‘Inside Edition’ Hires TV’s First Transgender Reporter

Former TV news helicopter pilot Bob “Chopper Bob” Tur has finished the transition to become a female and after being hired by Inside Edition has become TV’s first transgender reporter.

Now Zoey Tur, the former Chopper Bob underwent 14 months of hormone treatment as well as sex reassignment surgery that was completed late last year.

After TV’s Inside Edition announced the hire, Zoey Tur said, “There’s diversity in nature, so why not the media? I want to thank INSIDE EDITION for their support in what’s shaping up to be America’s last civil rights fight.”

As Chopper Bob, Tur made a name for himself when he was the chopper reporter who broadcast the beating of truck driver Reginald Denny who was beaten by LA rioters in 1992. He also followed O.J. Simpson on his infamous slow car chase.

In 2013 Tur decided to make the full transition, saying, “Bob must die,” and he was “done hiding” his true nature.

Tur, 54, has also said that facial surgery to bring a more feminine appearance is also part of her plans for the future.

The reporter, who has over 10,000 hours in the air as a pilot, has also noted that becoming a female has altered the way she flies, claiming that her thought patterns have become more “analytical” than “instinctive.”

“When you go through something like this,” Tur said in an interview with KPCC last June, “it’s like going to war. It’s very, very rough, and you need people out there who understand…”

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com