Steve Bartelstein
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Steve Bartelstein is an American television news reporter who co-anchored WABC-TV's morning and noon newscasts alongside Lori Stokes. His last day on WABC-TV was Friday, March 9, 2007.
Bartelstein began his broadcasting career as a weekend anchor at age 19 in Evansville, Indiana. He also worked in South Carolina, Indiana, and Oregon. Then he came to WABC-TV from CNN.
He was originally hired by WABC-TV in 1999 as a weekend morning sports anchor. He was promoted to co-anchor WABC-TV's weekday morning newscasts in December 2000 and replaced Robb Hanrahan. Hanrahan and newly hired co-anchor Lori Stokes failed to lift the morning news ratings when they were paired together six months earlier, however, with Bartelstein and Stokes at the helm of the morning newscast, the pair was able to bring the broadcast to the number one position for the first time in years. Stokes and Bartelstein were so successful in the mornings that WABC-TV eventually had them also take over duties of anchoring the noon newscast.
Among Bartelstein's work at WABC-TV is the credit for being the first WABC-TV anchor to break the news on air that a plane had hit the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. [1]
Bartelstein was fired by WABC-TV on Monday, March 12, 2007, after a series of questionable workplace ethics. He had been suspended twice by the station for not reporting to work on time -- or at all -- and was also the subject of two sexual harassment suits. The last straw came on Friday, March 9, 2007, when he was found to be sleeping in his office when he was supposed to be on-air to anchor a local news cut-in about a house fire in The Bronx during the station's telecast of Good Morning America.
The March 18, 2007, edition of the New York Daily News reports that Bartelstein will look for other work in television even if it is not in New York City. He is also considering coaching high school baseball, according to the Daily News. He told the Daily News that he holds no hard feelings toward WABC-TV for firing him and he will miss Lori Stokes the most because the two are best friends.
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