lunes, 9 de abril de 2012

Web Reacts to Death of ’60 Minutes’ Anchor Mike Wallace

Famed 60 Minutes broadcaster Mike Wallace died Saturday night at age 93, CBS News announced Sunday, and fans and fellow journalists quickly took to social networks to express their condolences.

Wallace was surrounded by his family at a Connecticut care facility when he died.

Wallace — one of 60 Minutes's original correspondents when the show debuted in 1968 — was known for his hard-nosed interviews with world leaders and anyone making headlines. He retired from his full-time 60 Minutes position in 2006 and last appeared on the broadcast in 2008.

Many TV personalities paid their respects via Twitter on Sunday morning:

CBS will dedicate its April 15 episode of 60 Minutes to a special on Wallace.

"Without him and his iconic style, there probably wouldn't be a 60 Minutes," said Jeff Fager, chairman of CBSNews and executive producer of 60 Minutes, in a statement. "There simply hasn't been another broadcast journalist with that much talent. It almost didn't matter what stories he was covering, you just wanted to hear what he would ask next. Around CBS he was the same infectious, funny and ferocious person as he was on TV. We loved him and we will miss him very much."

CBS described Wallace's 60 Minutes stint in a statement:

"The rising interest in Wallace and 60 Minutes grew partly out of the Watergate scandal. Wallace's interrogations of John Erlichman, G. Gordon Liddy and H.R. Haldeman whetted the appetites of news junkies who continued to tune in to see Wallace joust with other scoundrels. Before long, he was a household name. …

"He got the stoic Ayatollah Khomeini to smile during the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979 when he asked him what he thought about being called 'a lunatic' by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. The Ayatollah answered by correctly predicting that Sadat would be assassinated. … He never softened, even in his 80s. In a 2001 interview about his Broadway mega hit The Producers, Mel Brooks began an angry rant against anti-Semitism prompted by Wallace's suggestion that his claims of bias were exaggerated. In 2003, he wrung tears out of one of the most feared defensive players in NFL history when he read lines to Lawrence Taylor spoken by Taylor's son.

"Wallace was also known for pioneering the 'ambush interview, presenting his unsuspecting interviewee with evidence of malfeasance – often obtained by hidden camera – then capturing the stunned reaction. Two of the more famous exposes in this genre that used hidden cameras were investigations of a phony cancer clinic and a laboratory offering Medicaid kickbacks to doctors. Presenting interviewees with their own misdeeds became a 60 Minutes staple, but the hidden camera and ambush were later shunned as they were widely imitated and even Wallace admitted their use was to 'create heat, rather than light.'"

Before 60 Minutes, Wallace appeared on several radio and TV programs as an announcer, reporter, actor and host. Wallace once said he wanted his epitaph to read, "Tough But Fair," according to The New York Times.

Most recently, Wallace had won his 21st Emmy for his 2006 interview of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. For a glimpse at Wallace's work, watch these interviews below.

Videos compiled by Mashable's Jeremy Cabalona

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