-
Carney Goes Birther on Major Garrett
May 22, 2013 | 7 comments
-
Ray Manzarek, R.I.P.
May 20, 2013 | 1 comment
-
Thoughts on The Tornado in Moore, Oklahoma
May 20, 2013 | 1 comment
-
Alan O’Day, R.I.P.
May 20, 2013 | 3 comments
-
Elijah Harper, R.I.P.
May 18, 2013 | 1 comment
The Spectacle Blog
Former 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace died last night at the age of 93. His health had been in decline since triple bypass heart surgery in 2008.
While Wallace is best known for his nearly forty year stint on 60 Minutes, he had been a fixture as a radio and television announcer, game show host and occasional actor going back to 1939. In the late 1950s, Wallace hosted a short lived TV series on ABC called The Mike Wallace Interview. One of his interviews was with MLB pitching legend Bob Feller which was broadcast after Feller’s retirement in 1957. Interestingly, his last 60 Minutes interview was with Roger Clemens more than half a century later.
Of course, Wallace would become a household name following the launch of 60 Minutes on CBS in September 1968. But his life nearly took a very different turn that year when Richard Nixon asked Wallace to become his press secretary. Wallace seriously considered Nixon’s offer but turned it down. Wallace would later become a thorn in the side to the Nixon Administration especially with his interview of Nixon aide John Ehrlichman when he listed a litany of crimes and misdemeanors allegedly committed “by the law and order administration of Richard Nixon.” To which Ehrlichman replied, “Is there a question in there somewhere?”
Perhaps Wallace’s most famous interview was with the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 during the hostage crisis. Wallace, quoting Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, referred to Khomeini as “a disgrace to Islam” and “a lunatic.” Wallace is probably the only person to have told the Ayatollah he was a lunatic and lived to tell the tale.
A tribute to Wallace will air tonight on 60 Minutes from Morley Safer.
View all comments (15) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Aaron Goldstein
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/04/08/mike-wallace-rip
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
Current Issue
- Eugenic Abortion 2.0
- Consternated Conferences
- Hannah and Her Friends
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
Bob K.| 4.8.12 @ 5:23PM
Don't you write that Wallace was "quoting Egyptian President Anwar Sadat," when he talked to Khomeini?
Did Sadat actually say this? It is important because Sadat was assassinated by Muslim extremists in the Egyptian Army in 1981 after this interview took place and it would be interesting to know if Wallace had properly confirmed this statement.
The next question that comes up, if indeed Wallace was quoting Sadat from personal knowledge, is why he, an experienced journalist, would make a statement like this to a man who might indeed have been a lunatic? Had he properly considered the consequences before he spoke?
And finally, it appears that your comment that "he," Wallace, told the Ayatollah that he was a lunatic and lived to tell the tale, is not quite accurate. He was merely the messenger and maybe Khomeini decided not to have him killed?
ejp| 4.9.12 @ 2:28AM
Yes Sadat did say it. In fact I can remember to this day how he pronounced lunatic as lu-NAT-ic when describing Khomeini. This was in November 1979 just after the Iran hostage crisis broke.
Crassus| 4.8.12 @ 6:25PM
Another biased and arrogant liberal journalist has gone to the great beyond. Ho hum.
Occam's Tool| 4.8.12 @ 8:55PM
About the only thing he did that was useful was discuss the need to be treated for depression. Toodles, Mike. You won't be missed.
PCP Smoker| 4.8.12 @ 9:08PM
His 20 Century with Mike Wallace series was entertaining. Won't miss his liberal bias though.
Teflon93| 4.8.12 @ 9:29PM
Perhaps you can share links to where Wallace interrogated leftists.
If you can find any.
beebop2| 4.8.12 @ 9:30PM
Don't we all die?
93? With 0bamacare, he won't get treatment after 63!
Jack in Wi.| 4.8.12 @ 9:48PM
RIP Mike. I used to watch him ever since I was kid, when he hosted a crooked quiz show. He had a lot of talent. But of course he was a liberal. I really haven't watched 60 minutes much in last couple of decades, so I can't comment on his later career. He was far more intelligent and talented then his dimmwittted son.
Bob K.| 4.8.12 @ 9:55PM
Like too many TV journalists he had to make himself part of the news he was supposed to be reporting.
Drek| 4.9.12 @ 1:47AM
Wasn't Wallace the guy who tried a hit piece on General Westmoreland, and a later hit piece on General Ariel Sharon?
Maybe I'm wrong, it's been quite a few years, but I know it was 60 Minutes. And I think it was Wallace.
And if he was the guy, then whatever journalistic credentials he ever had vanished then and there.
Occam's Tool| 4.9.12 @ 2:33AM
Well, Westie was promoted over his head. Sharon, of course, is the guy I have the autographed autobiography of in place of honor on my bookshelves... (fulminant reply from jack in 3, 2, 1...)
bagittagit| 4.9.12 @ 7:15AM
Wallace was a shill for Arafat and the PLO during the Temple Mount skirmishes with IDF. Instead of RIP, how about a BIH for this socialist scumbag?
randyinrocklin| 4.9.12 @ 2:12PM
goodbye and good riddance you effing traitor. go rot in HELL where u belong.
Occam's Tool| 4.9.12 @ 6:53PM
Here's the ultimate story on Mike Wallace, that I have got from several sources---Mike Wallace, a compleat scumbag and Liberal Journo (the two overlap greatly)---this is the best version of the story I have seen:
"
"Peter Jennings and Mike Wallace Agree — Reporters First, Americans Second
In a future war involving U.S. soldiers what would a TV reporter do if he learned the enemy troops with which he was traveling were about to launch a surprise attack on an American unit? That’s just the question Harvard University professor Charles Ogletree Jr, as moderator of PBS’ Ethics in America series, posed to ABC anchor Peter Jennings and 60 Minutes correspondent Mike Wallace. Both agreed getting ambush footage for the evening news would come before warning the U.S. troops. For the March 7 installment on battlefield ethics Ogletree set up a theoretical war between the North Kosanese and the U.S.-supported South Kosanese. At first Jennings responded: “If I was with a North Kosanese unit that came upon Americans, I think I personally would do what I could to warn the Americans.” Wallace countered that other reporters, including himself, “would regard it simply as another story that they are there to cover.” Jennings’ position bewildered Wallace: “I’m a little bit of a loss to understand why, because you are an American, you would not have covered that story.” ”Don’t you have a higher duty as an American citizen to do all you can to save the lives of soldiers rather than this journalistic ethic of reporting fact?” Ogletree asked. Without hesitating Wallace responded: “No, you don’t have higher duty… you’re a reporter.” This convinces Jennings, who concedes, “I think he’s right too, I chickened out.” Ogletree turns to Brent Scrowcroft, now the National Security Adviser, who argues “you’re Americans first, and you’re journalists second.” Wallace is mystified by the concept, wondering “what in the world is wrong with photographing this attack by North Kosanese on American soldiers?” Retired General William Westmoreland then points out that “it would be repugnant to the American listening public to see on film an ambush of an American platoon by our national enemy.” A few minutes later Ogletree notes the “venomous reaction” from George Connell, a Marine Corps Colonel. “I feel utter contempt. Two days later they’re both walking off my hilltop, they’re two hundred yards away and they get ambushed. And they’re lying there wounded. And they’re going to expect I’m going to send Marines up there to get them. They’re just journalists, they’re not Americans.” Wallace and Jennings agree, “it’s a fair reaction.” The discussion concludes as Connell says: “But I’ll do it. And that’s what makes me so contemptuous of them. And Marines will die, going to get a couple of journalists.”
Colonel Connell made it clear here, just who our American troops are. And Mike Wallace (and Peter Jennings) made it clear who the majority of American journalists are.
Read more http://hillbuzz.org/mike-walla.....-rip-31191"
Curiously, both of these traitors in waiting were also PLO supporters. I don't think that's coincidental. 99.9% of the Liberal journalists that I have met in my career were vermin with ethics about at the level of child molesters.