Could He Be The Anchor Of The Future?
Look out, Katie Couric. Here comes the competition. He's channel 14's Rodney Harris, CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports.
What does Rodney do?
"Main anchor-slash-everything else," he said.
Rodney reports from his action newsroom-slash-basement bedroom in Canton, Mich. It's part Walter Cronkite, part Wayne's World. He's been doing these newscasts since 2004 - sometimes three of them a day - not including special reports.
His newscasts are posted on the Web, where he has at least two faithful viewers. One of those is his dad, who owns a service station.
"Is it safe to assume you didn't raise him to be a news anchor?" Hartman asked.
"Oh definitely, not," he said. "All on his own."
His mother is another one.
"It's just something that's interested him for so long. I mean, most kids watch cartoons - he'd put the news on," she said.
By 10, he was doing exposes on his family.
One was about a cousin who got suspended for mooning someone.
"You might say that was funny, but to everyone else it was stupid," he said on the newscast.
By 14, he was doing News 14 - religiously.
"When we're on vacation …" his mom said.
"He still does the newscast?" Hartman asked.
"Yes."
Last year he made his cousin Amanda a co-anchor, and together they now offer a 4-minute newscast that includes weather, best and worst gas prices and celebrity birthdays.
"Actress Barbra Rush is 81, whoever that is," Rodney says in one broadcast.
And a segment called Great Moments in Presidential Words.
"Thanks Rodney, President Truman said, 'If you can't confu… ah …convince them can-fuse them," Amanda said.
This week Rodney also added his first-ever studio interview … with Hartman.
Rodney says he does all this as a practice for what he calls his "ultimate job." Fortunately for Hartman, it's not his job Rodney is shooting for.
It's that of a certain co-worker of Hartman's who better be on her guard.
"I'm Rodney Harris. I'll see you when I see you. Good night," he says, imitating CBS News anchor Katie Couric.
