Flipping channels
From daybreak to nightfall, jewish newscasters cover the valley
BY JENNIFER GOLDBERG
With the touch of a button on the TV remote, whether it's 5 a.m. or 5 p.m., we're instantly tuned in to the sights and sounds of what's happening around Arizona and the world. Journalists are expected to be objective, but in this story, six local Jewish newscasters reflect on what's important to them and which stories have affected them most.
Mark Curtis
12 NEWS EVENING CO-ANCHOR
"Like so many people, I wanted to be 'my son, the doctor,' but it just didn't work out," reveals Mark Curtis. While a pre-med student at the University of Georgia in the 1970s, he worked as a bartender during the disco craze. "One night, the DJ was sick and they asked me to play the records and the proverbial light bulb went off."
Curtis, who grew up in Alexandria, Va., got his graduate degree in journalism from American University, cutting his teeth writing sports copy for a local station. Over the years, he progressed from sports producer and reporter to sports anchor in San Diego, Phoenix (1980-1987), Minneapolis and St. Louis before returning to 12 News in 1995. He was promoted from sports to news anchor in 2004.
"As a father of three, the stories that affect me the most are the stories that involve kids," he says. "So often, we're reading about kids drowning, kids being abused both sexually and physically, just horrible stories. Those are the ones that are hard to shake.
"And then when you're reading it three or four times a day, you're living it over and over again. It's so hard to detach yourself."
Curtis, his wife, Abby, and their son and two daughters are members of Congregation Beth Israel in Scottsdale. He grew up attending a Conservative synagogue, was active with USY, the movement's youth group, and was a member of Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity in college.
While covering sports in the 1980s, Curtis was introduced to his future wife by her father, Eli Krigsten, an orthopedic surgeon who served as the team doctor for the Arizona Wranglers, part of the now-defunct United States Football League.
"When he found out I was Jewish, he wanted to introduce us. We met face to face at Temple Beth Israel's High Holiday services at the Phoenix Civic Plaza. Both of our parents met at High Holiday services too."
The couple was married at the temple's former Phoenix location.
"Being in a profession where you travel a lot, I believe from the bottom of my heart, and I tell this to my children, that no matter where you go, you will always have a built-in connection with Jewish people."
Curtis, who enjoys being with his family, tending a vegetable garden and playing golf with his son, teaches his children that family comes first. "I never believed it when my parents told me, but it's true and I've told them they were right."
Brahm Resnik
12 NEWS WEEKEND ANCHOR AND REPORTER
"I like to joke that there were more Jews per square mile in my neighborhood than in Jerusalem," says Brahm Resnik, who grew up in the tight-knit Jewish community of Montreal. "You did not see a Christmas light anywhere, and my public high school was almost entirely Jewish. It was a very rich experience that unfortunately my kids haven't had here."
Resnik's father, Irving, who died in 2000, was a member of the Bielski Brigade, a group of WWII Jewish resistance fighters. He emigrated from Russia to Canada and couldn't read or write English. Despite that fact, Resnik says his father was a shrewd negotiator in the shmatte business.
"Many of my friends' parents were like that, too. We were first-generation (Canadians) and first-generation college graduates. A lot of us can speak Yiddish or understand it."
His mother, Doris, is president of a mamaloshen, or Yiddish culture club, in Montreal. "My kids will hear me say something (Yiddish) once in a while. I'm still very connected to that world."
Resnik, a graduate of McGill University in Montreal and Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., had a 15-year career as a newspaper reporter before springing into television broadcasting. In 2001, while the business editor at The Arizona Republic, Resnik auditioned and earned a place in Channel 12's newscast. In 2005, he was promoted to weekend anchor. On weekdays, he reports on topics ranging from government, politics and business to consumer news, and writes for azcentral.com.
Resnik and his wife, Wendy - a children's librarian at the Burton Barr Public Library in Phoenix - have two teenage sons and are members of Temple Emanuel of Tempe.
One of Resnik's key assignments has been reporting on all aspects of the 2008 Super Bowl, which will take place on Sunday, Feb. 3, at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale.
For families, he suggests the NFL Experience, Jan. 26-Feb. 2. "It's like an NFL theme park set up right outside the stadium. (The Super Bowl) is the biggest game in town and the country. But the game is just a fraction of the hoopla."
Andi Barness
ABC15'S "DAYBREAK" TRAFFIC REPORTER AND "SONORAN LIVING" CONTRIBUTOR
"One of the most beautiful drives is one I take to the station at 4 in the morning during a full moon," shares Andi Barness, who's been a traffic reporter with ABC15 since 2004. "I see a stunning view of the city lit up by the moon when I take the 51 (Piestewa Parkway) as it passes through the Phoenix Mountains Preserve."
Once at her desk, Barness immediately gets to work preparing her reports by charting traffic accidents and the growing volume of cars on Valley freeways and streets.
"I know my traffic," she says with pride.
A Los Angeles-area native, Barness was driven to become a radio broadcaster and wound up becoming a traffic expert. After graduating from the Academy of Radio Broadcasting in Los Angeles, she found work as a radio disc jockey, moving in and out of different markets as she gained experience and seniority.
She ended up taking a full-time job as a traffic reporter in Los Angeles to be closer to her family.
"When I first moved to Phoenix in 1994, I was reporting on a lot of surface-street accidents," says Barness. "In L.A., there are so many freeways, you never talk about surface streets. Now I find there is an equal number of accidents on Valley freeways and surface streets."
Barness' other claim to fame is that she met her husband, Dean, while a contestant on "The Love Connection" television show in 1990.
"It was fate because my husband and I are very opposite of each other," she says. "We would have never met otherwise."
She converted to Judaism prior to the couple's marriage in 1993. The Barnesses and their three young boys are members of Temple Chai in Phoenix.
Barness also works behind the camera with her business partner David Sinuk, another Temple Chai member, in "What to do TV," which provides customized infotainment-style shows seen in local resorts and hotels.
"We use visuals to show guests what there is to do at that resort or hotel and around the Valley, rather than having a concierge talk to them. We're growing and very excited."
Over the years, Barness has become passionate about children wearing seat belts and being properly buckled into car seats. "I talk about and see so many accidents that involve ... children where their car seats weren't put in properly and they were ejected and killed in their car seats," she says with emotion. "I'm the person who will say something to you. I'm the person who will call the police on you."
Jason Barry
CBS 5 NEWS AND INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER
"So you want to talk to the nice Jewish reporter at Channel 5," Barry says with a laugh.
Barry, known for his weekly "Dirty Dining" segment in which he reports on restaurants charged with numerous health-code violations and those with perfect scores, is a general assignment reporter.
"When I come in during the day, I could cover anything from a big house fire to a proposal to improve health care for children."
Barry, who grew up in Los Angeles, has been with CBS 5 since 1997. He received his broadcast journalism degree from the University of Miami. He says he aspired to be a television news reporter since high school.
"Television news can be very powerful," he says, using an example of an unethical contractor who took money from a person but didn't show up to do the work.
"It's amazing how quickly these crooked or illegitimate contractors will respond to a TV news reporter and the fear of negative publicity, and suddenly they'll show up the next day and do the work or refund the money."
Barry and his wife, Karen, have been married for two years and are members of Congregation Beth Israel.
"It's a small world," he says. "(Karen's) mother is best friends with my college roommate's mother-in-law. They always wanted to get us together. You know, they're thinking, 'He's Jewish, she's Jewish, so they must be perfect together.' But that scenario doesn't always work out. So now, it's 'When are the babies coming?' We both have nice Jewish mothers."
Since his father died four years ago from a brain tumor, the Barrys have become involved with raising awareness through the National Brain Tumor Foundation and the University of California, Los Angeles, brain tumor research laboratory.
"We were very close," says Barry. "He was just such a good example in that he just loved life and appreciated the little things. And I like to think that he passed that on to me. Just don't let life pass you by. Enjoy and appreciate every day."
Keith Yaskin
FOX 10 NEWS REPORTER
"Somehow I became the go-to guy on the subject of polygamy, which comes up fairly often in Arizona," says Keith Yaskin, who covered the trial of polygamy sect leader Warren Jeffs in September.
"It's a trial with everything - a bizarre lifestyle, a guy called 'the prophet,' and there's certainly an element of sex involved," he adds. "It's just got every element that makes for a good news story."
His role as a special projects reporter allows him to devote more time to investigative and other serious stories that air during the 9 p.m. news show.
Yaskin, a graduate of Northwestern University, was deeply affected by a story he reported during his first job in North Carolina in which two men kidnapped and killed a woman as she was leaving a grocery store.
"There was no other reason than they had nothing better to do and it was fun for them," recalls Yaskin. "That story just pops into my head because I realize what monsters people can be. It was a rude awakening into some of the stuff you'll be forced to cover as a reporter."
Yaskin grew up in the Miami area and became a bar mitzvah at a small Reform congregation. In college, he pledged Zeta Beta Tau fraternity, where he met his future wife, Loren.
But the couple did not reconnect until he moved to Arizona in 2000. "I knew she lived in the Valley but couldn't find her number," says Yaskin. "She saw me reporting on one of the rare occasions she was watching a local newscast and gave me a call." They were married at Temple Chai in 2004 and recently welcomed their first child.
"We're doing a lot more since Jadyn's birth," he says. "We went through Jewish Baby University, and Loren does Tot Shabbats and is involved in Jewish play groups."
With a new baby, Yaskin is taking stock of what's important in life. "What I want to do is to figure out a way to slow everything down and enjoy every minute. I think I'm somewhat jaded because unfortunately in this business, you see so many bad things.
"But the good thing is that it makes you realize that you better figure out a way to enjoy even the simplest things, because children grow up quickly and you can't guarantee that everything will be the way you want it to be."
Courtney Zubowski
3TV "GOOD EVENING ARIZONA" REPORTER
"I remember the night (in 2006) when the police made the arrest of Mark Goudeau, the suspected Baseline rapist," says Courtney Zubowski, a reporter with 3TV since 2005. "I had just gone to sleep and at 1 a.m. I got the call from the station and they're saying, 'Let's go.' We reported for the next 24 hours straight."
It was the thrill of storytelling as a child growing up in Houston that fueled her interest in broadcasting. "I literally would stand in front of the mirror and just tell stories. My parents would get a kick out of it."
Her storytelling skills were put to the test as an anchor for the student news in high school.
She pursued her dream and received a broadcast journalism degree from the University of Southern California. As a college senior, she was the anchor of the school's newscast and worked for a nearby community cable television station.
Her first professional break was anchoring the 5 p.m. news for KFDM in Beaumont, Texas.
The story that has most affected her was reporting on the midair collision of the 3TV and ABC15 helicopters last August. "It was pretty rough," says Zubowski, who worked closely with Jim Cox, a 3TV photographer who died in the crash. "We were at lunch and got a call that a chopper just went down. The assignment desk sent out a page that all (photographers) call the desk, which meant something big was happening. It was really hard to digest."
Zubowski grew up attending services and Sunday school at Congregation Beth Israel, a Reform synagogue in Houston. She says she hasn't become involved with the Valley's Jewish community yet because of her hectic schedule. "Phoenix," she says, "is a very welcoming town." But she's not fond of the 110-plus degree summer days. "I thought you might get used to it, but no," she jokes.