Journalist Ed Bradley has died at the age of 65. He had been suffering from leukemia.
Bradley joined the staff of the venerable news magazine 26 years ago. His consummate skills as a broadcast journalist and his distinctive body of work were recognized with numerous awards, including 19 Emmys, the latest for a segment that reported the reopening of the 50-year-old racial murder case of Emmett Till.
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Bradley was honored with the Lifetime Achievement award from the National Association of Black Journalists. Three of his Emmys came at the 2003 awards: a Lifetime Achievement Emmy; one for a 60 Minutes report on brain cancer patients, "A New Lease on Life;" and another for an hour-long piece about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, "The Catholic Church on Trial."
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Bradley's groundbreaking journalism included an interview with condemned Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh — the only television interview ever given by the man guilty of one of the worst terrorist acts on American soil. It also earned Bradley an Emmy.
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What was Bradley's secret to getting such renowned stories? CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer said it was all in his style.
"Ed knew everyone from Jimmy Carter to Jimmy Buffett. He made people comfortable. He wasn't the bulldog type reporter like Mike Wallace," Schieffer said. "He set people at ease and got them to talk. Sometimes that was in their interest and sometimes it wasn't. But he was like Columbo, who had that disarming style and the knack of getting that last answer out of someone."
Bradley will be missed -- he was a great journalist.
