Brendan Keefe (born in 1974) is an American Journalist. In addition to reporting, Keefe is also the weekend co-anchor Deborah Garcia for CBS2 News HD This Morning.

Career

Award-winning broadcast journalist Brendan Keefe joined WCBS-TV as a correspondent in February 2003 where he made his on-air debut covering the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. His analysis of what may have caused the shuttle to break up upon re-entry was confirmed a year later as the official cause.

Keefe’s very first report for CBS2 was nominated for a NY Emmy award. Also nominated for two more Emmy Awards was his CBS 2 investigation of parking abuses by NYPD officers in their personal cars. Keefe uncovered the fact that the official-looking parking placards used by state court officers to park their personal cars on sidewalks were printed by their union and were considered fake by the city, even though none of the officers were ever ticketed.

An experienced war correspondent, Keefe has completed three combat reporting tours in the Middle East. He reported from the rooftops of Kuwait City as U.S. Forces invaded Iraq in 2003. Keefe returned to the region in April 2004 when he and a CBS2 photographer were embedded with a U.S. Army Reserve unit from New York. During the deadliest month for I.E.D. attacks, Keefe endured a 600-mile convoy from Kuwait to Kirkuk in Northern Iraq. Keefe and his crew spent a month in Iraq chronicling sacrifices made by the "citizen soldiers" of the Army Reserve. He returned to their base in Kirkuk in January 2005 and joined them on another dangerous convoy to Chemical Ali's former summer retreat. Keefe’s international assignments have also taken him to Madrid to cover the Al Qaeda terrorist bombings of commuter trains. He covered the national elections in Spain three days later when voters ousted the ruling party as a direct result of the terror attacks.

Keefe came to WCBS-TV from the NBC affiliate in Houston where he was a special projects reporter from 1997 - 2002. He covered the collapse of Enron and other major stories such as the drowning of five children by their own mother, Andrea Yates. Keefe flew regularly in Chopper 2 has a helicopter reporter above the Lone Star state and also flew twice in zero gravity with NASA aboard the KC-135 "Vomit Comet."

Prior to his work in Houston, Keefe was an anchor and reporter for WFSB-TV, the CBS affiliate in Hartford, Connecticut. He anchored the weekday morning news from 1995 - 1997 and finished out his last four months there as weekend anchor. While at WFSB, Keefe covered stories such as the development of the Navy's Seawolf submarine and spent two days 800 feet below the Atlantic Ocean aboard a Los Angeles class attack sub. In 1994 and 1995, Keefe was a reporter for WJXT-TV, the former CBS affiliate in Jacksonville, Florida. He started as an investigative reporter and later was assigned as a military affairs reporter covering four major Navy bases.

Keefe worked for the CBS affiliate in Grand Rapids/Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1992 and 1993 as chief of the station's Battle Creek news bureau. While there, Keefe provided gavel-to-gavel coverage of a major murder trial where the defendant, a former police officer and criminology professor, was convicted of executing his own wife, the local ABC morning anchorwoman.

Keefe began his broadcast journalism career in Rockford, Illinois where he served as reporter and anchor for WREX-TV, then an ABC affiliate. His yearlong investigation of the Ku Klux Klan nearly landed him in the hospital when he was attacked by masked white supremacists at a rally. Keefe started there as a news photographer and he continues to shoot and edit high definition video today as a hobby.

Keefe is the recipient of eight Emmy awards and several Emmy nominations. Most recently, Keefe won a NY Emmy award for his continuing coverage of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans. In 2003, his reporting on the Northeast blackout earned him a NY Emmy award for breaking news coverage. While at KPRC in Houston, Keefe won five Suncoast Emmy awards including two for an underwater cave diving documentary he shot alone while on vacation in the Yucatan Peninsula. At WFSB in Hartford, Connecticut, Keefe’s report on a paralyzed high school girl's secret plan to walk into her junior prom was given a Boston-New England Emmy Award.

Personal Life

A dual citizen of the United States and Ireland, Keefe was raised in North Haven, Connecticut with his eight brothers and sisters. He earned a bachelors degree in English Literature from Kenyon College in Ohio. Keefe currently resides in Brooklyn with his wife Tiffany and their son Ian.

External Links

WCBS-TV's Brendan Keefe Bio