Verne Gay

Bio

With a combination of wit, insight and clarity, Verne Gay - who has covered TV for Newsday for 16 years - has offered superb coverage of an important, expansive beat.

This year, a time of major transition on TV, especially in network news, proved fertile ground for Gay.

Here is how Gay handled the shocking news that ABC anchor Peter Jennings was being treated for lung cancer: "The best way to parse emotions at ABC is to figure out what Jennings means to ABC and maybe even to yourself. At that point, you start to realize that Jennings' fight isn't his alone but everyone's fight to some degree, large or small."

To comment on the persistent rumors that "Today" show host Katie Couric might jump to CBS, Gay showed his humorous side. He couched a column as a conversation between himself and a supermarket check-out man, who ended up offering more common sense on the subject than most of the other media pundits breathlessly fanning the rumors.

While puncturing the hype, Gay is also a fan of those TV personalities he believes truly enrich the medium, such as Oprah Winfrey, whom he saluted in a column saluting the 20th anniversary of her talk show: "Oprah Winfrey is an America treasure simply because she is so quintessentially American - someone who has overcome the greatest tragedy of American history, racism, and has reshaped her own image to become an idealized version of herself, beautiful, poised and vastly successful."

Whether it's explaining the latest developments in broadcast and cable news, interpreting the machinations of network executives or analyzing the appeal of a particular series, Gay's writing clearly reflects his underlying affection for television - and its impact on readers.