 Although CBS lost the suit, he impressed the network's president, Frank Stanton, who influenced him to pursue broadcast journalism.Salant worked as Stanton's assistant for nine years and would become the president of the CBS News Division when Stanton appointed him to replace Sig Mickelson in February of 1961.Salant was president of CBS News from 1961 to 1964 and from 1966 to 1979.