James Joseph Schultz

James Joseph Schultz, a pioneer in the cable-TV-news industry, died Sunday in Christiana, Delaware. The cause was complications from a severe brain hemorrhage . He was 70. Schultz had a long, distinguished career in the TV news business. He was CNN's first senior White House producer, starting in 1980, as the network, newly created by billionaire maverick Ted Turner, was trying to establish its credentials against the established broadcast networks. As only the second person hired in Washington by the then-fledgling network, Schultz helped steer CNN's early political and breaking-news coverage. He also served as the network's assistant bureau chief in Washington as well as the director of special events for national and international news. Later he worked for Fox News, creating the Fox News Service, serving as Washington bureau chief as well as the director of affiliate relations, helping Fox expand and develop its network of local news stations. His work at Fox, from 1991 to 2005, spanned the Clinton years and the attacks on the World Trade Center. Schultz was born April 24, 1945, to Jack Christ Schultz, a photographer with the White House Press Corps, and Noreen O'Halloran Schultz of Greenbelt, Maryland. He attended St. Hugh's Catholic Grade School in Greenbelt, then DeMatha Catholic High School for Boys in Hyattsville, MD. He graduated from High Point High School in Beltsville, Class of 1964. After studying at the University of Maryland in College Park, he began his news career as a sound man, freelancing for various networks and local news channels, then landing a permanent position at WTTG Channel 5 in Washington, D.C., a division of Metromedia and then one of the leading independent TV stations in the nation. He worked his way up through various positions at WTTG, as a writer, producer, and field producer thoroughout the 1970s, as the station was gaining a reputation for its local and political news coverage and for developing on-air talent. He eventually became news director of WTTG. Along the way, he helped launch the careers of such TV personalities as Al Roker, Dean Renolds and notables that span the broadcast news industry. Known as an efficient workhorse and a polished producer who could solve any logistical problem, including coordinating coverage of hurricanes and national disasters ("I'm always going where people are leaving," he'd joke to colleagues and friends), Schultz's experience in the scrappy world of local news made him just the sort of newsman the upstart CNN was looking for. At CNN, he worked with many of the network's first stars such as Bernard Shaw, John Holliman, and Charles Begleiter. He hired a young intern, Katie Couric, to work on the CNN assignment desk, who would go on to become one of the biggest names in American journalism. As CNN's operations and ambitions grew, he helped the network establish and coordinate international events, including its coverage of President Reagan's trip to China in 1984 and the Reagan-Gorbachev Summit in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1986. In 1981, he testified in Turner's lawsuit against the White House, ABC, NBC, and CBS, seeking to allow CNN to be admitted to the White House press pool, which had previously been exclusive to the broadcast networks. Ultimately, his testimony helped land CNN the victory and admission into the pool. The successful suit was seen as confirmation that the cable network had established full legitimacy among the news networks. After living in Potomac, Maryland for many years, Schultz retired in recent years to a home in Dagsboro, Delaware. He is survived by his wife, the former Sharon Messinger; by his son, James Christopher Schultz; and by his sisters Noreen Schultz McKinney and Jacqueline Schultz Nelson, both of Greenbelt, MD and many cherished nieces and nephews.