The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Andy Rooney, R.I.P.

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Andy Rooney, R.I.P.

By Aaron Goldstein on 11.6.11 @ 1:58AM

Andy Rooney passed away late on Friday after complications from surgery. He was 92.

Rooney's passing comes scarcely a month after his last appearance on 60 Minutes.

Before becoming a household name, Rooney had a long career in journalism which began as a war correspondent on the European front in WWII. Rooney was awarded with a Bronze Star for his reportage of the Battle of Saint-Lo in 1944.

Rooney joined CBS in 1949 as a writer for Arthur Godfrey on his radio show and then his television show. He also wrote for Garry Moore's variety show. In the early 1960s, Rooney began a long standing collaboration with his future 60 Minutes colleague Harry Reasoner on a series of essays ranging from doors to bridges to women. Rooney wrote and produced these shows while Reasoner narrated them.

But Rooney would achieve his greatest success when in 1978, nearing sixty, he began his end of show segments on 60 Minutes replacing the Point-Counterpoint segments which had been a mainstay for nearly a decade. Rooney was so popular that when he was given a three month suspension in 1990 for anti-gay and racist remarks, the latter of which he denied making the program lost a fifth of its audience. Rooney's suspension ended three weeks later. Upon his return, Rooney said, "Do I have any opinions that might irritate some people? Your damn right I do. That's what I'm here for."

More often than not, Rooney expressed opinions during the Bush years which I found irritating especially where it concerned the War in Iraq. But sometimes we need to hear what we don't want to hear. Well, if I had to hear something I didn't want to hear I would want to hear it from Andy Rooney. Alas, Sunday will never be the same.

60 Minutes will air a tribute to Rooney on Sunday night.

View all comments (18) | Leave a comment

Bob K.| 11.6.11 @ 9:22AM

I enjoyed him too. RIP.

But his criticism of our actions in Iraq is too simplistic which is the major fault of television 2 minute sound bytes on major issues such as the proper responses to 9/11.

People who undertake criticisms of this nature on our response to 9/11 should also be required to advance alternatives measures that would have been better.

Teflon93| 11.6.11 @ 11:37AM

Did you ever notice Andy Rooney's dead?

No, me neither.

Occam's Tool| 11.6.11 @ 5:05PM

Haven't watched him in about 25 years.

C Bowen| 11.6.11 @ 5:06PM

I am not sure I understand your complaint with Rooney and Iraq.

He opens that it was a good idea to launch a debt financed invasion of a secular nation to make it safe for Islam, and just asks why the occupation was still on-going.

It seems he was scared of Saddam like you--so perhaps you could detail the actual disagreement?

Skippy| 11.6.11 @ 5:10PM

C. Bowen; you're a snarky little shit.
Rooney was a dependable liberal, and like many, he served with honor(as a very junior reporter for Stars and Stripes)in WW2.
Fifty years as a darling of the MSM took its toll.
Pity.
Ave atque vale.

C Bowen| 11.6.11 @ 7:39PM

Of course Rooney was a dependable liberal and a dependable tool of the Ruling Class.

That is the point.

PCP Smoker| 11.6.11 @ 6:48PM

He was a scumbag liberal masquerading as an old curmudgeon. Good riddance creep. You won't be missed.

As far as the WWII stuff, I wish he would have given the same respect to the men fighting the War on Terror as he was given. His embrace of liberalism was a hell of lot more valuable to his career. Fuck him.

Seek| 11.7.11 @ 12:55PM

If you had even half the class of Andy Rooney, you still wouldn't qualify as a journalist. He didn't "embrace" anything except having a good time.

GeronL| 11.6.11 @ 7:32PM

Just another leftwing proagandist biting the dust and learning the error of their ways on the other side.

JP| 11.6.11 @ 8:56PM

Mr Rooney no longer has to endure the squabbles of this world. He lived a good life, served on the front lines as an Army Reporter in 1944-45, and while I rarely agreed with his politics, I do have to admit we (like most of his generation) were cut from a different cloth than today's journalists. He now joints the Church Suffering. May he pass to the Church Triumphant soon. RIP

Dad of Six| 11.7.11 @ 12:31PM

He knows the truth now.

Tina B| 11.7.11 @ 4:31PM

the church what? suffering? where (except in communist countries) triumphant? you mean the Church, the Bride of Christ? Because if you did, I don't recall Andy ever referring to God, let alone Jesus Christ.

Now I have heard of the "Confessing" Church, and I know of Deitrich Bonhoffer, who was martyred because he marched against the politics of his day, no liberal he. And when he passed into Eternity, how all of heaven must have celebrated!

But Andy Rooney, the Church? I think not. By their fruits you shall know them. I'm not saying he couldn't be talking with God right this minute, I just think he's probably with the souls of those he appeared to regard highly on earth. Never heard him mention my Savior. Jus' sayin.

Seek| 11.7.11 @ 7:36PM

Rooney was a journalist, not a clergyman. It wasn't his job to proclaim Jesus as his savior from his news desk any more than it is for clergy to provide up-to-date news commentary. Good grief, lady, can't you at least wait until after his funeral to render your tasteless bilge?

Aaron Goldstein performs a crucial function for the Spectator: conveying immortality. All of us, famous or not, leave a legacy. Everyone deserves at least a brief curtain call after shuffling off this mortal coil. In the case of Andy Rooney, it's a respectful one. As a playful curmudgeon -- wasn't H.L. Mencken one of those? -- Andy had few contemporary peers. R.I.P.

Chaim Goldman| 11.6.11 @ 9:37PM

Shameful, shameful comments by most.

beebop2| 11.7.11 @ 5:37AM

And you think that, why?

I am thoroughly over the media creating the heroes and villians in American soceity and then deciding who is worthy of honor and who is worthy of contempt. During the Shana/Jack days at least you had the opinoins of both sides and the viewer got to pick. With Rooney -- who had a fabulous life and certainly rose to a status that few but the very privileged will attain -- you got one man's version. I found him whiny, petty and self satisfied. He had very little curiosity beyond his own point of view and (apparently) thought that all of us would agree with him. This is the typical left belief system. Then? When they are proven wrong they become nasty and violent.

I will not be a voice that lauds someone who probably did more damage to the public discourse than good in his extended life time.

Chef Schanuzer| 11.7.11 @ 6:05AM

When is the last time Rooney was relevant (if ever)?
When is the last time Rooney built up and contributed rather than snipe, piss and moan? No crocodile tears here - another liberal media whore gone.

Rudy| 11.7.11 @ 10:53AM

Yes, to the R.I.P., but a flat "no" to the accolades connected with 60 Minutes. For at least the last 25 years I have asked myself, "Why is this guy still on television?" In all that time I never heard him say anything interesting, insightful, or even clever. I think CBS just couldn't figure out how to get rid of him.