From the Local News To a Higher Calling

He returned to the Colorado Springs station as news director, but was fired after not leveling with his boss about a staffer who called in sick to attend an industry convention. "You learn from your mistakes," he says.

Brody moved to Washington in 1998 and became WUSA-TV's executive sports producer, traveling with the Redskins and to the Super Bowl and Final Four. But he was later dropped when Channel 9's sports unit was downsized. This, says Brody, triggered a midlife crisis, especially since his wife, Lisette, was pregnant with their third child.

"I was really getting tired of the whole local news bit -- leading with dead-babies-in-the-dumpster stories, doing the Christmas retail shopping story. It was just getting monotonous."

At that point, says Brody, "God provided." He became a reporter for the radio station run by Dobson's Focus on the Family, and in 2003 was hired by Virginia Beach-based CBN.

Brody says he feels comfortable at the Christian operation, in part because, at his wife's urging, he embraced Jesus two decades ago. He considers himself a Jewish believer in Christ and "I know some people would say that's crazy," Brody says. The Rockville family prays at the nondenominational McLean Bible Church.

By appearing on the "700 Club," Brody reaches about 1 million viewers on the ABC Family Channel and on satellite, but is also associated with a televangelist who frequently stirs controversy. Robertson has said on the program that there will be a "mass killing" in the United States later this year that could claim millions of lives. He suggested that Ariel Sharon, then the Israeli prime minister, suffered a stroke as punishment for uprooting Israeli settlements. In 2004 Robertson said God told him President Bush would be reelected in a blowout.

Brody says he likes Robertson, based on the handful of times they have met, but views his reports as separate from the rest of the program. And he delights in positive feedback from liberal readers, such as when he praised the performance of most Democratic candidates at last weekend's New Hampshire debate.

"We don't play a gotcha game, and the Democrats know that," Brody says. "There's absolutely no agenda."

London Calling

Rome Hartman is moving from Katie to Katty.

The former executive producer of the "CBS Evening News With Katie Couric," who was dumped in March amid sagging ratings, will announce today that he is joining the BBC to launch a new broadcast aimed at American viewers.

"The British are coming, and they've decided to hire a Yank," Hartman says.

Washington anchor Katty Kay already reaches about 1 million American viewers with the half-hour newscast "BBC World" -- about 80 percent of them on PBS stations and the rest on the cable channel BBC America. Kay may anchor the new 7 p.m. broadcast, which will be offered on BBC's global channel and on BBC America, available in 55 million U.S. homes. Executives have not decided whether the longer program will replace Kay's current show.

"It's BBC's effort to become a player in the American market," Hartman says. "At a time when more Americans are hungry for smart, sophisticated and thorough coverage of the world, it's a great opportunity to feed that hunger."

The plan is for the new broadcast, which debuts this fall and will also air worldwide, to focus more heavily on American news. But like Kay's current newscast, the longer program will be heavy on foreign coverage.

"CBS and the other networks have very talented correspondents overseas," says Hartman. "But there's no way any American broadcast network can or will cover the world the way BBC does. They just don't have the capacity. It's a frustration for people at every network."

A Question of Obsession

MSNBC anchor Alex Witt, after hours of virtually nonstop Paris Hilton coverage Friday: "Are people taking this seriously?"

Harvey Levin of gossip site TMZ.com: "Well, you are. I haven't seen much else on MSNBC today, or anyplace else."