I have seven or eight episodes of “60 Minutes” backed up in my DVR – too often I am doing something else at 7:00 p.m. on Sunday night. I will now watch them solely to savor my last taste of the reporting and writing of CBS’s Bob Simon, killed in the tragic crash of a livery cab in New York.
When I was president of the OPC I chose Bob for my second President’s Award, a tribute to his 40-odd years of international journalism. There was something about Bob that set him apart from other broadcast journalists. You sensed a vivid intelligence behind the stories he told. There was the wry humor, the always interesting choice of topics and, most of all, the fine writing. The latter is best displayed in Bob’s book, Forty Days, a gripping tale about his captivity by Iraqi forces at the start of the first Persian Gulf war. Bob’s knowledge of the world beyond our shores was encyclopedic – from Vietnam to Sarajevo to Tel Aviv to Nairobi. He was one of the few reporters to give us a view of Africa that didn’t focus on poverty and violence. His piece on the Congolese orchestra whose instruments were fashioned from junk is a classic, along with his series of stories on the journeys of the Lost Boys of Somalia.
Most importantly, you never questioned whether Bob Simon was telling you the truth. He emanated integrity and credibility, in the same way as did another journalist who died last week, New York Times media critic David Carr. Which brings us to Brian Williams, who was suspended by NBC for six months after the veracity of stories he told – mostly on talk shows – about his adventures in Middle East war zones was called into question.
What was he thinking? That’s one’s first reaction when you see clips of Williams making assertions that could easily be checked with the soldiers with whom he purportedly faced danger. He has apparently accepted his punishment without protest. Brian is a friend of the OPC – he did a marvelous job presenting our awards a few years ago. I don’t think the death sentence is warranted here. I for one am looking forward to seeing a chastened newsman named Williams back on the air this summer.