{"id":9798,"date":"2015-12-21T06:00:51","date_gmt":"2015-12-21T12:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=9798"},"modified":"2015-12-21T06:05:29","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T12:05:29","slug":"harry-porterfield-cbs-2-retirement-means-youre-fired","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2015\/12\/21\/harry-porterfield-cbs-2-retirement-means-youre-fired\/","title":{"rendered":"Harry Porterfield: CBS 2 retirement means \u2018you\u2019re fired\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Roseanne<\/a>

<\/a> Roseanne Tellez (CBS 2, December 17, 2015)<\/p><\/div>\n

Now we know the real reason Harry Porterfield wasn\u2019t around when WBBM-Channel 2<\/a> announced his retirement<\/a> last Thursday: He wasn\u2019t buying into it.<\/p>\n

In his first public comments on the matter, the 87-year-old dean of Chicago television news said he had wanted to continue working and was hopeful the CBS-owned station would renew his contract as co-anchor of the 11 a.m. Monday-through-Friday newscast.<\/p>\n

Sure, there\u2019d been conversations about stepping down in the past, but the bosses always came through with a new deal. His current contract runs through December 31.<\/p>\n

It all ended with a call at home from Porterfield\u2019s agent on Wednesday morning notifying him that CBS 2\u2019s decision was final this time. The plan was for Porterfield, who had taken a few days off, to return to work Thursday and be on hand for the official announcement Friday. That would also be his last day on the air.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had second thoughts about going along because it wasn\u2019t true,\u201d Porterfield said. \u201cAs I was told, they wanted to protect themselves from something, and that it was important for me to say I was \u2018retiring.\u2019 But not important to me that way. They\u2019re<\/em> saying it. I\u2019ve never said that.<\/p>\n

\"Harry<\/a>

Harry Porterfield<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWhen they tell you that your contract is not being renewed, that means you\u2019re fired. I can\u2019t think of any other interpretation to give to that: \u2018We don\u2019t want you working here. Your contract will not be renewed.\u2019 That means you\u2019re fired.\u201d<\/p>\n

Porterfield said he thought it over and told agent Steve Mandell he didn\u2019t want any tearful goodbyes or rousing sendoffs in the newsroom. \u201cAs I told Steve, I don\u2019t like that. When they tell you you\u2019re through, you\u2019re through. And that\u2019s the way it ought to be done, as far as I\u2019m concerned,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

So on Thursday, as Porterfield\u2019s picture and the words \u201cThank you Harry!\u201d appeared over her shoulder, co-anchor Roseanne Tellez closed out the 11 a.m. newscast by announcing the end of a legendary run that began at the old CBS studios on McClurg Court in 1964.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter more than 51 years on television in Chicago \u2013 including more than 30 years here at Channel 2, Harry Porterfield will be retiring from CBS 2 as of the end of this month,\u201d Tellez told viewers. \u201cIn typical Harry fashion, he\u2019s told us that he doesn\u2019t want to make a big fuss or throw a party to celebrate his amazing career \u2014 even though we all know he totally deserves one. . . . While Harry is retiring from CBS 2, he\u2019ll always be a very important part of our family.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Porterfield out and Tellez shifted to full-time general assignment reporting, Erin Kennedy and Lionel Moise, who co-anchor from 4:30 to 7 a.m. weekdays, will take over the 11 a.m. newscast, starting December 28.<\/p>\n

Through a spokeswoman, CBS 2 management declined to comment on Porterfield\u2019s version of events. The remarks Tellez read on the air Thursday (and were posted online<\/a>) are the only statement the station has made about his leaving.<\/p>\n

But CBS 2 sources said Porterfield had agreed to a retirement scenario in the past, and that by refusing to show up at the end last week, he was \u201cthumbing his nose\u201d at his colleagues and management. \"It was not the honorable way to go,\" one insider grumbled.<\/p>\n

Porterfield doesn\u2019t dispute that he\u2019d been close to leaving years ago and even cleaned out his desk before the station decided to retain him. \u201cUltimately they got me to agree on the words \u2018retiring from CBS\u2019 the last time,\u201d he said. \u201cI said let\u2019s just get it over with and I\u2019ll leave and that will be the end of it. But I didn\u2019t think I was bound to that commitment this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing that changed his mind was witnessing the false bonhomie around the forced retirement <\/a>of legendary anchormen Bill Kurtis and Walter Jacobson from the station in 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last time we went around on this, they wanted me to grandstand this thing,\u201d Porterfield said. \u201cThey wanted me to stand up in front of all the employees and tell everybody how much I\u2019m going to miss not being there. I said I\u2019m not going to do that because I saw what happened to Bill and Walter. These guys were at the point of tears when they stood in front of everybody working there and said, \u2018Well, you know, it\u2019s time for us to leave, so forth and so on.\u2019 \u00a0I just don\u2019t like those kind of situations. I\u2019m not good in those circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Harry<\/a>

Harry Porterfield (1985)<\/p><\/div>\n

The last years at CBS 2 have been a bonus for Porterfield, who found himself out of work in 2009 after 24 years at ABC-owned WLS-Channel 7.<\/a>\u00a0He surprised everyone by turning up on CBS 2 again \u2014 at age 81. \u201cThe whole idea, I think, was kind of a shot at Channel 7,\u201d Porterfield recalled. It also was meant to redeem CBS 2 for demoting him in 1985 \u2014 a disastrous move that led to his departure and triggered a boycott<\/a> by Operation PUSH. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty obvious that was the whole intention of what they were doing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Would Porterfield ever have stepped down voluntarily? \u201cI know I can\u2019t go on forever, and I thought about leaving, but I didn\u2019t have a worked-out plan,\u201d he said. \u201cI knew that someday I\u2019d have to say, well, I really want to quit. I knew that was coming, to be honest with myself. But I didn\u2019t expect it. I thought maybe in a year. But I didn\u2019t think about it a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still he knows he\u2019s had a charmed life: \u201cI think I\u2019m kind of lucky. All the marbles have kind of come into place to fit. Even though things seem to go awry, they always settle out in my favor. . . . I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m going to do at this point, really. We\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now we know the real reason Harry Porterfield wasn\u2019t around when WBBM-Channel 2 announced his retirement last Thursday: He wasn\u2019t buying into it. In his first public comments on the matter, the 87-year-old dean of Chicago television news said he had wanted to continue working and was hopeful the CBS-owned station would renew his contract... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9798"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9798"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9822,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9798\/revisions\/9822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}