Rita Cosby

Infobox Celebrity


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name = Rita Cosby
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birth_date = birth date and age|1964|11|18
birth_place= Brooklyn, New York
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occupation = Journalist, television host
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Rita Cosby (born November 18, 1964, in Brooklyn, New York, but raised in Greenwich, Connecticut) is a veteran TV news presenter and senior correspondent who most recently worked at MSNBC.

Cosby has received three Emmy Awards, the Jack Anderson Award for investigative excellence, the Matrix Award, and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

Biography

The daughter of a Danish mother and a Polish father who came to the U.S. after World War II, Cosby grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, where she attended Greenwich High School and freelanced for the local paper. She earned her bachelor's degree from the University of South Carolina. Cosby balanced college with a position at WACH-TV, the local FOX affiliate, and while working on a feature film, actor Patrick O'Neal recommended her to Diane Sawyer, who helped her obtain an internship on the "CBS Evening News".Fact|date=October 2007 Jobs as an anchor/reporter at KERO-TV in Bakersfield, California and WBTV in Charlotte, North Carolina soon followed.

Fox News Channel

From 1995 to 2005, Cosby worked at Fox News. At Fox, she hosted both "The Big Story Weekend Edition" and "Fox News Live with Rita Cosby".

She has interviewed more than a dozen world leaders, conducting historic back to back interviews with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.cite news |url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7845035 |title=Rita Cosby joins MSNBC |work=NBC News |date=2005-05-13 |accessdate=2007-10-11] She was the first reporter to see prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay and even interviewed Serbian president Slobodan Milošević who called her from his prison cell at the Hague. Years earlier, while broadcasting live from Belgrade during the NATO bombing, she broke the news that three American POWs were going to be released.

Cosby also made national headlines for her interviews with boxer Mike Tyson, singer Michael Jackson and convicted serial killer David Berkowitz, "The Son of Sam," who wrote to her during the Washington, D.C. sniper shootings in October 2002. As that story unfolded, Cosby secured another major first, by reporting the names and license plate numbers of the sniper suspects. In 2001, Cosby's interview with flight attendant Anne Marie Smith led to a U.S. Attorney's Office investigation of Rep. Gary Condit for obstruction of justice and witness tampering. [cite news |url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,32911,00.html |title=Smith's Lawyer to File Legal Action Against Condit Monday |work=Fox News |date=2001-08-27 |accessdate=2008-04-04]

Cosby served as a lead reporter during the 1996 and 2000 Presidential campaigns. During the Monica Lewinsky investigation, she broke the news that President Bill Clinton was going to be subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury. [ [http://www.mondostars.com/news/ritacosby.html Rita Cosby's bio on Mondo Stars] ]

Cosby was promoted to weekend news presenter and senior correspondent.

MSNBC Television

In 2005, Cosby moved to MSNBC.cite news |url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7845035 |title=Rita Cosby joins MSNBC |work=NBC News |date=2005-05-13 |accessdate=2007-10-11] She left the network in the spring of 2007 to pursue other interests.cite news |url=http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117960829.html?categoryid=14&cs=1 |title=MSNBC's Cosby leaving network |work=Variety |date=2007-03-09 |accessdate=2008-02-05]

Anna Nicole Smith book

On September 4, 2007, Cosby released a book about Anna Nicole Smith, titled "Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith's Death". The book's most controversial allegation is that Smith's attorney, Howard K. Stern who claimed he fathered Smith's child Dannielynn, and Larry Birkhead, who established paternity of Smith's child, were seen in a sexually compromising position. The book also alleges that after Stern threatened to reveal Larry's sexuality, the two men reached a deal that would benefit them both following Smith's death in which Birkhead would gain custody of his daughter and Stern would remain executor of Smith’s estate.cite news |url=http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/people/542432,CST-FTR-cosby05.article |title=Mike Thomas, "Anna's men as lovers?" |work=Suntimes.com |date=2007-09-05 |accessdate=2007-10-08] Cosby’s book also includes revelations about the drug overdose deaths of Anna Nicole Smith and her son Daniel Smith.cite news |url=http://www.tmz.com/2007/09/04/whats-in-the-anna-nicole-book |title=What's in the Anna Nicole Book |work=TMZ.com |date=2007-09-04 |accessdate=2007-10-08] Both men deny these allegations, with Stern filing a US$60 million lawsuit against Cosby and her publisher and Birkhead threatening to follow suit.cite news |url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071002/ap_en_ce/anna_nicole_smith_lawsuit_7 |title=Anna Nicole Smith book prompts $60M suit |work=Associated Press "via" Yahoo News |first=Harry R |last=Weber |date=2007-10-02 |accessdate=2007-10-12] Cosby replied to the Stern lawsuit by saying "…we are solid on our facts more than ever…we are sure of what we have. I think it’s pretty surprising that these guys would launch some frivolous lawsuit to deflect and to smear and to intimidate and it’s not going to work."cite news |url=http://extratv.warnerbros.com/2007/10/new_rita.php |title=Rita Cosby Fires Back at Lawsuit, Compares Anna Nicole to Britney Spears |work=ExtraTV.com |date=2007-10-04 |accessdate=2007-10-08] The book has become a "New York Times" bestseller.cite web |title="NY Times" Best Seller List |url=http://www.longview.lib.tx.us/Newweb/library_templates/circnyt.htm |work=Longview Public Library |date=2007-09-30 |accessdate=2007-10-08]

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