NAUGHTY PAULA ZAHN - Fired for shopping herself to other networks

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FOX

Fox News Channel Releases Zahn for Contract Breach

Fox News Channel has terminated Paula Zahn effective immediately for breach of contract, Kevin Magee, vice president of programming for the network, announced on Wednesday.

According to Jack Abernethy, executive vice president of the network, "Fox News regards breach of contract as a serious and intolerable offense. We consider the acts of her representatives to be unscrupulous and her actions to be disloyal to the network."

FNC has announced it will initiate legal action immediately against N.S. Beinstock, Ms. Zahn's agency. Other legal action is being actively considered.

Fox News Channel is a general news service covering breaking news as well as sports, entertainment and business news. FNC is available in more than 70 million homes and is owned by News Corp.

-- Anonymous, September 05, 2001

Answers

[Kinda had a feeling. . . CNN has been dying to get somebody from Fox.]

Paula Zahn Heads for CNN As Anchor

By Frazier Moore AP Television Writer Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2001; 5:48 p.m. EDT

NEW YORK –– Paula Zahn is headed to CNN, where she is expected to anchor a new morning broadcast.

Zahn was fired Wednesday from Fox News Channel, where she was signed through February 2002, for what that network called breach of contract. Fox News is charging that Zahn's agent, Richard Leibner, violated that pact by talking to CNN.

"Fox News regards breach of contract as a serious and intolerable offense," Fox executive Jack Abernethy said. "We consider the acts of her representatives to be unscrupulous and her actions to be disloyal to the network."

Leibner was not immediately available for comment, but his spokesman, Tom Goodman, said CNN, Leibner and Zahn "have acted with the highest degree of professionalism and integrity during this process."

CNN Chairman Walter Isaacson also said nothing improper happened.

"We made her an offer subject to her availability and her existing obligations," Isaacson said. "Now that she's become available, we're delighted to have her."

"I'm looking forward to signing with CNN," Zahn said. "I'm thrilled."

Zahn, 45, had been with Fox News Channel since March 1999.

After anchoring Fox News' evening newscast for several months, she was given a weeknight news-talk hour, "The Edge." Her last appearance was Tuesday night.

Before Fox, Zahn spent a decade at CBS News, where her duties included co-anchoring its morning newscast with Harry Smith.

Now Zahn apparently is headed back to the early shift, as CNN develops a morning to originate from a streetside studio in New York.

"We're excited about building a show around her," Isaacson said Wednesday. He added that an official announcement of her new post was likely within "a few days."

© Copyright 2001 The Associated Press

-- Anonymous, September 05, 2001


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