Ross Becker

Ross Becker is a journalist who primarily works in television, radio or digital. He is currently president and CEO of TvNewsmentor.com which is dedicated to growing and mentoring talent. Most recently he was also the news director at KMIR-TV in Palm Desert, California. Becker began his career in broadcasting in 1975 as a reporter at WFRV-TV in Green Bay, Wisconsin, before moving in 1977 to WTHR-TV in Indianapolis as a weekend anchor and field reporter. He then moved to KCBS-TV (then-known as KNXT) in Los Angeles in 1980 as a reporter, eventually becoming head of the Investigative Team and weekend anchor, as well as host of a short-lived 7 p.m. newscast. He received three Emmys for coverage of the Cerritos plane crash, and Southern California windstorms. He also received six Golden Mike Awards and the AP Mark Twain Award for news writing. During his tenure at KCBS, he also served two years as President of the Radio/TV News Association of Southern California. In 1990, Becker moved on to KCOP-TV to anchor the station's only newscast, replacing Warren Olney. At KCOP he received an Emmy Award for coverage of the Reginald Oliver Denny beating which started the L.A area riots. In 1995, Becker quit KCOP, complaining about "sold-out, disgusting, tabloid" journalism in Los Angeles. In January 1996 Becker was hired as a freelance journalist and conducted a 90-minute interview with O.J. Simpson. It was the first interview with Simpson following his acquittal on murder charges. The interview was controversial at the time because it was distributed as a videotape for sale instead of airing on "free" television or cable. During the interview Becker agreed not to ask about Simpson's children, finances, or the then-pending civil lawsuit, however he disclosed this at the beginning of the interview and ultimately ended up questioning him about those subjects. In the video, Simpson blamed people "in Faye Resnick's circle" for the murder and accused Mark Fuhrman of planting evidence rel