Legendary “60 Minutes” correspondent Morley Safer has died at age 84 — only week after ending his 46 season career on the CBS broadcast, the Associated Press reported on Thursday.
No further details on his death were immediately available.
On its broadcast Sunday, “60 Minutes” aired “Morley Safer: A Reporter’s Life,” to honor Safer’s distinguished career. From “60 Minutes”:
Safer’s body of work earned him the Fred Friendly First Amendment Award from Quinnipiac College, as well as special recognition from the Canadian Journalism Foundation. He also received the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards First Prize for Domestic Television for his report about a controversial school, “School for the Homeless,” CBS News noted.
Safer also won 12 Emmys, three Overseas Press Club Awards, three Peabody Awards, two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, two George Polk Memorial Awards and the Radio/Television News Directors Association’s highest honor, the Paul White Award. In 1995, he was named a Chévalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government.
“He’s retiring now,” Sunday’s report began, “and no one here is happy about it”:
In a business that’s fast-moving and sometimes cutthroat he survived and prospered,Either outworking, outfoxing, or outliving everyone else and always trying to get to the bottom of things.
Watch the special below, via CBS News:
Morley Safer: A Reporter’s Life by cbsnews
“It’s the range, I think, that is most impressive about Morley,” Jeff Fager, executive producer of “60 Minutes,” said in the special. “I mean, I don’t think anybody in the history of broadcast journalism has a body of work as significant, as varied, as large and as impressive as Morley Safer.”
Here are just some of the online tributes to Safer from his media colleagues after news of his passing on Thursday:
Condolences to our friends at @CBSNews on passing of legendary @60Minutes correspondent Morley Safer who died at 84. pic.twitter.com/AiBbRvjHoM
— ABC News (@ABC) May 19, 2016
Morley Safer –A master storyteller, an amazing career, a true legend. He will be missed.
— James Goldston (@jamesgoldston) May 19, 2016
BREAKING: Legendary journalist Morley Safer has died at age 84, according to CBS. @mitchellreports shares the news https://t.co/FxexwzUi3i
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) May 19, 2016
Morley @SaferCBS was a masterful interviewer and storyteller. Hands down one of the best. https://t.co/dbGpTKtQEY
— Chad Livengood (@ChadLivengood) May 19, 2016
So long Morley Safer— a gentleman. https://t.co/bywPbWYWmY pic.twitter.com/IT5hEDKhyl
— Luke Russert (@LukeRussert) May 19, 2016
Great Morley Safer story about LBJ accusing him of being a communist during Vietnam pic.twitter.com/BpDuUUZJXL
— Katherine Krueger (@kath_krueger) May 19, 2016
