Thursday, November 09, 2006

Ed Bradley of '60 Minutes' Passes

Today, we were saddened to hear of the passing of a man of great respect and dignity - Ed Bradley. He leaves a legacy of fairness and objectivity that extended to the last days of his life.

His stature and importance at CBS was enormous. Reports tell us that Mr. Bradley had been sick for some time. That gives his decision to choose the Duke Hoax as the final reporting contribution of his amazing career even more meaning. In the last days of his life, he chose to focus on the injustice and indignity of the treatment of three young men by what passes for justice in Durham, North Carolina today. He chose this story to be a capstone to his formidable legacy.

Mr. Bradley lent his name and reputation as his life drew to a close, to those principles that underscored all he practiced and achieved: color-blind equality before the law and unwavering standards of justice for all our children, regardless of the color of their skin or the content of their" Daddies' pockets." He did not differentiate or discriminate. He looked beyond skin color to the content of the law.

Today, we salute and remember Ed Bradley for all his many lifetime achievements and his final one,as a true Hero Of the Hoax.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ed Bradley didn't have get involved in this case. No one would have thought any less of him if he would have just stayed home and spent time his family. Ed obviously loved his work enough to continue to work up until his death. I will never forget that one of the last things Mr. Bradley did was expose a corrupt DA and lying hooker for what they are. I only wish more people in the media had integrity Ed had. God bless you Ed Bradley, you will be missed.

Anonymous said...

On Larry King Mike Wallace just stated that Ed Bradley always did his stories with great ntegrity. He said that when you saw a Bradley piece you know it was accurate.
He maintained his integrity right up to his last piece on the Duke LAX story.

Anonymous said...

the 60 minutes piece was a one sided mess and was one of bradley's worst reports ever. he just took the defense's words for everything. now that we see he was sick that explains the slip in journalistic standards. too bad he went out on a sour note.

Anonymous said...

To the 4:57: who are you, Cash Michaels? Journalism is all about "balance" right?

There was no "slip in journalistic standards" in Mr. Bradley's Duke piece. The piece did what all great journalism should do -- it exposed the truth. God bless Mr. Bradley for having the courage and integrity to actually investigate the rape claims rather than just blindly accepting the words of a corrupt prosecutor and his minions (as so many other "journalists" have done).

Mr. Bradley was a great journalist, and a great man, right up to the day he died. Cash Michaels is not fit to lick Ed Bradley's boots.

Anonymous said...

who mentioned cash micheals. this is about ed bradley and no one in durham bought into that bullshit piece he did on the lax case. sorry but a lot of black durham people called him a tom after that piece and some of them said he is dead now for the lies he put on the air for that story. they said the nc saying: "he is dead suddenly and that is proof the Lord does not love ugly".

Anonymous said...

7:01 What an evil and horrible thing to say about a great man at the time of his death. You embarrass yourself and bring shame to our city with your awful words. I will pray that your hate heals.

Anonymous said...

As the biography notes, Ed Bradley covered the federal investigation of Emmett Till's murder, another case in which a small southern town made the mistake of assuming that administering justice (or failing to) was exclusively a local concern. He was a great journalist unafraid to expose injustice regardless of who were the victims and who were the perpetrators.

Anonymous said...

701,
It appears over half the people in Durham agreed with Ed Bradley on the Duke piece. You only bring embarresment and shame on both yourself and our race by your vile and hateful comments. I truly feel sorry for you.

Anonymous said...

Front page of the NY Times today- article about Ed Bradley- see the end of the story for his commitment to the Duke Lacrosse story.

“I think people might want to characterize him as a trailblazer for black journalists,” she said yesterday, by cellphone from outside Mr. Bradley’s hospital room just after his death. “I think he’d be proud of that. But I think Ed was a trailblazer for good journalism. Period.”

In the weeks before his final hospitalization, Mr. Bradley had been scrambling to finish the Duke report in particular, while fending off what would become the early stages of pneumonia.

“He just kept hitting the road,” Ms. Hunter-Gault said. “Every time I talked to him, he was tired. I’d say, ‘Why don’t you go home and rest?’ He’d say, ‘I just want to get this piece done.’ ”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/10/arts/television/10bradley.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=todayspaper

God speed and God bless, Mr. Bradley. My condolences to his family.
Texas Mom

Deb Sistrunk Nelson said...

What an eloquent post! This is my first visit to your site. I like your style and resourcefulness.

I must say, though, that I was quite surprised to see the link to my commentary on Mr. Bradley. Thank you for that.
Keep up the fabulous work!

Anonymous said...

I got to say, anyone that would say anything nasty about Ed Bradley or someone who just died is a pretty sad individual.

Anonymous said...

ed bradley was an uncle tom who sold his soul to work at the network. this duke report showed that.