Honor you on Sunday and you die the following Thursday.Wow !
This leaves CBS in an awkward spot. Having just dedicated an hour to his retirement last week, do they devote another to his passing this Sunday?
Definitely, there are enough highlights in his career to fill another hour.
Damn, was just thinking the same. Well, at least he got his due while he was still alive…publicly and officially from CBS. That’s more than Walter Cronkite got.
If nothing else at least he was alive to see his tribute,a lot of folks get that after they have passed.
That tears it, I’m never going to retire! R.I.P. Mr. Safer, you were a real journalist. You will be missed.
“Legendary CBS Journalist Morley Safer Dead At 84.”
From the obituary:
“Mr. Safer was preceded in death by actual journalism, and spent his remaining years with fond memories of a once-thriving and vital American institution.”
I thought CBS had a mandatory retirement…Best I can tell the 65 and out only applies to management at CBS with Federal law protecting employees who want to work beyond that age, Cronkite was management and so out at 65. Old Morley must have just been an employee. Bet he loved just showing up at work every day, my Dad would have loved that all the way to the end.
I couldn’t have paid you for a more apt timing . :=)
" Well, at least he got his due while he was still alive…publicly and
officially from CBS. That’s more than Walter Cronkite got."
Corporations hate the boat rocking…that’s why Federal law once protected newsrooms and citizens.
A real jourrnalist is what Morley Safer was. I always enjoyed his interviews. Rest in peace Morley
Indeed. A real journalist
Be sure the next ballgame you’re at to stand and heartily applaud your military veterans. Heroes now, heroes always.
Morley Safer and Cam Ne
The American news media accompanied U.S. forces to Vietnam in 1965. Thirty-three-year-old CBS correspondent Morley Safer, one of the first television newsmen to be permanently assigned to Vietnam, was sent to Da Nang. At the beginning of August, Safer was having coffee with some Marine officers in an attempt to get an idea of what sort of activity the Marines were engaged in. One lieutenant told him that an operation was planned for the very next morning, and invited the reporter to come along. On August 3, Safer joined the Marines headed for Cam Ne.
While en route to their objective, the lieutenant told Safer his force was going to level Cam Ne, "really tear it up." When asked why, the officer said his men had taken a lot of fire from the village. Further, the Vietnamese province chief said he wanted it leveled. Another reporter, Richard Critchfield of the Washington Star, later told Safer the reason Cam Ne was leveled had nothing to do with the Viet Cong; rather, it was because the chief was furious with the residents of Cam Ne for refusing to pay their taxes. According to Critchfield, who was an expert on villages in Vietnam, the chief wanted the village punished. Safer was accompanied by a South Vietnamese cameraman, Ha Thuc Can, whose film of the controversial operation was narrated by Safer.
The report was filed on the spot, sent via telex from Da Nang to Saigon to New York. CBS realized that it had a powerful story as soon as it was read in the New York office. CBS News President Fred Friendly asked a staffer to confirm that Safer was sure of his facts. Safer confirmed the validity of the report. Friendly was nervous, aware of the enormous implications of broadcasting the film, as yet unseen by CBS officials. He called CBS President Frank Stanton to warn him about the upcoming broadcast. Next he called Pentagon public affairs official Arthur Sylvester, telling him to listen to the local CBS radio station. At that point the film itself had been transported by airplane from Vietnam to Los Angeles. A data line was leased to Los Angeles. Fred Friendly and Walter Cronkite in New York watched the film of U.S. Marines setting fire to Vietnamese dwellings, watched the burning of Cam Ne. They were shocked by the film images, but felt it was so important they could not fail to broadcast it. CBS called Safer again to ensure they had the proper context of the story. This was confirmed. The film was broadcast on CBS Evening News on August 5, 1965.
Reaction to the Cam Ne report was immediate and powerful. CBS was inundated with calls and letters critical of this negative portrayal of American military personnel. Early in the morning after the film was broadcast, Stanton was awakened by the telephone. "Frank, are you trying to f– me?" yelled a voice.
"Who is this?" asked the president of CBS.
"Frank, this is your president," answered Lyndon Johnson, "and yesterday your boys shat on the American flag."
That same morning newspapers across the nation featured an Associated Press photograph of a Marine setting fire to a hut with a cigarette lighter. The president ordered a background investigation on Safer, sure he was working for the Communists. No Communist affiliation was found. LBJ then ordered an investigation of the Marine officer in charge of the Cam Ne operation, certain that Safer must have bribed the Marine to burn Cam Ne. Nothing came of that, either. The Pentagon asked CBS to replace Safer as Vietnam correspondent. The Department of Defense began monitoring the evening television newscasts. Safer followed up his initial report with additional broadcasts critical of Marine operations in the area. The commander of the Marines in Vietnam, Maj. Gen. Lewis Walt, banned Safer from all of I Corps, the Marine Corps’ area of responsibility in South Vietnam, but the order was soon rescinded.
The film that accompanied Safer’s CBS report on Cam Ne showed a Marine, armed with a rifle, lighting a hut with his cigarette lighter. No opposition was evident. According to Safer’s report, the Marines were under orders to burn to the ground any hamlet from which they received even a single burst of sniper fire. The pleas of old men and women for the Marines to spare their houses were ignored. So were pleas from the villagers to delay while their possessions were removed. The houses and all their belongings were burned, as were all rice stores. The day’s operation netted four prisoners, all of whom were old men.
http://www.historynet.com/what-really-happened-at-cam-ne.htmThe Last Journalist.
This is why I insist on being dishonored. I will live forever!
I think “retired” is really just a synonym for “deceased”.
I think there are enough highlights in his career to fill up Sunday - all day
RIP, Morley. A true, dedicated journalist.
Safer was a true journalist. Condolences to his family, friends, and co-workers.