Besides the NBC Nightly News, the only t.v. show I watch regularly is 60 Minutes, and I’ve watched it for decades. The show recently lost Andy Rooney, and I’m sad to report that a founding member, Mike Wallace, died yesterday at 93. He had been with the show for forty years, and I watched him engage in lots of hard-hitting journalism. Wallace asked questions that nobody else dared, and won more than 20 Emmy Awards. The CBS website reports:
Each week, “60 Minutes” viewers could expect the master interviewer to ask the questions they wanted answered by the world’s leaders and headliners. Wallace did not disappoint them, often revealing more than the public ever hoped to see. He got the stoic Ayatollah Khomeini to smile during the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979 when he asked him what he thought about being called “a lunatic” by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. The Ayatollah answered by correctly predicting that Sadat would be assassinated.
Well, besides Rooney and Wallace the show also lost favorites Harry Reasoner and Ed Bradley—who always reminded me of my dad—but we still have Morley Safer (who was also Jewish but didn’t change his name—Wallace’s real first name was “Myron”).
Ah, yes, one of the last journalists produced in America. I used to laugh at the expressions on the faces of people when he’d walk into their dirt-bag business with cameras rolling…
It’d be ‘oh fuck, I’m done for…’
And a few months later when they followed up, you’d see people being arrested for fraud, or getting what they deserved for their anti-social and criminal behavior.
Now they just a bunch of corporate stooges who take notes and repeat any garbage said… And those are the honest ones… There are many who are far, far worse…
His kid is one of those… No integrity whatsoever. Just repeat bullshit right-wing talking points that are known to be factually incorrect. And I don’t mean ‘different interpretation of facts in a legitimate dispute’ I mean the made-up BS that goes on a Faux News.
I agree moseszd.
Very sad day. Mike Wallace is a hard act to follow.
I was wondering if he was Jewish since his real name was Myron. Then I thought to myself, why would a Jew name his son Chris?
Way back then there were many places where Jews just weren’t welcome; things have changed a lot but there are still plenty bigots out there. I remember the Irish were also treated with such disdain when I was young (similar to the treatment Mexicans currently get in Arizona), and now people act as if they’ve always loved the Irish. Anyway – that’s one reason why a Jew might name his kid Christopher (and change his name from Myron to Wallace).
I hope the US Sixty Minutes is better than its Australian spin-off. It has become the worst sort of celebrity ‘journalism’.
I’ve watched Mike’s interview from years back with Ayn Rand numerous times. I’ll know the sound of his voice until I’m dead.
I think he lost his way a little in his later years. But we do that sometimes, in our later years.
For a long time, Mike was the epitome of investigative journalism, and his son Chris can only hope to measure up to his dad’s resume.
“but we still have Morley Safer (who was also Jewish but didn’t change his name. . .”
Safer didn’t change his citizenship either; he is still a Canadian citizen.
Reblogged this on urbanperegrines.
I had no idea Mike Wallace was 93! I would have guessed 75 at the most. He will be missed. I really enjoyed his interviews over the years.
Long may the examiners of the preposterous prevail.
The antedote about Mrs. Nixon and Mike Wallace epitomizes the difference between him and the rest of his colleagues. He knew when to ask the question and when to just do what was right. May he RIP.