David Westin, who guided ABC News through a tumultous 13-year period, told staffers on Monday that he will retire by the end of the year.

Westin took over for legendary executive Roone Arledge in 1997. Since that time, Westin had to deal with the sudden death of longtime World News Tonight anchor Peter Jennings.

In 2006, Westin named Bob Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas co-anchors of the evening broadcast. Less than a month later, however, Woodruff was seriously injured covering the war in Iraq.

TVNewser has much more on Westin’s decision to leave ABC News.

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Four years ago today, ABC News’ Bob Woodruff narrowly escaped death.

Reporting from Iraq, the World News Tonight co-anchor was in a convoy struck by a roadside bomb, injuring both Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt. But in the four years since, Woodruff has beaten the insurmountable odds to recover from his serious brain injury and work on camera again.

Today, our sister blog TVNewser reports, Woodruff is celebrating his ‘Alive Day’ with a father-daughter dance with his twin nine-year-old daughters, as well as a big interview with former John Edwards aide Andrew Young on 20/20 tonight. Woodruff promises some big news from his interview with Young — “revelations that you’ll hear from an aide who was witness to much of this incredible mess.”

And even bigger news for Woodruff — he has stopped going to speech and physical therapy. He told TVNewser:

“Most of my friends and family around me four years ago, would have never really thought that I would be able to do what I’m doing now. I’m very close to the way I was before.

There’s no way that you return to exactly the way you were, but there are parts of you that are better.”

Read more: Bob Woodruff’s Big Interview Just Part Of A Big Day –TVNewser

Previously: Once Seriously Injured In Iraq, Woodruff Returns

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TVNewser: On November 4, Brian Williams will be hosting a “Stand Up for Heroes” event, a comedy show benefiting the Bob Woodruff Foundation.

PRNewser: A look at PR bloggers who have more traffic than the reporters they pitch to.

New York Times: A “Jon & Kate Plus 8″ update: taping on the reality has stopped after a request from Jon Gosselin, but Kate is planning to join a talk show.

The Wrap: Five ways to save magazines.

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Make a trip to Zereoue, a West African-French fusion restaurant on East 37th St., and say “the Woodruffs sent me.”

Zereoue, which is owned by former NFL running back Amos Zereoue, will donate 15 percent of any diner’s check that mentions the Woodruffs to Remind.org, the charity founded by ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff and his wife Lee after Bob survived an IED explosion while on assignment in Iraq. We’re told the charitable promotion will be going on for the next two months.

Related: Bob and Lee Woodruff Kick Off Holiday Weekend Twitter Fundraiser

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According to Woodruff, who posted a note on the World News’ daily blog earlier today, he has returned with “different parameters” than his previous trips to the Middle East. (The trip on which he was injured was his seventh to Iraq, he said.)

“I will stay on the US military bases without going out on the streets or battle zones like I have in the past,” Woodruff said. “I owe this not only to myself, but to my family, friends, colleagues and my new ‘brothers and sisters’ also injured in the war whose stories I have been reporting since I’ve returned.”

When we spoke to Woodruff earlier this year at an event for the charity he and his wife Lee Woodruff started, Remind.org, he told us he was no longer covering wars. Although he did admit, “I’m addicted to in-depth pieces and international stories.”

Related: Bob And Lee Woodruff Kick Off Holiday Weekend Twitter Fundraiser

Earlier: Bob Woodruff: ‘I Saw My Body Floating’

More: Video: Bob Woodruff On Surviving An IED

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Tweet To Remind seeks to raise awareness of the Woodruffs’ organization Remind.org through Twitter hashtags, word of mouth and retweeting. They are hoping to make “#tweettoremind” the number one trending topic on Twitter over the long weekend. The campaign encourages everyone to donate $5.25 to the cause, in celebration of the date of this year’s Memorial Day: 5/25.

At the kick-off breakfast this morning, Bob and Lee showed a few videos illustrating the work done by Remind.org and the Bob Woodruff Foundation, including giving money to injured veterans and their families. The cause is close to the Woodruffs’ heart, since Bob survived an IED explosion three years ago while working as a war correspondent, which left him with permanent brain damage.

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John Edwards repeatedly lied during his Presidential campaign about an extramarital affair with a novice filmmaker, the former Senator admitted to ABC News today.

In an interview for broadcast tonight on Nightline, Edwards told ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff he did have an affair with 44-year old Rielle Hunter, but said that he did not love her.

Edwards also denied he was the father of Hunter’s baby girl, Frances Quinn, although the one-time Democratic Presidential candidate said he has not taken a paternity test.

Edwards said he knew he was not the father based on timing of the baby’s birth on February 27, 2008. He said his affair ended too soon for him to have been the father.

Edwards made a point of telling Woodruff that his wife’s cancer was in remission when he began the affair with Hunter. Elizabeth Edwards has since been diagnosed with an incurable form of the disease.

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“Bob can read a teleprompter better than he can read a newspaper.”

That was one of the quotes from yet another media event held in honor of Bob Woodruff. Over a breakfast of fresh seasonal fruit, poached egg and banana crepes (organized by Ladies’ Home Journal on the Upper West Side) 20 or so gathered to hear Bob, his doctors and his wife, Lee, speak of his recovery from injuries sustained in Iraq last January, his newfound advocacy for better healthcare for the wounded soldiers when they return home and the importance of family in the recovery process.

Other notes:

continued…

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We heard the same story a few weeks ago at ABC HQ, with one key difference.

Bob Woodruff, while receiving a Leonard Zeidenberg First Amendment Award from the Radio-Television News Directors Foundation yesterday, said he will not go back to Iraq:

“I think for the first time I’m going to tell my wife I’m not going to go back to Iraq, at least for now.”

When we spoke with Woodruff and ABC News chief David Westin two weeks ago during a screening of To Iraq And Back, the documentary of his recovery from wounds suffered in a tank blast last January, Woodruff wouldn’t rule out the possibility of a return. Westin, though, said ABC would not send Woodruff back. “He’s more vulnerable [now]. It would be the height of recklessness for ABC News to allow Bob Woodruff to go to Iraq. It’s insane.”

Woddruff shared the award with Kimberly Dozier, the CBS News reporter seriously wounded in Iraq last May, who said she does plan to return: “To all of you in Iraq, Iraqis and the international corp, I hope to join you — not right away — but sometime soon.”

EARLIER:

Bob Woodruff: ‘I Saw My Body Floating’

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]]> Dylan http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/woodruff-im-not-going-back-to-iraq_b4538#disqus_thread http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/woodruff-im-not-going-back-to-iraq_b4538 http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/fbny-sxsw-weinstein-picks-up-secret-bearded-morgan-spurlock-middle-east-doc_b4557 Fri, 09 Mar 2007 11:00:00 +0000

Last year, Bob Woodruff spent 27 days as co-anchor of ABC’s World News Tonight. His 28th day — January 29, 2006 — was one he can’t remember too well. Nor can he remember the 36 days spent in a coma recovering from injuries he and cameraman Doug Vogt suffered from a roadside bomb while reporting in Iraq.

“The 28th day was a problem,” ABC News chief David Westin said.

Woodruff screened To Iraq And Back, a prime-time documentary on the blast and his recovery — and the soldiers who’ve returned from Iraq with traumatic brain injuries — for a dozen or so media reporters, some teary-eyed, this morning in New York.

Woodruff says he remembers seeing his body “floating below” him in the U.S. tank he was traveling in. “I was spitting a lot of blood,” Woodruff recalled. “‘Am I alive?’”

But it’s what Woodruff can’t remember, he says, that has been the most difficult part of his recovery. (A common Woodruff refrain: “That my family had to go through all this … it kills me.”) In the days after coming out of his coma, he says he couldn’t remember his two youngest daughters’ existence, let alone their names. In a startling scene in the documentary, Woodward struggles with flash cards to identify scissors, and his children explain to him what a belt buckle is.

The third and perhaps most intriguing part of To Iraq focuses not on Woodruff but on the impact of the burgeoning “TBI” epidemic on the country’s Veteran’s hospitals, and the lack of information on “TBI” being provided by the government.

Is the government falling short in helping the veterans?

“Yes,” says Woodruff.

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]]> Dylan http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/bob-woodruff-i-saw-my-body-floating_b4454#disqus_thread http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/bob-woodruff-i-saw-my-body-floating_b4454 http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/susan-lynes-internet-experiment_b4473 Mon, 26 Feb 2007 12:51:02 +0000 Well, here’s some news the left-wing media will have a field day with.

The Radio and Television News Directors Foundation is set to honor Fox News chief Roger Ailes along with Philip Balboni of New England Cable News and a pair of journalists — Kimberly Dozier of CBS News and Bob Woodruff of ABC News — wounded in Iraq for “their work on behalf of press freedom” at the 17th Annual First Amendment Awards Dinner on March 8 in Washington.

Ailes will receive the 2006 First Amendment Leadership Award. Past recipients include Katharine Graham, Don Hewitt and Ted Turner of Fox rival CNN.

Does Ailes belong with this group?

Now that we’ve reported, you can decide.

RTNDF to Honor Roger Ailes, Bob Woodruff, Kimberly Dozier
And Philip Balboni with First Amendment Awards [RTNDA.org]

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]]> Dylan http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/roger-ailes-to-be-honored-for-his-contributions-to-press-freedom-first-amendment_b4150#disqus_thread http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/roger-ailes-to-be-honored-for-his-contributions-to-press-freedom-first-amendment_b4150 http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/roger-ailes-to-be-honored-for-his-contributions-to-press-freedom-first-amendment_b4150 Wed, 10 Jan 2007 16:14:48 +0000 Thirteen months after almost losing his life in Iraq, the AP reports that Bob Woodruff gets what every newsman wants: a prime-time special. Airing on February 27, the show will detail the ABC-News correspondent’s story through interviews with “witnesses to the explosion and the medical team that saved his life on Jan. 29, 2006.”

Random House is also publishing a memoir penned by Woodruff and his wife, Lee. The book, not shockingly, will focus on how the family dealt with his injury and their collective recovery.

Wounded ABC journalist, Mich. native Woodruff to tell story [Freep.com]

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