Mike Wallace R.I.P.

Written by  //  April 10, 2012  //  Media  //  Comments Off on Mike Wallace R.I.P.

Chris Wallace On Mike Wallace’s Death: ‘I Already Miss Him Terribly’
Fox News anchor Chris Wallace released a statement on Monday about the death of his father, “60 Minutes” icon Mike Wallace.
Wallace died on Saturday at 93. Chris Wallace, the host of “Fox News Sunday,” did not host that week’s broadcast. In the statement, he said that Mike had become his “best friend.”
My Dad was everything you saw on television: fascinating and funny, challenging and exasperating. He was the best reporter I have ever known. And while work often came first for him, over the last 20 years, he worked hard to make connections with his family. He became my best friend. And at the end, he was surrounded by children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren. I already miss him terribly.
Mike Wallace’s Death Spurs Wave of Journalist Elegies
Famed 60 Minutes anchor Mike Wallace died this past weekend at the age of 93.
During a seven-decade career that started in radio and moved into broadcast television, Wallace gained a reputation for a confrontational interview style that skewered athletes, celebrities, and political leaders alike.
His most memorable interviews included talks with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, an at times heated sit-down with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and this [[link?]] 1979 interview with the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran.
Wallace’s tenacity as a reporter and interviewer made him one of the most recognizable and successful personalities in hard-hitting TV journalism, even when he reportedly missed his mark. He was portrayed in 1999 film The Insider as buckling under corporate pressure to kill a story about a big tobacco whistleblower.
Journalists around the world are still tipping their hats to the tireless interviewer, but Ann Curry’s tweet summed up his passing better than many could: “Tough questions are being asked in heaven today. RIP Mike Wallace.”
Remembering Mike Wallace 1918-2012
By Morley Safer
(CBS News) For half a century, he took on corrupt politicians, scam artists and bureaucratic bumblers. His visits were preceded by the four dreaded words: Mike Wallace is here.
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.
He traveled with Martin Luther King (whom Wallace called his hero). He grappled with Louis Farrakhan.
And he interviewed Malcolm X shortly before his assassination.
Analysis: Mike Wallace’s pit-bull style made him a household name
(LA Times) His death not only marks the passing of a newsman but also his tough style of journalism. Without him, ‘there probably wouldn’t be a ’60 Minutes,’ CBS News chief says.
CBS’ iconic newsman Mike Wallace dies at 93
(CBS) (CBS/AP) – CBS News legend Mike Wallace, the “60 Minutes” pit-bull reporter whose probing, brazen style made his name synonymous with the tough interview, died last night. He was 93 and passed peacefully surrounded by family members at Waveny Care Center in New Canaan, Conn., where he spent the past few years.
“All of us at CBS News and particularly at ’60 Minutes’ owe so much to Mike. Without him and his iconic style, there probably wouldn’t be a ’60 Minutes,’ said Jeff Fager, chairman CBS News and executive producer of “60 Minutes.”
As the journalism world reacted to the iconic newsman’s passing, the AP’s David Bauder noted the “60 Minutes” journalist’s reputation as a pitiless inquisitor was so fearsome that the words “Mike Wallace is here to see you” were the most dreaded words in the English language; capable of reducing an interview subject to a shaking, sweating mess.

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