awards
3. CNN Reporter Profile
4. University of Montana Winter, 2005 Collegian
5. KATV News November, 2005
6. Pandolfi, Keith, "Public radio station WWNO 89.9-FM spotlights New Orleans community", New Orleans CityBusiness, June 2, 2003
7. "Roesgen on the radio - The former WDSU news anchor now heard as NPR reporter and WWNO deejay", New Orleans Times-Picayune, April 28, 2003
8. "N.O. Press Club honors journalists' work", New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 2, 2006
9. "Press club honors writing, photography", New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 21, 2005
10. "Members of local media honored for work in 2003", New Orleans Times-Picayune, July 17, 2004
11. http://www.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/roesgen.susan.html
12. CNN Transcripts Drew Peterson case coverage; February
13. CNN Transcripts Drew Peterson case coverage; May 8
14. Nancy Grace CNN Transcripts; Drew Peterson case; May 8
15. Nancy Grace CNN Transcript
16. LexisNexis Document CNN Transcript
17. CNN Newsroom CNN Transcript
18. Walker, Dave (March 31, 2009). "Jon Stewart singles out Susan Roesgen for mockery on Daily Show". New Orleans The Times-Picayune. Retrieved 2009-04-17.
19. http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/cnn/susan_roesgen_out_at_cnn_121788.asp?c=rss
20. Roesgen, Susan (2009-04-15). "CNN Newsroom Transcript of Tea Party coverage". CNN. Retrieved 2009-04-18. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
21. Kurtz, Howard (2009-04-16). "Reading the Tea Leaves". Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-04-16. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
22. Carpenter, Amanda (2009-04-17). "Hot Button". Washington Times. Retrieved 2009-04-18. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
23. ^ "Partied-Out CNN Reporter Takes a Break". TV Newser. 2009-04-17. Retrieved 2009-05-07.
24. {{cite web  |url=http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YmI4Y2ZkODE2MzA0NzA1YjVjZjE3M2RhNGJhN2UzOWQ=  |title=CNN's Roesgen: Taking Hackery to New Heights  |date=2009-04-15  |accessdate = 2010-01-20  |last = Hemingway  |first = Mark  |publisher = National Review  }}
25. Charen, Mona (2009-04-17). "CNN vs. the Tea Parties". National Review. Retrieved 2009-04-18. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
26. David Carr, "The Media Equation; Cable Wars Are Killing Objectivity", New York Times, April 20, 2009
27. "State of the Union with John King". CNN. 2009-04-19. Retrieved 2009-04-26.
28. "CNN Reporter at Chicago Tea Party". TV Newser. 2009-04-15. Retrieved 2009-04-18.

External links

• Official CNN Bio

• American television news anchors
• American television reporters and correspondents
• CNN
• Emmy Award winners
• New Orleans, Louisiana television anchors
• People from New Orleans, Louisiana
• Living people
• Montana State University alumni