Fred Walters

Education

University of Pennsylvania.

Career

His columns for the Harrisburg Patriot-News website have been collected into an e-book entitled News Horizons. This is a veteran journalist’s take on the news media, politics and government, and current affairs He also wrote a biography of a Revolutionary War hero, John Haslet: A Useful One, an effort prompted largely by a comment of his history professor at Penn, Doctor Thomas Cochran, who said history is best learned through the lives of the people who made lieutenant

lieutenant’s the story of an Irish immigrant who settled in Delaware, involved himself early on in the Patriot cause, then organized and led one of the outstanding regiments in the Continental Army, the Delaware Continentals.

He was killed at the Battle of Princeton in January 1777, and the legend is that George Washington wept over his body on the battlefield. Foreign the title, Walters drew from an essay by historian Whitefield Bell that while people like Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin "crowd history’s galleries", it was the people who implemented their visions that were "the useful ones."

Walters has worked in Harrisburg, Philadelphia, New York, Detroit, and Los Angeles as both reporter and news executive.

A native Philadelphian, Walters began his career with The Associated Press in that city while still an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania (Class of 1953) (after 36 months in the United States Navy). Besides The Associated Press, he has worked for the American Broadcasting Company, Metromedia Broadcasting, and Westinghouse Broadcasting.

Walters was the editor on duty when Westinghouse’s KYW began its all-news format in 1965.

He played a major role in establishing KYW Newsradio as a respected and successful news operation. When he led the newsroom, it was the only all-news station that was rated Number One in a major American market. He stressed fairness, accuracy, objective analysis, and live reporting.

Walters also directed local news coverage of several major breaking news stories over the years, including the 1972 Pennsylvania floods, the bombing of the United States Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, Vietnam protest demonstrations, Watergate hearings, the 1969 Moon Landing, auto industry labor negotiations, the explosion of the Shuttle Challenger in 1986, and many natural disasters such as snowstorms, floods, fires, (including California brush fires), and earthquakes.

He gained formal recognition of broadcasters in the rules of the Pennsylvania General Assembly.

Achievements

• Walters won awards from the National Headliner Awards, the Society of Professional Journalists, and directed news staffs in Philadelphia and Detroit that were consistently adjudged the best in their state.

Membership

In addition to his journalism credentials, Walters is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and as president of the Philadelphia chapter chaired the organization’s national convention in 1976. He also was a member of the Pennsylvania Legislative Correspondents’ Association, and served one term as its president