‘Public Eye’ editor moves to political coverage

Steve Safran January 11th, 2007

CBSNews.com took a risk when it launched its “Public Eye” blog in 2005. CBS News was amid tremendous upheaval - with Memogate, Dan Rather leaving and Bob Schieffer replacing him. Oh, and then Katie came along. Lots to discuss. Into that fray jumped Vaughn Ververs (pictured, right), who became Public Eye’s first editor. Ververs tried to bring a sense of what was happening in the CBS Newsroom to the public, and in turn brought the viewers’ concerns to the newsroom. He has done it very well. Today, CBS News announced Ververs is moving to become Senior Political Editor for the website. Replacing him is Brian Montopoli, who has been writing and reporting for Public Eye since its inception. We congratulate Brian and Vaughn on their promotions. Press release after the jump.

PRESS RELEASE AS RECEIVED BY LOST REMOTE:

VAUGHN VERVERS IS NAMED SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR,
CBSNEWS.COM, AND STEVE CHAGGARIS BECOMES
DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR, CBS NEWS

Brian Montopoli Succeeds Ververs as Editor of “Public Eye,”
CBSNews.com’s Blog About CBS News and the Media

Veteran reporter and media writer Vaughn Ververs will move from his current post as editor of “Public Eye,” CBSNews.com’s blog about CBS News and the media at large, to Senior Political Editor of the website. Ververs will be responsible for daily coverage and long-term planning for CBSNews.com’s political coverage, working closely with Molly Levinson, Political Director, CBS News, and reporting to Dick Meyer, Editorial Director, CBSNews.com.

Steve Chaggaris, who has been involved in producing political coverage for CBS News for the past seven years, has been named Deputy Political Director, CBS News. He will be involved in planning the political coverage with all CBS News broadcasts for the television side of CBS News and will report to Levinson.

Brian Montopoli will succeed Ververs as editor of “Public Eye,” where he has been a writer and reporter since the media blog began in 2005.

Ververs’ and Montopoli’s new appointments are effective next Monday, Jan. 15. Chaggaris will assume his new post on Feb. 1.

Before joining the CBS News interactive group as editor of “Public Eye” at its inception in 2005, Ververs was the editor of The Hotline, a daily Web briefing on politics published by the National Journal (1992-95 and 1998-2005). Prior to that, he worked with the Fox News Channel as a field producer, booker, line producer and associate producer for “Fox News Sunday” (1997-98). He was an associate producer and researcher for the political unit of CBS News (1995-96). Before his journalism career began, Ververs was the deputy press secretary for Pat Buchanan’s presidential campaign in1992. He was born in Colorado Springs, Colo., and grew up in Simla, Colo. Ververs lives in Alexandria, Va., with his wife and three children.

Chaggaris was a producer for CBS News based in Washington, D.C. and working primarily with National Political Correspondent Gloria Borger, since 2005. He also contributes to CBS Radio News and CBSNews.com. Before that, Chaggaris was an off-air reporter and associate producer (2001-05), covering the presidential campaign of Sen. John Kerry, as well as the House and Senate. He joined CBS News as a political researcher and associate producer in 1999. Chaggaris worked for C-SPAN as a producer (1995-1999), including at the 1996 Republican National Convention. He was born in Lynn, Mass. Chaggaris graduated from Ithaca (N.Y.) College in 1994 with a bachelor’s degree in television-radio and a minor in political science. He lives in Washington. Chaggaris serves as the chairman of the Congressional Radio-TV Correspondents’ Association.

Montopoli will edit and write for “Public Eye,” which was created to offer candid dialogue between CBS News journalists and management and the public. Prior to joining CBSNews.com, Montopoli was a reporter for the Columbia Journalism Review (2004-05), where he wrote about a variety of subjects from the press coverage of presidential politics to the rise of blogging. He was a freelance writer (2002-04) and contributed to The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Slate, Salon, The New York Observer and The Washington Monthly, among other publications. Montopoli was an English and economics teacher at an American high school in Rome, Italy (2000-01). He was graduated from Georgetown University in 1999 with a bachelor of arts degree in English and economics. Montopoli lives in New York.