New CBS Evening News Anchor Jeff Glor Reflects On His Boston News Roots
BOSTON (CBS) - Jeff Glor will take over as the new anchor of the CBS Evening News on December 4, the next stop on an impressive rise in broadcast journalism that included a stop in Boston.
Glor came to WBZ-TV recently to talk to Lisa Hughes and David Wade about what it's like to be in such a high-profile position.
"It's been great. One of the great parts about it has been a chance to visit some of my hometowns and the places where I've lived and worked - Boston, Syracuse and Buffalo - to see friends and family and reminisce. It's been a lot of fun. I hope to be back in Boston as often as possible," he said.
Glor, 42, who is married with two young children, spent four years working in Boston before joining CBS News in 2007.
"I knew Boston was a tremendous news town coming in when I took the job here. I left with even more respect for it. So much nationally is sort of funneled out of Boston and comes out of New England. I knew it before I got here and just came to appreciate it again even more and see it to this day, so this is a home for me. We were here for four years and it will always be really special for both (his wife) Nicole and I," he told WBZ.
So what changes can we expect in the CBS Evening News once he takes over?
"We're blocking out some new shots in the studio, so some of those shots will look good. The anchor will be slightly different. Rythmically you might see come changes in terms of the flow of the show as we move along and maybe even more as we get farther down the road. I think also there's going to be even more focus - not that there hasn't been already - on what can make CBS News special, which is the investigations, the longer-form reporting, these deeper dives that we can take into issues and really, really drill down on them," Glor said.
At a time where people are so quick to yell out, "fake news!", Wade noted that telling it "right down the middle" and being objective has never been more important in journalism.
"You're absolutely right. If you have an agenda, you don't belong in this business because we cover the news and there's always going to be people who are not happy necessarily with the job you're doing. That's not unique to this day. I think if we continue to pay attention to what we should be doing, which is practicing the best journalism and telling the best stories in the best ways, we'll be okay," Glor said.
Glor has done a great deal of field anchoring for CBS News from locations around the country, so Hughes wanted to know if we can expect more of that.
"I will certainly be on the desk more now, but they are interested in getting me out into the field and I'm interested in doing that too, as often as possible. So if something happens in the Boston area, I hope we'll be here," he said."
"In the last month-and-a-half or two months here, I think I've been at the scene of a natural disaster, a terror attack and a mass shooting. It's been busy. It may continue to stay busy. I know I'm interested in being out in the field as often as possible and I think they'd like to see me there as well."
Wade also noted the Glor, a Buffalo native, is a long-suffering Bills fan.
"I am a Buffalo Bills fan. Always have been. Always will be. My son is now becoming a big sports fan. He likes the Bills as well, but he can take other teams now too because he loves to follow everything. I grew up in Buffalo where there is mainly football ("and wings," said Wade) wings and hockey for me," Glor said.
"And my daughter doesn't sleep so that's a good, really fun thing to deal with in the middle of the night. She's out of her crib now, so she comes running down the hallway screaming, it's a fun time," he joked, noting that she "doesn't care" about his new job and "neither does my son."
But Glor is very aware of the magnitude of sitting in the anchor seat once occupied by the legendary Walter Cronkite.
"I know what CBS News has meant and what it's accomplished and what it's roots are. It's very meaningful to me. I try to be a student of where CBS has been and where it is now. I appreciate that, I try to understand all that and I'll try to carry on that tradition as best I can," he said.
