Scott Rasmussen “President, Rasmussen Media Group; Political Strategist”

Scott Rasmussen is president of the Rasmussen Media Group and a Senior Fellow for the Study of Self-Governance at The King’s College in New York City. He is currently guiding development of an Institute for Community Driven Solutions, housed at King’s.
 
Rasmussen, a familiar face on television news programs, spent two decades as one of the world’s leading public opinion pollsters. The Wall Street Journal calls him “a key player in the contact sport of politics.” The Washington Post adds that Scott is a “driving force in American politics.”
 
A serial entrepreneur, Scott is the founder of Rasmussen Reports, co-founder of ESPN, a New York Times bestselling author, public speaker, and syndicated columnist.
 
Working with the Institute for Community Driven Solutions, Scott has recently launched a new website, PoliticsHasFailed.com. Like most Americans, Rasmussen believes our nation’s political system is badly broken. Unlike most, however, he is very optimistic about America’s future. That positive tone is evident both on the site and in a forthcoming book, Politics Has Failed: America Will Not.
 
Scott draws hope from the 65 million volunteers and 22 million entrepreneurs who routinely meet society’s needs with pragmatic solutions. He envisions a massive campaign of community problem solving to address the challenges facing our nation. This all-hands-on-board approach draws upon the strength of communities, families, businesses, churches, charities, sports teams, civic clubs, and neighbors who are working together to create a better world.
 
Rasmussen shows that governing involves far more than government. In fact, every organization and relationship has a vital role to play in governing society. Ultimately, it’s not about politics. It’s about figuring out the best way we can work together to find solutions.
 
Community problem solving, fueled by the digital revolution and inspired by the Millennial Generation, is poised to overcome our failed system of politics and government. “We may not be able to make our political system work better,” Rasmussen says, “but that won’t stop us from making society better.”
 
Scott did his first radio commercial at the age of 7 and made his national television debut at 20. A career highlight was serving as emcee for hockey legend Gordie Howe’s 50th birthday celebration. Howe had been Scott’s childhood idol.
 
Scott graduated with a degree in history from DePauw University and earned his MBA at Wake Forest University.

"Bernie & Sid"

Bernard J. McGuirk is the executive producer of the Imus in the Morning radio program. He was born and raised in the South Bronx, New York, where he worked in his younger years as a taxi driver.

Sid Rosenberg is a radio personality and the former morning host of WMEN-640 AM.  Rosenberg is known for his controversial and sarcastic humor as a host on many radio stations including, WAXY "790 The Ticket" in Miami, where he hosted his own morning show.  He originally was paired with O.J. McDuffie, formerly a wide receiver with the Miami Dolphins; McDuffie resigned his position with the station in the summer of 2006.

Rosenberg's self-given jokingly middle name "Arthur" is a reference to former baseball player Dave Kingman. When Hall of Fame sportscaster Bob Murphy gave the lineups for the New York Mets, he would always give Kingman's name as "David Arthur Kingman"; Rosenberg continues this running gag on the Sports Guys by using Arthur as everybody's middle name.

His radio career started in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he hosted the syndicated sports radio program The Drive on Sports Fan Radio Network in the late 1990s, after starting as an Internet broadcast. In 2000, he moved to New York City to co-host WNEW-FM's turbulent morning show, the Sports Guys. A year later, he joined the Imus in the Morning program. He shared the sports broadcasting duties with Warner Wolf before becoming the full-time sports reporter. He engaged in heated half-mock, half-serious disputes with the other members of the Imus cast, leading for example to an actual boxing bout with producer Bernard McGuirk.  Several months after joining the Imus show, he became the co-host of the midday show on Imus' flagship station, WFAN. Here, his strong knowledge of sports and distinctive, high-pitched Brooklyn accent served him well. He would hold both broadcasting positions until 2005. For several years, he also hosted the radio pre-game shows for New York Giants home games.

Douglas Brinkley

Douglas Brinkley is an American author, professor of history at Rice University and a fellow at the James Baker Institute for Public Policy. Brinkley is the history commentator for CNN News and a contributing editor to the magazines Vanity Fair and American Heritage.  A public spokesperson on conservation issues, Brinkley serves as an editor at Audubon Magazine. He joined the faculty of Rice University as a professor of history in 2007.

Douglas Brinkley’s The Wilderness Warrior celebrated Theodore Roosevelt’s spirit of outdoor exploration and bold vision to protect 234 million acres of wild America. Now, in Rightful Heritage, Brinkley turns his attention to the other indefatigable environmental leader—Teddy’s distant cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, chronicling his essential yet under-sung legacy as the founder of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and premier protector of America’s public lands. FDR built from scratch dozens of State Park systems and scenic roadways. Pristine landscapes such as the Great Smokies, the Everglades, Joshua Tree, the Olympics, Big Bend, Channel Islands, Mammoth Cave, and the slickrock wilderness of Utah were forever saved by his leadership.

Anthony Mason

Anthony Mason is the co-host of "CBS This Morning: Saturday" and CBS News' Senior Business Correspondent. He is also a frequent contributor of cultural stories to "CBS News Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood". Mason has spent more than 30 years as a television journalist. In a quarter century as a correspondent for CBS News, he has reported from more than 30 countries and won seven Emmy Awards.

Mason joined CBS News in 1986. He was assigned to the London Bureau from 1987-1990 and traveled extensively, reporting for all CBS News broadcasts. He went into Afghanistan with the Mujahideen guerillas to cover the Soviet pullout; reported from Pakistan on the assassination of General Zia ul Haq and the rise of Benazir Bhutto; and went to the front lines in the Iran-Iraq war to witness Saddam Hussein's use of chemical weapons on the Kurds. He also covered the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

In 1989, Mason was the first journalist to report on the exodus of East German refugees through Hungary as the Iron Curtain began to crack. He followed the story to Czechoslovakia and Poland as their communist governments collapsed. Mason's work on the story won him the prestigious Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Award presented to CBS News for its coverage of Eastern Europe.

From 1991 to 1993, Mason was CBS News' Chief Moscow Correspondent, where he reported on the coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev in August 1991, the rise of Boris Yeltsin and the demise of the Soviet Union, coverage which won him an Emmy Award.

Mason was named CBS News' Business Correspondent in 1998. His series, "Life and Debt in America," which aired on the "CBS Evening News" in early 2008, underscored some of the problems that ultimately led to the financial crisis and won him another Emmy. At the end of 2008, the business website Marketwatch.com named him the "Broadcast Journalist of the Year." Marketwatch.com's media critic wrote that Mason "personified a dying art in the media today: explanatory journalism. Night after night, Mason took pains to help his viewers understand what was unfolding on Wall Street and in Washington - and, most important, why they should care."

Mason hosts the annual "Money Issue" for "CBS News Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood", in addition to serving as a regular contributor. He has profiled politicians (Bill Clinton), business leaders (Henry Paulson), and musicians (Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney and Keith Richards.) His series on crime writers - he profiled more than 40 of them over a decade - won the Raven award from the Mystery Writers of America.

For the past decade, Mason has also been involved in election coverage for CBS News, providing exit poll analysis during the primaries and on election night.  

Prior to joining CBS News, Mason worked at KJRH-TV in Tulsa, Okla.; WCAU in Philadelphia; and WCBS-TV in New York City. Mason was born in New York City and is a graduate of St. George's School and Georgetown University (B.A. 1980). He and his wife, Christina, have three children and live in Westchester County, N.Y.

"Bo-Monday"

“Bo” Dietl was a New York City Police Officer and Detective from June 1969 until he retired in 1985.  Bo was one of the most highly decorated detectives in the history of the police department, with several thousand arrests to his credit.  There were two particular cases that represent his career highlights.  The first was what former New York City Mayor Edward I. Koch labeled “...the most vicious crime in New York City history” (1981) which involved a nun who was raped and tortured in an East Harlem convent as 27 crosses were carved into her by two men, who later confessed and were convicted.  The second was the Palm Sunday Massacre in 1984, which was one of New York City’s most bloody mass slayings, of ten people.  Bo was instrumental in the arrest and conviction of the suspects in both cases.

 

In 1986, Bo was nominated for the U.S. Congress by the Republican and Conservative parties of New York State for the 6th Congressional District (to fill the seat of the late Joseph Addabbo). In a 7-1 Democratic District, the Rev. Floyd Flake edged out Bo by a mere 2,500 votes - one of the closest races in New York history. 

 

President George Bush appointed Bo as Co-Chairman of the National Crime Commission.  Governor George E. Pataki appointed Bo Chairman of the New York State Security Guard Advisory Council.  He served as Security Consultant to the National Republican Convention and as Director of Security for the New York State Republican Convention.

 

Richard “Bo” Dietl is the Founder & Chairman of Beau Dietl & Associates. Founded in 1985, Beau Dietl & Associates has grown to become one of the premier investigative and security firms in the nation and is a full service organization providing a wide variety of investigative and security services to corporate and individual clients worldwide.

 

From Sidewalk to Cyberspace…... Bo continues to succeed by staying at the forefront of evolving corporate and security advances to ensure all new challenges are met. As Chairman of Security Solutions, Bo has amassed a team of renowned security experts to provide the highest level of professional computer network security for multi-national corporations to small business.

 

Bo Dietl is also the Founder and Chairman of a revolutionary software tool for parents called Bo Dietl’s One Tough ComputerCop.  The software was developed to significantly increase parent’s ability to protect their children from online predators. NetWolves Corp. announced they were teaming with Gateway to have the software installed on all Gateway consumer market computers.  The software has been approved by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and has been featured on America’s Most Wanted.  Bo is proud to be a principal of NetWolves, an innovator of the software system called the Fox Box. NetWolves recently inked a deal with General Electric for worldwide installation of NetWolves technology.

 

Bo is also a principle of the Voyant Corporation.  Voyant is an online vision care portal that provides consumers with a patented online vision test that diagnoses the corrective reading lenses necessary for each eye.  Using this prescription information and their digital image, customers can then shop for eyeglass frames and order finished glasses.

 

Bo has an extended reach in the Real Estate business with Steve Witkoff as his Partner in some of the finest buildings in New York.

 

Bo is also the co-author of the book “One Tough Cop”, which is a story about his life as a New York City police officer.  The movie version of “One Tough Cop” was made into a major motion picture. Bo’s latest book, entitled “Business Lunchatations”, which is a story about networking and business strategies hit stores in April 2005, ranking #5 on Amazon’s Business Best Seller List.  Since then, Bo has embraced many faceted roles in the industry such as Associate Producer for the movie “The Bone Collector” and Producer for a new movie “Table One.”  Bo has entered into the television realm of reality TV with ABC “The Runner” scheduled for a January 2002 release. 

 

Over the years Bo has taken an active interest in many charities and continues to endorse and support such charities as: The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, The Nation Center for Missing and Exploited Children, The Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, United Cerebral Palsy, New York City Police & Fireman Widow & Children, CJ Foundation of SIDS, Tomorrows Children Fund, Children’s Medical Fund of NY, Hemophilia Assoc., Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Mothers Voices just to name a few.