Veteran broadcast journalist Morley Safer, a mainstay on "60 Minutes," died Thursday, just days after retiring from CBS. He was 84.
During his 61-year career, Safer "changed war reporting forever" as a correspondent during the Vietnam War before becoming "the iconic '60 Minutes' correspondent,"
CBS News reported.
Safer tweeted about his retirement on Sunday, the same day the network broadcast an hour-long tribute to his career.
CBS News called Safter "one of television's most enduring stars," crediting him with "the longest run anyone ever had on primetime network television."
"Morley was one of the most important journalists in any medium, ever," said CBS Chairman and CEO, Leslie Moonves.
"He broke ground in war reporting and made a name that will forever be synonymous with 60 Minutes. He was also a gentleman, a scholar, a great raconteur — all of those things and much more to generations of colleagues, his legion of friends, and his family, to whom all of us at CBS offer our sincerest condolences over the loss of one of CBS' and journalism's greatest treasures."
Safer's "60 Minutes" career included 919 stories, starting with a story about U.S. Sky Marshals in 1970 and ending with a profile of Danish architect Bjarke Ingels in March,
The Associated Press reported.
Reuters described Safer's reporting as having "an authoritative, urbane style" with a mix of deep investigative pieces and interviews of artists, actors, and musicians.
Safer's wife, Jane, said the newsman died of pneumonia at his home in Manhattan,
The New York Times reported.
During the Vietnam War, Safer was among a group of journalists who shunned censored press briefings and went with the troops to document the war, giving Americans "powerful close-ups of firefights and search-and-destroy missions," the Times reported.
His efforts drew the ire of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who ordered him investigated as a Communist. Safer was subsequently cleared.
In his work for "60 Minutes," Safer often traveled 200,000 miles a year, The Times noted. A 1983 investigative report helped free Lenell Geter from a life sentence after being wrongly convicted of an armed robbery.
Many broadcast journalists remembered Safer on Twitter.
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