Get Well, Hal
By Victor - Friday August 03rd 2007
Los Angeles’s most beloved news anchor, Hal Fishman, 75, has been hospitalized with a “serious infection” after a collapse at his home. Hal, a UCLA alum, through and through a Los Angeles icon, has anchored KTLA’s 10 pm newscast since 1975–the single longest tenure of a news anchor in TV history.
In case you are wondering, yes, his Wiki entry has already been updated to reflect last night’s unfortunate events.
All of here at Losanjealous wish you a speedy recovery, Hal.
SAD UPDATE, 8/7/07: Hal passed away at 3 a.m. Tuesday, August 7. [LAT obit]
According to KTLA’s website, the latest information is doctors, while performing their operation on Hal, discovered colon cancer which has spread to his liver.
I regret to say once cancer patients, as Hal is, collapse and the cancer spreads, statisically the chances of “beating it” are very slim and the life is likely, at this point, to be truncated. Furthermore given his age, 75, the prospects of any hope are dimmish.
It’s very sad to sit here a type this up knowing it’s likely one of the people I grew up with will likely be departing soon. This is also very sad for the world of L.A. news. In a business which is seeking out those who look good on T.V., seeing Hal Fishman take a leave will be another nail to real television journalism.
Given how those corporate rats at Tribune have been operating KTLA in the past few years I doubt any time will be spent finding a real television journalist. I would place my bets Tribune will spend millions of dollars testing the “right person” who will have the proper asthetics to please a growing mind numbing audience.