No longer ticking: Morley Safer, 1931-2016

May 19, 2016 2:06 PM

NY Times obituary. On May 11, he retired from 60 Minutes after 46 years. "His Canadian sensibility grounded his work," said fellow journalists. 1998 profile: "He never played it safe." He famously reported on the horrors of Vietnam in Cam Ne: When President Lyndon Baines Johnson was outraged, he wanted to know if Safer was a Communist. "When he was told that Morley was 'not a communist, but just a Canadian', LBJ apparently said `Oh well, I knew he wasn’t an American'."
posted by Melismata (44 comments total)

In recent years my brother and I would occasionally watch a 60 Minutes story and remark to the other, "That was a good story, but it would have been even better if Morley Safer had done it."

RIP to one of the best reporters on television. We need more like him.
posted by pmurray63 at 2:15 PM on May 19, 2016 [17 favorites]

It may be an apocryphal quote, but it's still one of my favouites and I like to think that he did say this:

“You can never have enough garlic. With enough garlic, you can eat The New York Times.” - Morley Safer

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posted by Fizz at 2:17 PM on May 19, 2016 [5 favorites]

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posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 2:18 PM on May 19, 2016

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posted by BigHeartedGuy at 2:24 PM on May 19, 2016 [5 favorites]

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posted by Rustic Etruscan at 2:25 PM on May 19, 2016

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posted by Joey Michaels at 2:29 PM on May 19, 2016

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posted by tonycpsu at 2:31 PM on May 19, 2016

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posted by droplet at 2:40 PM on May 19, 2016

So sad. He just retired a week ago.

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posted by Splunge at 2:44 PM on May 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

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posted by trip and a half at 2:45 PM on May 19, 2016

One of my first memories of the news was seeing Morley Safer on Sunday nights.

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posted by tzikeh at 2:53 PM on May 19, 2016

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posted by Thorzdad at 3:01 PM on May 19, 2016

I have to say, the retrospective they did this past Sunday night seemed enough like an obituary that my teenage daughter asked if he was dead.

This also reminds me of the death of Charles Schulz only days after his last Peanuts strip.
posted by briank at 3:07 PM on May 19, 2016 [9 favorites]

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Oh, man - not unexpected, but sad nonetheless, especially coming only a week after his retirement show aired. I will always have a fondness for Morley Safer's reporting. I never knew the man but I felt like I did. He was my favorite 60 Minutes correspondent, and I just loved listening to him speak -- his voice conveyed a mix of warmth, sly humor, and subject matter expertise that was incredibly engaging. I haven't watched 60 Minutes in at least a decade or two, so I really can't say much about the final quarter of his career, but I watched quite a bit of his work before then and enjoyed it a lot.

Safe travels, sir. RIP.
posted by mosk at 3:17 PM on May 19, 2016 [3 favorites]

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posted by photo guy at 3:30 PM on May 19, 2016

Oh man, he was the background voice of most of my life. He was a great reporter, and will be missed.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 3:41 PM on May 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

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posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 3:48 PM on May 19, 2016

RIP. Just in time to take the flight with Guy Clark. Two great men in one week.
posted by lometogo at 4:29 PM on May 19, 2016 [3 favorites]

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posted by MelanieL at 4:35 PM on May 19, 2016

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posted by one teak forest at 5:21 PM on May 19, 2016

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posted by ignignokt at 5:28 PM on May 19, 2016

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posted by Empty Planet at 5:32 PM on May 19, 2016

I'm not sure if the post title is distasteful or brilliant.

Regardless, he was a standout among a unique generation of news-gathering, reporting and broadcasting. I can't feel bad about his passing so soon after retirement (coincidence?) because he was doing what he loved until the end.

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posted by raider at 5:32 PM on May 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

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posted by Cookiebastard at 5:34 PM on May 19, 2016

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posted by allthinky at 5:42 PM on May 19, 2016

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posted by kinnakeet at 5:48 PM on May 19, 2016

You could even call him the inventor of 'gotcha' journalism...and nobody did it better...mostly I suppose because his targets were so deserving of getting caught in his crosshairs. Always so fun to watch him skewer some dirtbag/polluter/shyster/embezzler/criminal with their own lies and dirty deeds after getting them to spill their guts. Such fun, he will be missed. :(
posted by sexyrobot at 6:09 PM on May 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

His serious journalism included a 1983 investigative report in which he cited new evidence that helped free Lenell Geter, a black engineer wrongly convicted of an armed robbery and sentenced to life in prison in Texas. Mr. Safer’s report was not the first on the case, but it drew national attention that led to its official reconsideration.

What else is there?
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:17 PM on May 19, 2016

I loved his voice and his sense of humor (I think he would have loved this post title).

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posted by sallybrown at 6:21 PM on May 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

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posted by oneswellfoop at 6:35 PM on May 19, 2016

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posted by JoeXIII007 at 6:41 PM on May 19, 2016

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posted by BlueHorse at 9:25 PM on May 19, 2016

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My favorite of his non-serious journalism stories: Casa Verdi
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 9:28 PM on May 19, 2016

Goddamn - had no idea he was a Canadian. Started watching 60 Minutes when I was a kid and it is one of the reasons I'm in this wretched trade now. It's nice that his "retirement" episode last Sunday was not an obituary. I couldn't watch it. I was putting the paper to bed.
posted by Brodiggitty at 9:32 PM on May 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

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The last of the Golden Age of 60 Minutes hosts, I think? Ed Bradley, Harry Reasoner, and Mike Wallace had all passed on. And Andy Rooney and Don Hewitt, too.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:44 PM on May 19, 2016

Morley and the Muppets (a 1979 60-Minutes segment rebroadcast years later as a tribute to Jim Henson)
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:47 PM on May 19, 2016 [5 favorites]

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posted by SisterHavana at 10:01 PM on May 19, 2016

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The last of the Golden Age of 60 Minutes hosts, I think? Ed Bradley, Harry Reasoner, and Mike Wallace had all passed on. And Andy Rooney and Don Hewitt, too.

For all he exited in disarray, Dan Rather probably counted as one of the Golden Agers - he was a correspondent from go and a host in the 1970s.
posted by gingerest at 12:47 AM on May 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

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posted by Gelatin at 4:26 AM on May 20, 2016

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posted by cass at 7:30 AM on May 20, 2016

60 Minutes was a weekly ritual in our house when I was growing up. Thinking about it, Morley Safer is one of my many role models in How To Get Information Across. You did well, sir.

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posted by pianoblack at 8:14 AM on May 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

Boy, remember back in 1986 when 60 Minutes completely falsified a story about Audi cars, secretly rigging them to appear defective, nearly killing the company, and never even apologized after being caught?

Good times, good times.
posted by LastOfHisKind at 12:48 PM on May 20, 2016

Which Safer had nothing to do with, so ...

In fact, Safer reportedly demanded that Lara Logan be fired for her atrocious "report" of a guy's made-up story about Benghazi. Which didn't happen; they just had her lay low for awhile.

He was one of the good guys.
posted by pmurray63 at 2:26 PM on May 20, 2016 [4 favorites]

Pentagon Official Once Told Morley Safer That Reporters Who Believe the Government Are “Stupid”
posted by bukvich at 3:49 PM on May 23, 2016