Ed Bradley, of '60 Minutes;' a pioneer in TV journalism
Ed Bradley, the pioneering
Mr. Bradley was CBS's first black White House correspondent and the first black correspondent on the network's respected newsmagazine "60 Minutes." In his 26 years at "60 Minutes," he interviewed figures as diverse as Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and singer Lena Horne -- and developed a distinctive, sometimes-casual persona, wearing an earring on air for years.
But Mr. Bradley also maintained a reputation for hard-hitting journalism, winning 20 Emmys and many other awards. And he used his power at the center of a television institution to help redefine what sorts of stories -- and what sorts of people -- deserved coverage, said Tom Rosenstiel , director of the Washington, D.C.-based Project for Excellence in Journalism.
"He broadened the definition of what was serious network television news; he talked about culture and politics," Rosenstiel said. "He was capable of doing an interview with a sports figure or a celebrity figure and it came across as sociological reporting."
Mr. Bradley reached an influential position at CBS at a time when few people of color were part of the TV news business, on any level. For many African-American journalists, he was a role model and a mentor. As part of that work, he paid for annual $10,000 scholarships for minority journalists.
"He was an icon and, more importantly for me, a pathbreaker," said Callie Crossley , a commentator who appears regularly on WGBH. Yesterday, the news of Mr. Bradley's passing sent gasps through a conference at WGBH sponsored by the National Black Programming Consortium, she said. Attendees held a moment of silence for Mr. Bradley, shared remembrances, and joined in a chorus of "Amazing Grace."
At CBS, staffers celebrated his career and lauded his personality yesterday. Outside CBS, Mr. Bradley's death reverberated.
"There are tears in newsrooms all over America," said Emily Rooney, the host of "Greater Boston."
Rooney, the daughter of "60 Minutes" stalwart Andy Rooney, said she got a call from her father yesterday morning telling her of Mr. Bradley's death. She said Mr. Bradley was not shy about pushing for coverage of stories he considered important. "He was the voice of conscience on that broadcast on racial issues," she said.
As an interviewer, Mr. Bradley's style was searching and deft. "He wasn't Mike Wallace when it came to the intimidation factor, but you wouldn't want to be sitting on the other side of the camera from him, either, the way he looked at you, with that skepticism," Emily Rooney said.
While Mr. Bradley was ever conscious of race relations, he had a sense of humor about the challenges he faced, said Boston-based political consultant Ed Jesser. He met Mr. Bradley in Washington in the 1970s, when Jesser worked for the Carter administration and Mr. Bradley was a CBS reporter.
Once, Jesser recalled yesterday, Mr. Bradley had trouble hailing a cab -- at the time, they simply didn't stop for black men -- so he enlisted Jesser's help. As he hopped in the back of the cab, Mr. Bradley said, "He's my chauffeur. He just fetches my car."
Jesser said Mr. Bradley loved music -- to the point that he would get onstage with the Neville Brothers and play the tambourine or noodle on the guitar. "He was the personification of class," Jesser said. "He dressed meticulously and he spoke meticulously. Not just on the air. At all times."
Mr. Bradley's death is the latest in a parade of big network names who have died or left high-profile roles in the past couple of years. Longtime ABC anchor Peter Jennings died last year, the same year CBS anchor Dan Rather stepped down under pressure. At the end of 2004, NBC's Tom Brokaw relinquished his anchor chair. Ted Koppel has left ABC's "Nightline." At "60 Minutes," longtime executive producer Don Hewitt retired.
Mr. Bradley had joined "60 Minutes" when Rather left to replace Walter Cronkite as anchor of "The CBS Evening News."
"With the passing of Ed Bradley we have lost one of America's best," Rather said in a statement yesterday. "As a compassionate, sensitive person, as a gentle but strong man, as a lover of life and a great professional, he was an example of all a conscientious and dedicated journalist can be."
Mr. Bradley was born on June 22, 1941, in Philadelphia. He began his broadcasting career in radio, working initially without pay for WDAS in Philadelphia, where he also spun jazz records and gave a minute news report. He worked for WCBS Radio in New York before joining CBS News in 1971.
Mr. Bradley worked in the Saigon bureau from 1972 through 1974 and was wounded by mortar fire on assignment to Cambodia in 1973. He volunteered to return to Asia in 1975, and covered the fall of Saigon.
After the war, Mr. Bradley was CBS's first black White House correspondent and was a correspondent for "CBS Reports" before joining "60 Minutes."
Even as his profile rose, colleagues said, Mr. Bradley maintained a down-to-earth demeanor. Yesterday, CBS News President Sean McManus said Mr. Bradley's nickname was "Easy Ed."
"He was a very authentic person," said former CBS reporter Marvin Kalb, who met Mr. Bradley when the latter joined the CBS Washington bureau. "He was Ed Bradley on and off the air. There was not even the faintest whiff of phoniness about him. And as he got more and more famous, he never lost his authenticity."
And Mr. Bradley's enthusiasm for his subjects came through, when he interviewed such cultural icons as Horne and Quincy Jones, said Alex S. Jones, director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy at Harvard University.
"One of the great talents he had, both as a journalist and a TV personality, was that he was able to do a serious journalistic job . . . while insisting on being just who he was," Jones said.
Crossley said the Horne interview proved Mr. Bradley's depth: He put the singer in a cultural and political context, and convinced "60 Minutes" producers that her story was worth telling. It "was not a piece that you would have seen anywhere else," Crossley said.
The interview won Mr. Bradley an Emmy, one of 20 he received over the course of his career, including an award for lifetime achievement. His Emmy-winning subjects re present the diversity of his reporting: sex abuse in the Catholic Church; nuclear testing in Kazakhstan; schizophrenia; a 1979 visit to China by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His most recent Emmys came for a segment about the reopening of the 50-year-old murder case of Emmett Till and for a profile of astronaut Neil Armstrong.
He also won four radio Peabody Awards, the most recent for hosting the NPR weekly program "Jazz from Lincoln Center."
Mr. Bradley, who had homes in New York City and Woody Creek, Colo., leaves his wife, artist Patricia Blanchet.
