R ichard Sher, who announced his departure from WJZ this week after 33 years of reporting and anchoring, says he isn't completely done with the news biz.
I'm not sure he was ever completely in it.
Among the "many accomplishments" listed on his new Web site, www.richardsher.tv: "talking a suicidal man off a ledge at the University of Maryland Medical Center; negotiating for more than 10 hours with a hostage taker, eventually arranging for the safe release of the man's hostage; and receiving the first civilian lifesaving award ever presented by the Greater Baltimore Medical Center, for helping a man suffering from a heart attack find his way to an emergency room, all the while giving the man nitro glycerin and driving the man's car."
Was Sher Clark Kent or Superman?
In an interview, Sher elaborated on these adventures, which I'll take in reverse order.
The heart-attack rescue: "I was at GBMC doing a story on obstetrics, and this guy pulled up to obstetrics with a heart attack. Couldn't catch his breath. Like Superman, I leaped into the car, pushed him over to the passenger seat. He kept pointing to his shirt pocket. Nitroglycerin was in there. I gave him one and whisked him to the ER and started carrying him in."
The hostage situation: A guy called the newsroom saying he was holding a Harford County farmer at gunpoint. "I happened to get the call. With the police monitoring and giving some advice, I just dealt with the guy."
Ten hours later, Sher went on the air to make the announcement the gunman sought: "The hostage-taker feels if they would listen to him, he has insight to bring an end to the crisis in the Middle East. ... He believed Senator [Barbara] Mikulski and him and Yasser Arafat could settle the Mideast crisis."
Local crisis averted. "They walked out, hands raised, no guns."
The next day, Sher got an exclusive interview with the hostage-taker. Better yet, "The hostage that weekend took [Sher's wife] Annabelle and me out to dinner."
And the guy on the hospital ledge: "On a Saturday night, a call to the newsroom, guy's mentally distraught. He needed me to come down with a camera. He had a story to tell, and if I didn't give him an opportunity to tell it, he was gonna jump. I cleared it with management - CBS policy is not to get involved. We spent a couple hours together. I personally escorted him to the psych ward."
