The MorningNoon&Night ShowAspen, ColoradoGUEST: Ed Bradley, 60 Minutes Correspondent
SARI TUSCHMAN: Well let's switch gears for a minute, and talk about your illustrious and very long journalism career. Um, obviously 25 years at 60 Minutes, former White House correspondent; you've covered many campaigns and wars. Right now, looking at the state of journalism and how divisive our country is, what role do you think media is playing in not helping, you know the- the sort of need for civility in public discourse? Do you think they're playing a role that's actually making it worse? Do you think that it's they're responsibility to help it? How do you feel about the state of journalism today? ED BRADLEY: You know I- I think we make it better, and also, I think we make it worse, to be quite honest. Uh, I think that people don't trust the media, and I think it's because we've had so many years of media screaming. Where the idea for a program that is supposed to inform you consists of three or four people sitting around a table screaming at each other. Well, that's not educated discourse. Uh, and I don't think that's what we need. Um and I think that some media are not, uh, fair and balanced. Uh, I think some media have a political perspective, and I think that hurts all of us. Uh, I think what our job is, is to be and honest broker. You go out and you look at a story. There are at least two sides to every story. Tell both those sides. Tell all of those sides that exist there, and don't take a point of view. I mean it's the opinion pages are where you take a point of view. If some one has an editorial comment, label it clearly as editorial comment. And for me, I say stop the screaming at each other, and lets have a reason discourse. And I think we- we'd all be better off for it. TUSCHMAN: Definitely. Definitely. Um, there's been a big couple of years in journalism. We've seen some long-time nightly news anchors leave the desk. We're seeing a woman, of course Katie Couric, step into the desk at your network, CBS. How far behind do you think and African American, um, nightly news anchor is? BRADLEY: Oh, I don't know I mean I- I think it...well Max Robinson was one of a, when- when ABC had a trio of evening news anchors. Uh, some years ago, I guess, going back to the '70s, when Max, I think, was in Washington, and Peter Jennings was, um, in- in London they had a triumvirate. That didn't really work, I mean there is not enough -- TUSCHMAN: -- News BRADLEY: -- in a half an hour for three people. It just doesn't work. I mean, I think two people is one too many. So there has already been an African American anchor, but not a solo anchor. Uh, I think that I've had an opportunity to anchor an evening news broadcast, in the past, and I always said no, so there could have been me. But I said no because it wasn't what want to do with my life. It's- it's not -- TUSCHMAN: How come? BRADLEY: -- you know, I'm not the kind of person who does well going to the same place every day. I started my professional career as a school teacher, and working at night at a small radio station. And I learned early on that while I was a good school teacher, uh, by the second year I was board. The repetition of going to the same place every day, it takes a special kind of person to be able to do that. Uh, uh, and I think teaching is a profession that we don't honor. I think teaching is a profession that we don't pay at a level that that we should pay teachers. I mean, if you look at teachers that live in this valley that can't afford to live in the valley, and look at the salaries that they make...and they have our kids for six/seven hours a day, and what's more important than that? Pay them what they're worth! But it wasn't just the money for me, although that was an issue. It was primarily the repetition, and- and I didn't deal well with repetition. When I was White House correspondent, I hated it -- TUSCHMAN: Really? BRADLEY: I hated it. TUSCHMAN: 'Cause it was one beat? BRADLEY: -- because I went to the same place every day. Just happened to be the White House, but you know it was the same place: the press room, I had a little cubical in the back. Uh, I went to the same place every day, I never went anywhere unless he went somewhere, he being President Carter, and I was bored -- TUSCHMAN: Wow. BRADLEY: -- and when I had an opportunity to then do CBS reports, uh, and go out and do an hour on one subject, it was great. And then when I got to 60 Minutes and, you know, I'd do a different story& You know I did, last year I did twenty-three different stories. TUSCHMAN: How do you feel about seeing a woman at the nightly news anchor desk at your network? Are you excited about it? BRADLEY: You know, I don't think it's any different than seeing a woman interviewing me. Uh, it- it uh, it's something that should have happened a long time ago. Uh, I think that the best person available for the job should have the job, and if that's a woman let it be a woman. I mean this business has changed. It- it's interesting to watch the war coverage today, where you see so many women in Lebanon. Uh, so many women in Bayreuth. So many woman in Iraq; for television, for radio, for national public radio. Uh, our correspondent- we lost a camera crew. It was killed. Uh, they were killed in, uh, Baghdad. Uh, the correspondent, who was severely injured, and almost lost her life, a woman, Kimberly Dosure [ph?]. Uh, when I coved my first war, which was the Vietnam war, there was an unwritten rule, and that rule was: no skirts in Saigon-- TUSCHMAN: Really? BRADLEY: No skirts in Saigon. There was not a woman reporter for a network, an American network, in Saigon. There were some print reporters who did wonderful jobs. Photographers, uh, Kati L'rou [ph?], Gloria Emison[ph?] as, as a writer. Um, Frankie Fitzgerald, as a writer. There were some wonderful women reporters, but not television networks. I remember after the fall of Cambodia, and, uh, I was going to do a piece for Sunday Morning on what happened in Cambodia, and the producer was a woman named Janet Roach. And I was going over a day ahead of her, and I got to the airport, and she called me and said, "Bud Benjamin, the senior vice president, won't let me go." TUSCHMAN: Wow! BRADLEY: And I said, "Look, go. I'll call Bud and take care of it". And I called Bud, and he said, "Well Ed", he said, "I couldn't live with myself if you took Janet to deepest, darkest Cambodia and something happened." I said, "well, Bud, you could live with it if I went to deepest darkest Cambodia and something happened"-- TUSCHMAN: (laughs) How rude. BRADLEY: --- "so why is- is okay for me, and not okay for her?" TUSCHMAN: Right. BRADLEY: And I said, "besides, we are not going to deepest, darkest Cambodia, we're going to the border of Thailand and Cambodia. We're going to go in maybe a few clicks into the country, but I don't have any intention of getting shot, and I promise you I'll bring Janet back alive." So he let Janet go, but uh, that was the attitude then. TUSCHMAN: Wow. BRADLEY: And uh, I marvel when I watch television to day, and see much, uh see how much it has changed. TUSCHMAN: Much has been made, and this is a little bit on a silly note, but of you being at the 60 Minutes desk with an earring. You know you didn't sort of [Bradley points to earring]-- I know it's right there -- BRADLEY: I have it today, yes right. TUSCHMAN: Yea, you do. You didn't conform to the, uh, sort of stodgy stereotypes that some people feel a male newsman should, kind of, follow. Uh, was that intentional, or did you just not care so much about the stereotype? BRADLEY: You know it- it, I didn't do it to flaunt anything. But you know, many, many years ago, and this is over twenty years about now, I guess, uhm, I wanted an earring. You know, a lot of my friends had earrings. And um, I was doing a story on Liza Minnelli, and we had dinner, and the conversation came up, I mentioned the earring. And I said, "you know, it's my alter ego Teddy who would like to have the earring, but Ed, who's a news man can't have an earring." And the next day, when we stared to shoot with Liza, she gave me this little box and in it was an earring. She said, "when you see Teddy, give this to him." (laughs) TUSCHMAN: Your first earring came from Liza Minnelli? That's a great story! BRADLEY: So, I thought about it and I didn't do it right away. But one day at lunch, I'd had enough wine to drink and I said, "okay I am going to get my ear pierced now." And I'm on the west side of New York, and I said, "where do you get your ear pierced? And which ear do you pierce?" (laughs) So I went to three places before I found somebody who could pierce my ear. TUSCHMAN: And you've kept it all these years? BRADLEY: Yep. Yep. TUSCHMAN: You could choose to go anywhere from New York. You could choose anywhere to be your sort of oasis away from home, why Aspen? Why Woody Creek? BRADLEY: Because there is something restorative about the mountains. There's something wonderful about being outside, uh, walking in this great wonderland, particularly in the summer. I mean in the winter it's skiing. Uh, but the summers are so much nicer because there is so much more that you could do outside. And it's just wonderful to live outside. Uh, I mean some days I just go out of the house, and go sit down by the river, and we've got chairs down by the river, and sometimes I'll take a news paper down. I'll look at it, and I'll read the sports section, and then I realize it was the newspaper from two or three days ago (both laugh). So, it's a chance for me to really get away form what it is that I do, out hear. And it's- it's just a wonderful place. In the fifteen, twenty years that I've been in that house, I've had one day where I said, "boy I could use air conditioning today." TUSCHMAN: Is that great? BRADLEY: So, that's not bad. TUSCHMAN: Absolutely. Ed, Boudrow, thank you both so much for your time. I really appreciate it. And I wish you the best of luck for what-- BRADLEY: Thank you, I hope Boudrow brings a nice price because- TUSCHMAN: He's good looking. BRADLEY: --Boudrow's a great dog (laugh) TUSCHMAN: Thank you so much Ed. |
