Director's Cut Blog with Frank Macek

Special to the Director's Cut Blog wkyc.com He didn't see it coming. Tom Beres thought he was covering Monday evening's Cleveland City Council meeting as he's done countless other times. On this night, the council turned the tables on Tom, who is set to retire at the end of the month. Beres received a standing ovation by the council for 44 years of reporting, 37 of them at WKYC Channel 3. But the best was yet to come. Mayor Frank Jackson and council members announced that the section of Lakeside Avenue outside of the WKYC Channel 3 studios will be known as, "Tom Beres Way." "This is pretty awkward all the way around," a still-shocked Beres told Dawn Kendrick. "But thank you to all of our viewers for putting up with me all of these years." Tom's wife Susan had the line of the night: Because Tom loses keys, cellphones, etc regularly, the street should be named "Tom Beres Lost His Way." Beres' final day ...

WKYC Senior Political Reporter Tom Beres WKYC Political Reporter Tom Beres is taking off his microphone. After 37 plus years of covering Northeast Ohio, the last 18 years as the station’s Senior Political Correspondent, Beres is retiring after an historic year covering a challenging and non-traditional election season.  Tom says “It’s been a privilege to have had such a long career at Channel 3, telling the stories of people, political players, issues and events here in my home town. After reporting on this phenomenal year for the city of Cleveland as well as this incredible election, it seemed a logical time for my walkoff. I’m grateful to all the viewers who’ve watched our broadcasts and online coverage, and hope they found it worthwhile”. During his tenure at WKYC, Tom covered political issues big and small. For the past eleven years he also hosted a weekly political show – Between the Lines – that aired Sunday mornings prior to Meet the Press. Throughout his car...

By Tom Beres WKYC Senior Political Correspondent CLEVELAND -- It's a time of big events and important change in Northeast Ohio. At the top of the list is the looming Republican National Convention in July. But other key decisions are being made this year. Ohioans will choose whether to retain Republican Senator Rob Portman or replace him with the Democratic former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland. Cleveland voters will decide this November whether to renew a levy for Cleveland's troubled, but improving school system. Cleveland's police department is in the midst of a federally mandated upgrade to make it more accountable, better trained and less prone to excessive violence. With so much happening, it requires more insight and perspective than what can fit into normal newscasts. The national events will have a specific impact on our state and region. That's why WKYC Channel 3 is reviving its political discussion segment "Between the Lines," ho...

Tom Beres, WKYC Senior Political Correspondent Our congratulations to WKYC Senior Political Correspondent Tom Beres who was honored Tuesday by the Society of Professional Journalists. Tom was given the Distinguished Service Award, for his contributions to journalism, at a luncheon held at the City Club of Cleveland. Tom has been with WKYC for 34 years and is the longest-tenured reporter at a Cleveland station. The best news is Tom has just signed on for more with Channel 3 News, which means you will continue to see on the air for some time to come. Also honored Tuesday include WTAM-AM/1100's Tom Moore with the Distinguished Service Awared and Tom Hamzik of Padua who won the Philip Porter Scholarship.

Click on the video to watch one of new Channel 3 promos highlighting the experienced beat reporters of Channel 3 News including Kim Wheeler (education), Maureen Kyle (consumer), Monica Robins (health), Tom Meyer (investigative) and Tom Beres (politics).

The debate will air live on nine NBC affiliate stations and will stream live on each station’s website. Ohio NBC affiliated stations have partnered to present the first televised statewide debate of Issue 2, the referendum on Senate Bill 5. The debate will be broadcast from Columbus, Ohio on Tuesday, October 25 from 7 p.m. to8 p.m. It will be carried live on WKYC Cleveland, WCMH Columbus, WLWT Cincinnati, WDTN Dayton, WLIO Lima, WNWO Toledo, WTOV Wheeling/Steubenville, WFMJ Youngstown, and WHIZ Zanesville. It will also be streamed live on each of the stations’ websites. Debating Issue 2 will be State Senator Keith Faber of Building a Better Ohio, who will be defending Issue 2, and Former Ohio Congressman Dennis Eckart of We Are Ohio, which opposes Issue 2. Issue 2 is a referendum on Senate Bill 5, a controversial new law that made changes to a variety of government laws and policies. The bill was signed into law by Governor John Kasich earlier this year. A “yes” vote would keep t...

Tom Beres Updated: 10/28/11 The Press Club of Cleveland will honor Fox 8 photojournalist Herb Thomas, WKYC's Tom Beres, and four others at its 2011 Chuck Heaton Award to be presented at the Club's annual Journalism Hall of Fame Awards Dinner and Induction Ceremony. They will be honored October 28 at at LaCentre, 25777 Detroit Road, in Westlake. Thomas will receive the Chuck Heaton Award. The others will be inducted into the Press Club of Cleveland Hall of Fame. The Chuck Heaton Award honors an individual who best exemplifies the qualities of Hall of Fame reporter Chuck Heaton, a long-time sports writer and columnist at The Plain Dealer. Heaton, who passed away in February 2008, was known for his lifelong dedication to journalism, his fairness, his concern for community and helping others. The Hall of Fame inductees to be honored are WKYC's Beres, The Plain Dealer's Tom Feran and Philip Morris, NBC News' Kelly O'Donnell, and Bob Paynter, Principal, o...

CLEVELAND -- For the past 40 years, the Cuyahoga County Community Mental Health Board has worked to serve and protect residents with issues such as depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. At Wednesday morning's meeting, the board's leaders outlined future needs and rewarded successful programs, workers, and advocates who stepped up to help those with mental health issues over the past year. Channel 3 News and its Senior Political Correspondent Tom Beres won the media "Helping Hands" award. In May 2007, Tom did a story about "Living Miracles," a support group for those coping with mental health issues. Members discussed their personal struggles and efforts to dispel stereotypes of mental patients as dangerous "ticking time bombs." The story was aired just after the Virginia Tech massacre by a gunman with mental health issues who did not get help he needed.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported on Sunday that two of WKYC's top notch reporters have signed long term deals with the station in the past month. Terms of their deals were not disclosed. Senior Political Correspondent Tom Beres has served as a general assignment reporter for WKYC since July of 1979 and was promoted to senior political reporter in May of 1998. Tom is a graduate of Northwestern University and holds a bachelor degree and a masters in broadcast journalism During his college years, he worked as a radio correspondent in Washington, DC and his radio reports were transmitted to stations throughout Chicago. Senior Health Reporter Monica Robins also signed a new deal. Monica joined WKYC in 1998 and is responsible for reporting the day's medical news. She has worked in television since 1988 and has an additional five years of radio and print journalism experience. She was an investigative reporter at WCMH-TV in Columbus, Ohio and while there, became the Midwest corresp...

Melis Kobal is a CNBC reporter covering the business beat out of Istanbul, Turkey. She's in Cleveland along with a Bogazici University student, Elvan Salman for three weeks and stopped by WKYC-TV to check out a U.S. television station and see how Channel 3 produces its newscasts. The women met with Senior Political Correspondent Tom Beres...they talked Turkey with Tom in the video below! For a look at Bogazici University in Istanbul, check out the link below. Welcome Melis and Elvan! VIDEO FEATURE: *To watch their interview with Tom Beres: CLICK HERE RELATED LINKS: Bogazici University, Istanbul Bogazici University photo tour

How many of these familiar faces can you remember from the Channel 3 News team back in 2004? Here are the correct answers! #1. Romona Robinson (anchor) #2. Joy Benedict (reporter, anchor) #3. Katherine Boyd (reporter) #4. Eileen McShea (weather anchor) #5. Paul Thomas (reporter) #6. Tom Beres (Senior Political Correspondent)