Here’s To A Philly Legend

I’ll be honest with you – there were times when I watched “60 Minutes” and Ed Bradley would annoy the living hell out of me because he seemed to be caught up with the theatrics of asking his “gotcha” question in his reports, and they would be the types of questions that were so elemental and simple that I would wonder why he was even bothering to ask them (I apologize for not having an example at the moment…it’s been years since I watched that show regularly – Sunday evenings at 7:00 is not a good time to watch television if you’re the parent of a young child).

However, the background work on his reports was always excellent; I don’t know for sure where the role of the news producer ends and the reporter begins with some of these “news magazine” stories, but I have no doubt that a reporter as accomplished as Bradley oversaw the editorial content from beginning to end (I don’t know, of course, but that’s my guess).

I once saw Bradley reporting on Philippine refugees during the era of Ferdinand Marcos (yes, I’m going waaay back with this) and he seemed to be existing with these people in every aspect of their wretched lives – skewering for food, clothing and shelter, getting soaked with them in the ocean, all the while trying to keep a step ahead of the army. I also remember an interview Bradley conducted with murderer Jack Henry Abbott in prison (Abbott had just written “In The Belly Of The Beast,” and he was acting like he was trying to play head games with Bradley), and I thought that was a consummate exercise in courage on Bradley’s part.

We also enjoyed Bradley’s “Jazz From Lincoln Center” programs, and he once conducted an interview with Aretha Franklin on “60 Minutes” where the two of them joked about the “earthiness” of some of the lyrics in her songs (such as “give me my propers when you get home” in “Respect”).

I’ve come across a lot of moments where TV talking heads seem to cross that line between reporters and propagandists (documented at Media Matters for America and elsewhere), and many of them have been caught in the process (I’m sure you’ve noticed also). However, I’ve never found that to be the case with Ed Bradley. There was an element of self-promotion in his work (I think it’s impossible to escape that when you reach the level he reached in that business), but not much. More than anything else, his reports were the product of perseverance, adherence to the truth, and an overall dedication to his craft. And he will be sorely missed.