Hank Plante, KPIX, (CBS5) political editor, who has been at the SF outlet for 25 years, will retire at the end of March.
Plante was one of the first openly gay TV reporters in the country. His interviews with Mayor Newsom and Sacramento legislators garnered massive local attention.
Plante's coverage of the AIDS epidemic in its early stages helped Channel 5 win a prestigious Peabody award and two national Emmys.
Plante's exit follows the recent announcement by longtime KTVU political editor, Randy Shandobil, that he will retire from the Fox affiliate in November.
Plante told industry pub, newsblues.com, that he and his partner plan to retire in Palm Springs.
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Hank Plante came from the Cronkite era of CBS News, when it was the Tiffany network. His accomplishments are so numerous that to focus on his sexuality as above seems to diminish his journalistic power to a mere footnote.
ReplyDeleteHe deserves better.
There's one sentence in this about Plante's "sexuality." What's the problem?
ReplyDeleteFunny, I have watched Hank Plante for years and had no idea (nor cared)that he was gay. I think that says a great deal about him as a journalist. The Bay Area is losing a good one.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure Gavin Newsom will be happy now. The two definitely tangled in that interview back in November.
ReplyDeleteA consummate professional who didn't wear his sexuality on his sleeve.
The Bay Area TV "brain drain" continues in this era of cost cutting, as Hank is 'retired."
ReplyDeleteRich:
ReplyDeleteCorrect me if I'm wrong, but it seems that what happened is a pretty big deal, and I'm not talking about Plante.
This story was on the front page of sfgate, and the link went directly to your blog. This was not a blog item like "City Brights" or the "3-Dot Blog", but it was filed under a news story. I don't remember the gate linking a news story to a blog in this manner before. Am I wrong? This, I think, might indicate a sea-change at the gate. I'm curious as to your thoughts on that, or correcting me if I'm making a bigger deal of this than it really is.
Nice write up on Hank. He'll be missed.
ReplyDeleteDD: Even "bloggers" get it right, occasionally. Its a news story that I happened to get, and the Gate went with it.
ReplyDeleteAnd the story is real. No big deal from this angle.