Morley Safer (1931-2016): Making a Quiet Impact

60 Minutes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the golden age of "60 Minutes", one of the longest-running programs in TV history, Morley Safer was the least bombastic of his fellow correspondents.  He didn't have a confrontational reporting style like Mike Wallace, nor was he a complainer about everyday life like Andy Rooney.  Instead, Safer's reports tended to be quieter than the latest interview with a government administrator or a Middle East leader.

Safer came to CBS News from Canada's CBC in the mid-1960s as an international correspondent, and made an immediate impact.  His reporting from the Vietnam War, which included his watching U.S. soldiers torch a village with the cameras rolling, earned him the lasting enmity of President Lyndon Johnson, who tried to get Safer fired.  It was also the kind of reporting you'll probably never see again, since the Pentagon has gotten a lot savvier about how war news is covered on TV, and the networks aren't as committed to international news as they once were.

Safer joined "60 Minutes" in 1970.  His most significant story there was about an African-American man from Texas named Lenell Geter, who was spending years in prison falsely convicted for holding up a restaurant.  After the broadcast aired, Geter was released.  Safer also raised eyebrows when he reported that, based on a study, French citizens had a lower rate of heart disease because of their steady intake of red wine with meals.  Which made it OK to drink red wine, sort of.  But mostly, Safer's reporting centered on travelogues, historical mysteries and pieces on people he's met along the way.

Morley Safer died Thursday at 84, just days after he announced his retirement and CBS aired a special "60 Minutes" broadcast devoted to him.  In the nearly half-century since "60 Minutes" went on the air, Safer had served as correspondent for 46 years, longer than anyone else.   "60 Minutes" will likely keep on ticking into the future, but it will do so without the men who made the broadcast what it was--Wallace, Rooney, Harry Reasoner, Ed Bradley, Bob Simon, and now Safer.  A toast to Morley Safer with a glass of red wine seems appropriate right now, don't you think?