| Rick Kaplan | |
| Birth Name: | Richard N. Kaplan |
| Birth Place: | Chicago, Illinois |
| Nationality: | American |
| Education: | B.A. University of Illinois |
| Occupation: | Television producer |
Richard N. Kaplan is an American network television producer. He has worked for CBS, ABC, CNN and MSNBC. Kaplan has also served as executive producer for some of the biggest names in television news journalism, including Walter Cronkite, Peter Jennings, Ted Koppel, Diane Sawyer, Katie Couric, and Christiane Amanpour.[1]
Kaplan started his broadcast journalism career at CBS's WBBM-TV in Chicago. He worked for CBS until 1979, when he moved to ABC. Kaplan stayed at ABC until 1997, when he served as President of CNN/U.S. until 2000. He became Senior Vice-President of ABC News in 2003, and was named President of MSNBC in February 2004. In June 2006, Kaplan resigned as president of MSNBC. In 2007, he replaced Rome Hartman as the executive producer of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. In 2011, he was named executive producer of This Week with Christiane Amanpour,[2] and put in charge of ABC News political coverage, 2012 election coverage, and specials. In August 2012, Kaplan founded Kaplan Media Partners. He has received 30 Emmy Awards.[3]
Richard Kaplan was born in Chicago, Illinois. He graduated in 1971[4] from the University of Illinois, where he was a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity.
Kaplan's broadcast journalism career began at CBS News, where he was an associate producer of CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite (1974–79) and an associate producer of the CBS Morning News (1971–74). He was a writer, assignment desk editor and producer at WBBM-TV, the CBS-owned station in Chicago (1969–71).
Kaplan joined ABC News in 1979 as a senior producer for World News Tonight with Peter Jennings. From 1979 to 1997, Kaplan held a variety of positions at ABC News and the ABC Television Network.
Prior to joining Nightline, Kaplan was executive producer of World News This Morning and Good Morning America news.
After a stint during the 1980s as executive producer of ABC's Nightline, Kaplan served as executive producer of ABC's Primetime Live from 1989 to 1994.
In January 1994, Kaplan became executive producer of World News Tonight with Peter Jennings and was responsible for the direction and overall editorial content of the news program.
As President of CNN-US, Kaplan was responsible for all news and programming at the flagship network of the CNN News Group.
Kaplan repeatedly clashed with CNN anchor Lou Dobbs and was presumed responsible for his abrupt departure from the network in 1999.[5]
On April 20, 1999, CNN was covering President Clinton's speech in Littleton, Colorado, following the Columbine High School massacre. Dobbs ordered the producer to cut away from the speech and return to broadcast Moneyline.[6] Dobbs was countermanded by Kaplan, who ordered CNN to return to the speech. Kaplan later said, "Tell me what journalistic reason there was not to cover the president at Columbine soon after the shootings? Everyone else was doing it." Dobbs announced on the air that "CNN President Rick Kaplan wants us to return to Littleton." A few days later, Dobbs announced that he was leaving the network to start a website devoted to astronautical news.[6]
Kaplan was senior vice president of ABC News in June 2003.
Kaplan was named President of MSNBC in February 2004.[7] He left in 2006.[8]
Kaplan was named executive producer of the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric in March 2007.
In 2011, Kaplan was named executive producer of ABC News' This Week With Christiane Amanpour, and put in charge of political coverage and 2012 election coverage and specials in May 2011.
Kaplan founded Kaplan Media Partners in August 2012. Kaplan Media Partners' first client was Aaron Sorkin and the HBO program The Newsroom, where Kaplan was hired to be a creative consultant beginning with the 2nd Season. Writing began in September 2012.
Kaplan has devoted a great deal of his time to education, teaching a series of special journalism classes every semester since 1993 at the University of Illinois College of Communications in Urbana–Champaign.[9] In 1999 Kaplan received an honorary Doctor of Letters from The University of Illinois, his alma mater. He also teaches various journalism classes and has widely taught and lectured at universities across the country; including Duke University, Columbia University, Cornell, Wellesley, Boston College, Columbia College, USC, Berkeley, and the University of Pennsylvania.