William W. Headline, Led CNN's Washington Bureau, 76, Washington Post
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/22/AR2008102203378.html
William W. Headline; Led CNN's Washington Bureau
By Lauren Wiseman, Washington Post Staff Writer
William W. Headline, a veteran broadcaster who helped establish the CNN
cable network as its Washington bureau chief for 12 years and later headed
the Voter News Service exit-polling organization during the contested 2000
presidential election, died October 20 [2008] at Suburban Hospital [in the
metropolitan Washington DC area] after a fall at his home in Bethesda
[Maryland]. He was 76.
Mr. Headline was a longtime CBS News executive before arriving at the
fledgling CNN in 1983. As bureau chief in Washington [DC], he was pivotal in
helping the network establish itself as a credible news source in the
nation's capital.
Before his arrival, there were six Washington bureau chiefs in three years.
Mr. Headline remained in the demanding role until 1996, when he became a CNN
vice president managing special projects and pool assignments in which
networks collaborate on news coverage.
As bureau chief, he was responsible for expanding the staff from 80 to 350
to cover Washington news and events. He also served as chairman of the
Radio-Television Correspondents Association in Washington.
"When Bill came to CNN, it had to claw its way into acceptance. He brought
stature with both broadcasting and Washington experience," said Frank Sesno,
Mr. Headline's successor as bureau chief.
CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer said Mr. Headline was "a decent person who
understood the problems that journalists have and dealt with them in a
compassionate way. As we used to say it, the best name in news."
William Wentworth Headline, whose fitting name was Americanized by a Swedish
ancestor, was born in Cleveland and raised in East Aurora, N.Y. He was a
geology graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and a Navy intelligence officer
before starting a journalism career.
In the early 1960s, he gathered polling information for Louis Harris and
Associates in New York [New York]. He was hired by CBS in New York to help
direct coverage of the 1964 presidential election and promoted to a senior
vice president of the network before moving to Washington [DC] in 1974 as
assistant bureau chief.
He held that position for nine years, organizing coverage of political
conventions, overseas presidential trips, papal visits and other Washington
events. He was a network pool producer during President Richard M. Nixon's
resignation.
Nearing his retirement from CNN, Mr. Headline said he was "happy as a clam.
I've had a lot of fun with this job." He left the network in 1998 and spent
two years as the executive director of the New York-based Voter News
Service, a primary source of exit polling used by news organizations during
the 2000 presidential election. That year, VNS data led networks to
prematurely project Vice President Al Gore as the president-elect. Mr.
Headline blamed faulty technology for inaccuracies in the group's data.
"We were aware some of the computer hardware we have was antiquated," he
told a Florida reporter in 2001. "But when you go back and look at the
number of races called correctly, it was actually a good night."
In January 2003, the service was shut down because it failed to fix its
problems. Mr. Headline said then that "two years was too little time to
rebuild the news service."
After leaving VNS, he kayaked above the Arctic Circle and went river rafting
in the American West. He was a member of the Washington Canoe Club and the
Washington Area Bicyclist Association.
His marriage to Barbara Teegarden ended in divorce.
Survivors include his wife of 22 years, Katherine Cole Headline of Bethesda;
three daughters from his first marriage, Erica Holmes of Canton, Georgia,
Alison Feld of Brookeville [Maryland] and Amy Stiewig of Fort Collins,
Colorado; two stepdaughters, Caroline Pence of Summit, New Jersey, and Amy
Sabel of Venice, California; and eight grandchildren.