This Oct. 6, 2008 photo released by CBS shows “60 Minutes” correspondent Morley Safer during the program’s 40th anniversary celebration in New York.
(John Paul Filo/CBS via AP)
John Paul Filo/CBS via AP
FILE – In this March 3, 1988 file photo, Henry Kissinger, left, and Morley Safer of CBS’ “60 Minutes” pose during reception for the program in New York. Safer, the veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent who exposed a military atrocity in Vietnam that played an early role in changing Americans’ view of the war, died Thursday, May 19, 2016. He was 84.
(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File
FILE – In this Sept. 22, 1980 file photo, Morley Safer points to one of his watercolors displayed at a New York restaurant as his wife Jane and daughter Sarah look on. Safer, the veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent who exposed a military atrocity in Vietnam that played an early role in changing Americans’ view of the war, died Thursday, May 19, 2016. He was 84.
(AP Photo/ Richard Drew, File)
AP Photo/ Richard Drew, File
FILE – In this Nov. 10, 1993 file photo, The “60 Minutes” team, from left, Andy Rooney, Morley Safer, Steve Kroft, Mike Wallace, executive producer Don Hewitt, Lesley Stahl, and Ed Bradley pose at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York celebrating their 25th anniversary. Safer, the veteran “60 Minutes” correspondent who exposed a military atrocity in Vietnam that played an early role in changing Americans’ view of the war, died Thursday, May 19, 2016. He was 84.
(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)
AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File
FILE – In this Oct. 21, 2008 file photo, Morley Safer poses for a picture during the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame Awards in New York.
(AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
AP Photo/Seth Wenig
Morley Safer seen on the red carpet for The Hollywood Reporter Celebrates the 35 Most Powerful People in Media, on April 10th, 2013, in New York.
(Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision for The Hollywood Reporter/AP Images)
Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision for The Hollywood Reporter/AP Images
NEW YORK, NY – APRIL 10: TV personality Regis Philbin (L) and correspondent Morley Safer attend the after party for the “Veep” screening at Porter House on April 10, 2012 in New York City. Safer, 84, died on Thursday, May 19.
(Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)
Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images
NEW YORK – FEBRUARY 20: Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour (L) and CBS correspondent Morley Safer attends the Ralph Lauren Fall 2009 fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Skylight Studio on February 20, 2009 in New York City. The former “60 Minutes” host died on Thursday, May 19. He was 84 years old.
(Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images)
Photo by Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images
NEW YORK, NY – APRIL 11: Lesley Stahl, Morley Safer and Liz Smith remember the life and career of “60 Minutes” correspondent Mike Wallace on SiriusXM’s “The wowOwow Radio Show” at SiriusXM Studio on April 11, 2012 in New York City. Safer retired from “60 Minutes” last Sunday. He died on Thursday, May 19. He was 84 years old.
(Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images)
Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images
Canadian-born television journalist Morley Safer, of the news program ’60 Minutes’, circa 1970s. Safer, 84, died on Thursday, May 19.
(Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Morley Safer, who retired from “60 Minutes” last Sunday after 46 years, has died, CBS News reports. He was 84.
CBS News says that he watched the May 15 special edition of the show from his home, and that he had been in declining health when he announced his retirement.
“Morley was one of the most important journalists in any medium, ever,” CBS Chairman and CEO Leslie Moonves said. “He broke ground in war reporting and made a name that will forever be synonymous with 60 Minutes. He was also a gentleman, a scholar, a great raconteur – all of those things and much more to generations of colleagues, his legion of friends, and his family, to whom all of us at CBS offer our sincerest condolences over the loss of one of CBS’ and journalism’s greatest treasures.”
Safer replaced Harry Reasoner on “60 Minutes” in 1970, CBS News says. Before that, he was a foreign correspondent, and was the first U.S. network newsman to film a report inside Communist China.
His report about the U.S. Marines burning of huts in the Vietnamese hamlet of Cam Ne in August 1965 was cited by New York University as one of the best pieces of American journalism in the 20th century. “Some believe this report freed other journalists to stop censoring themselves and tell the raw truth about war,” CBS News says.
But it was on “60 Minutes” that he made his greatest impact. CBS cited some of his best reports as a 1971 investigation of the Gulf of Tonkin incident that precipitated U.S. involvement in Vietnam; a frank interview with first Lady Betty Ford in 1975 about teenage sex; a story that resulted in the freeing of an inmate from a life sentence in 1983, and two stories about Chicago teacher Marva Collins, in 1979 and a follow-up with her students in 1996.
Perhaps the distinction most indicative of Safer’s remarkable impact: He won the Paul White Award from the Radio and Television News Directors Association generally a lifetime-achievement award, in 1966. He was 35.
He told The Associated Press that despite the fact that he worked in the visual medium of television, he considered the spoken word the most important element: “What you’re aiming at,” he said, “are people’s ears rather than their eyes.”
Rick Massimo came to WTOP, and to Washington, in 2013 after having lived in Providence, R.I., since he was a child. He's the author of "A Walking Tour of the Georgetown Set" and "I Got a Song: A History of the Newport Folk Festival."
