Michael Clemente, the longtime television news executive and producer who spent nearly three decades at ABC News and later rose to executive vice president at Fox News, died suddenly Thursday at his home in Garrison, New York. He was 70.
A family spokesperson confirmed the death to The Hollywood Reporter. No cause was given.
Clemente began his career as a production assistant on ABC's Good Morning America and eventually became one of the central figures in broadcast journalism over more than three decades. At ABC's World News Tonight, he worked closely with anchor Peter Jennings as chief writer and producer starting in August 1983, when Jennings was named principal anchor of the broadcast.
Together, the two traveled extensively and produced coverage of some of the defining events of the late 20th century. That list included papal conclaves, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the first Gulf War, the Tiananmen Square protests, the Palestinian Intifada, and the disputed 2000 presidential election recount. Clemente also produced presidential interviews beginning with Ronald Reagan.
At ABC, he rose to become executive producer of This Week and co-executive producer of 20/20 with Barbara Walters. From 2006 to 2009, he served as executive-in-charge of ABC News' digital operations, overseeing the launch of the streamer ABC News Now and guiding the transformation of ABCNews.com into one of the country's most-read digital news platforms.
Clemente joined Fox News in 2009 as a senior vice president and was promoted to executive vice president in 2012. He oversaw daily news operations and major political programming, including presidential primary debates during the 2012 and 2016 election cycles. Among those was the 2015 Republican primary debate, which was at the time the most-watched primary debate in U.S. history. In 2013, he produced Fox News' interview with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, during which Assad announced he would relinquish his country's chemical weapons stockpile.
He left Fox in July 2016, days after longtime CEO and chairman Roger Ailes resigned following sexual harassment allegations from ousted anchor Gretchen Carlson.
Douglas Kennedy, the journalist and son of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy Sr. who worked with Clemente at Fox News, remembered him in a statement. "He cared about people in a way that is rare in the news business," Kennedy said. "On any given day he could manage huge personalities like Peter Jennings, Roone Arledge and Roger Ailes while also giving time and attention to reporters, producers and technicians."
Bill O'Reilly, who worked with Clemente at both ABC News and Fox, also offered a tribute. "I can tell you he was an old school journalist who sought verifiable facts," O'Reilly said. "Excellent family guy as well. Deep respect."
Born on Feb. 20, 1956, in Suffern, New York, Michael Scott Clemente grew up across New York, Massachusetts, California, and Maryland before graduating from Gaithersburg High School in Maryland in 1974. He earned a degree in journalism from American University in 1978.
