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'60 Minutes' Newsman Mike Wallace Has Died

Journalist Mike Wallace
Evan Agostini
/
AP
Journalist Mike Wallace

Veteran newsman and 60 Minutes founding correspondent Mike Wallace has died at age 93.

Wallace died Saturday night, according to a CBS spokesperson. On the CBS website, colleague Morley Safer is remembering the journalist's career, from Wallace's first appearance on the network to his last. He writes in part:

"Wallace took to heart the old reporter's pledge to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. He characterized himself as 'nosy and insistent.'

"So insistent, there were very few 20th century icons who didn't submit to a Mike Wallace interview. He lectured Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, on corruption. He lectured Yassir Arafat on violence.

"He asked the Ayatollah Khoumeini if he were crazy. ...

"It's hard to believe, but when Wallace was born in 1918 there wasn't even a radio in most American homes, much less a TV."

NPR's David Folkenflik will have a remembrance of the veteran journalist later today on All Things Considered. We're running an abbreviated version of his story on NPR.org now.

Meanwhile, the AP is also highlighting some of the CBS correspondent's long career, including a more recent episode when his son Chris Wallace interviewed him for Fox News Sunday.

"His son asked: Does he understand why people feel a disaffection from the mainstream media?

" 'They think they're wide-eyed commies. Liberals,' the elder Wallace replied, a notion he dismissed as 'damned foolishness.' "

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.