Last week, one of my favorites decided to retire at 84 years of age. Today Morley Safer passed away.    Safer covered the Vietnam War in the mid-sixties, and joined a teetering “60 Minutes” in 1970.  The show finally took off a year later and Safer retired as the longest person on a prime time show in TV history.   He covered food, art and music. He covered war.  He went to every corner of the planet to tell people’s stories.   He used the powerful 60 minutes pulpit to right injustice and shine a light on a lot of things that we needed to know about.  His writing was more than first-rate, and his demeanor was tough but fair.   He put those he interviewed at ease and got very interesting results.

The CBS News website posted the news:

"Safer was in declining health when he announced his retirement last week. This is a very sad day for all of us at 60 Minutes and CBS News. Morley was a fixture, one of our pillars, and an inspiration in many ways."

CBS aired a one-hour special last Sunday night to honor Safer for his work in broadcasting.

The Washington Post reported that the cause of death was not immediately known.

 

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