SATURDAY AT 10 PM ET/PTSusan Zirinsky is the senior executive producer of the award-winning crime and justice series "48 Hours."
Zirinsky's work and programs have earned virtually every major journalism honor including multiple Emmy Awards, a George Foster Peabody award, the Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence, the Christopher Award, The Writers Guild of America award and the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award. And in 2013, she was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award by the New York Festivals International Television & Film Awards.
In addition to "48 Hours," Zirinsky was the executive producer of the critically acclaimed Showtime documentary "The Spymasters - CIA in the Crosshairs," which featured the only interviews with all 12 of the living former and current heads of the CIA.
Zirinsky was also the senior executive producer of the 2013 documentary series, "Brooklyn DA," and serves as the senior executive producer for breaking news specials for CBS News, such as those done in the aftermath of the Paris terrorist attacks, the movie theater shooting in Aurora Colo., the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn., and the Boston Marathon bombings.
Since joining CBS News as a part-time production clerk in 1972, Zirinsky has worked for a variety of CBS News broadcasts and covered national and global news, several presidents, wars, international conflicts, the Olympics and the world of fashion. She also is responsible for the oversight ofCBSNews.com's crime blog, "Crimesider."
In her current position, Zirinsky also served as the co-executive producer of two "Person to Person" interview specials; she executive produced "David Letterman: A Life on Television";she produced "The Grammys Will Go On: A Death in The Family", a documentary about the Grammys and the night Whitney Houston died, and "Vanity Fair's Hollywood."
Previously, she was an executive producer of CBS News' award-winning broadcast "9/11" - a documentary on the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that included the only footage of the first plane going into the north tower of the World Trade Center and of activity inside the Trade Center before the towers fell. The documentary has been updated for the first, fifth and 10th anniversaries.
Zirinsky has also produced such primetime specials as "The Royal Wedding: Modern Majesty;" "Fashion's Night Out" with Vogue and Editor Anna Wintour; "That's The Way It Was - Remembering Walter Cronkite;" "Ted Kennedy: The Last Brother;" "Change and Challenge: The Inauguration of Barack Obama" and "Katie Couric's 'All Access' Grammy Special." She also produced the documentary series "The Injustice Files" for ID Discovery; and the CBS News documentaries "The Lord's Bootcamp," "In God's Name" and "Flashpoint."
Zirinsky also produced for Showtime the critically acclaimed documentary, "Three Days in September," which told the story of a school taken hostage in Beslan, Russia. The film was also featured at the Tribeca Film Festival.
She also produced for CBS Entertainment an online companion to the series "Jericho." She was the executive producer of "Elvis by the Presleys," for CBS Entertainment and was the executive producer of two specials for Tyra Banks' "America's Next Top Model."
Before joining "48 Hours" in 1996, she was executive producer of Campaign '96 (1995-96), managing the daily operations of CBS News' election-year political coverage, and of the primetime CBS News magazine, "Eye to Eye" (1994-95), after having served as the broadcast's senior broadcast producer and senior producer (1993-94).
Zirinsky was the director of CBS News' 1992 political reporting, responsible for coordinating coverage of candidates, issues and events for all CBS News broadcasts, including the presidential election. During that period, she was CBS News' senior producer at the 1992 Olympic Winter Games in Albertville, France, where she oversaw the CBS News and Sports news desk for the network.
Earlier, Zirinsky served in several capacities for the "CBS Evening News with Dan Rather" in New York and Washington, D.C. In New York, she was its senior broadcast producer (1991-92) and senior producer (1989-91). In Washington, she managed all feature stories and oversaw editorial content of daily hard-news events (1986-89). Zirinsky was CBS' White House producer for more than a decade. She first joined the "CBS Evening News" as a producer in 1979.
She also worked on other CBS News broadcasts, including the "CBS Morning News" and "CBS Evening News" weekend editions. Zirinsky worked the Democratic and Republican National Conventions from 1976 through 1988 as a floor producer for Dan Rather, Lesley Stahl, Ed Bradley and Mike Wallace. In 1992 she was senior producer for all coverage at both conventions.
Zirinsky's international news experience is extensive. She traveled overseas with presidents Carter and Reagan. Her assignments have taken her to Russia, China, Japan, Europe, Central and South America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. In 1989, Zirinsky ran CBS News' operations out of Panama during the United States invasion of that country and was in charge of CBS News' operation in Beijing during the Tiananmen Square student uprising and military crackdown. Earlier that year, she was lead producer for CBS News' coverage from Japan of Emperor Hirohito's funeral. She was the senior producer responsible for setting up and overseeing the Network's news operation in Kuwait while covering the first Persian Gulf War, and it was under her stewardship that CBS News was the first network to enter Kuwait, just behind the Allied forces.
Zirinsky was technical advisor/associate producer for writer/director James L. Brooks on the film "Broadcast News," starring Holly Hunter as a Washington network news producer.
Zirinsky was graduated cum laude from American University in Washington, D.C.
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VOJTECH KACEROVSKY – ST. MARTIN'S DAY IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC
Enjoy young wine and fragrant goose with St. Martin!
St. Martin’s Day, or Martinmas (11 November) is synonymous in the Czech Republic with the sampling of young wines and goose feasts. Come and join in the fun!
According to folk tradition, St. Martin arrives in November atop a white horse. This means that this is the time when snow begins to fall, not just on the mountains, but also in the lowlands, and the occasion is marked by a traditional feast and young wine. You, too, can honour St. Martin’s Day by sampling young wines and fragrant, golden-roasted goose!
The Martinmas tradition goes back to the 18th century, during the reign of Emperor Joseph II, when vineyard owners would visit their winemakers on St. Martin’s Day to sample the new wine and decide whether to extend their contract with the winemaker for another year. Legend has it that St. Martin was originally a Roman soldier who later accepted the Christian faith, becoming a missionary and eventually a bishop. And why are gooses roasted on St. Martin’s Day? According to the legend, gooses interrupted St. Martin while he was preaching and they are now being punished on the roasting-pan. This traditional seasonal dish is now offered in all good restaurants, and is typically served with stewed red lettuce with autumn apples and bread dumplings or fine semolina dumplings.
Svatomartinské wine at Prague vineyards
In Prague you can sample svatomartinské wine at, for example, the wine shop in the St. Clare’s Vineyard, a traditional spot for the celebration of wine from the new vintage. Come and sample young wine and test for yourself the quality of the latest vintage this year, too. The first young wines from Moravia and Bohemia will be sampled from 11 o’clock on 11 November in the vineyard cottage at the St. Clare’s Vineyard.
You can enjoy St. Martin’s wine and various culinary delights even aboard ship while sailing on the Vltava River. You can try wines from South Moravia and a special menu put together just for the occasion of the feast of St. Martin while admiring views of the famous panorama of Prague. There will also be fun on the banks of the Vltava – specifically at Náplavka. A section of Rašínova Riverbank, just above the surface of the Vltava, is a place well known to every inhabitant of Prague and to some who don’t live there.
The cycling and inline trail is where the action is today, where locals and students meet for a beer that often goes on until daybreak. The atmosphere of Náplavka attracts many foreigners as well, who come to Prague for an excursion or who live here steadily. And you will certainly meet them here on the feast of St. Martin. Naturally St. Martin’s wine and succulent goose can be enjoyed here as well.
The smell of roast goose permeates the Czech Republic on 11 November
St. Martin is also coming to Český Krumlov. He will be there for the local wine festival, which organizers have adapted for his benefit to include tasting the first bottles of wine and roast goose. Traditional dulcimer musicwill accompany the occasion. This feast day will also see the underground in Brno come to life. First, the young wine of the season will be blessed in the local cathedral of St. Peter and Paul, where a parade will commence with Martin in the lead atop a white horse. As throughout the rest of the Czech Republic, the first bottle will be opened at precisely 11:00 AM. The traditional feast then begins. Concerts, events, culinary and wine-tasting actions are being prepared for St. Martin all over the country.
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