SEVEN(7) HIDDEN FACTS ABOUT MORLEY SAFER-CBS ICON

Morley Safer

These are the hidden facts about CBS legend, Morley Safer of 60 Minutes who died at the age of 84 after his health condition got worsened. He has the record as the longest serving correspondent of 60 Minutes.

                         UNKNOWN FACTS ABOUT MORLEY SAFER

• Safer began his career as a print journalist, working for newspapers and wire services in Canada and England before joining Canadian Broadcasting Corp. At Canada's largest broadcasting entity, he toured Europe, North Africa and the Middle East on assignments, including the war for Algerian independence. He was the only Western correspondent in East Berlin the night the Communists began building the Berlin Wall in August 1961.

• Safer is survived by his wife of 48 years, Jane, one daughter, Sarah Safer, her husband, Alexander Bakal, three grandchildren and a sister and brother.

• He received numerous awards for his work, including 12 Emmys, three Overseas Press Club Awards, three Peabody Awards, two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, another George Polk Memorial Award and the Paul White Award from the Radio/Television News Directors Association.

• After joining CBS News in 1964, his experience in reporting from war zones served him and the network well. He opened a Saigon bureau in 1965 for CBS as the Vietnam War raged on. In 1967, he returned to London as CBS News’ bureau chief there, but continued to visit Vietnam to cover the war. He often went beyond press briefings to join the soldiers in war zones to file on-the-scene reports.

• His piece showing U.S. Marines burning villagers' huts in Cam Ne in 1965 earned Safer a George Polk award, and the work was cited by New York University as one of the 20th century’s best pieces of American journalism. It "angered President Lyndon Johnson so much, he reportedly called CBS President Frank Stanton and said, 'Your boys shat on the American flag yesterday,'” CBS said. Safer wrote about his experience in Vietnam in a book released in 1990, Flashbacks: On Returning to Vietnam.

• On Sunday, Safer tweeted: "It’s been a wonderful run, and I want to thank the millions of people who have been loyal to our @60Minutes broadcast. Thank you!" It was his last post on Twitter.

It’s been a wonderful run, and I want to thank the millions of people who have been loyal to our @60Minutes broadcast. Thank you!

— Morley Safer (@SaferCBS) May 15, 2016

• Morley Safer, the globe-trotting CBS correspondent filed more than 900 reports for the network's TV news magazine 60 Minutes, died Thursday at his home in Manhattan. He was 84. 

Source: USA TODAY