By Staff
America has lost one of its truly great journalists.
Ed Bradley, who was best known for his work on the CBS show "60 Minutes," died on Thursday in a New York City hospital.
Bradley, who was 65, died of leukemia.
Bradley spent 26 years as a correspondent for the newsmagazine, which is still the top-rated show of its kind.
Bradley, without a doubt, was America's most recognized African-American journalist.
He most definitely is one of the most highly honored journalists.
Bradley won 19 Emmys during his career. He was recently awarded the Lifetime Achievement award from the National Association of Black Journalists.
Bradley was one of those journalists we felt like we knew and trusted. He seemed like part of the family. We all knew he loved jazz and his earring raised eyebrows in his early years, but just became part of who he was as time went by.
Bradley had a knack for making the people he interviewed seem at ease. He never shied away from the tough questions.
He started his career at the Columbia Broadcast System (CBS) in 1971 as a stringer in Paris.
From there he moved on to Saigon, where he was wounded while covering a story.
In 1975, he volunteered to return to Indochina and covered the fall of Cambodia and Vietnam.
He moved to Washington in the mid-1970s and became a staple of the network's national convention coverage.
He eventually wound up as the anchor of the "CBS Sunday Night News" before joining "60 Minutes" in 1981.
When Bradley started working for the network there were very few African American television correspondents.
He was able to work his way to the top of his profession and will be forever known as a class individual as well as a top-notch journalist.