By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 9, 2006; 12:22 PM
Ed Bradley, the veteran "60 Minutes" correspondent and one of the pioneering black journalists of his generation, died today of leukemia. He was 65.
Bradley, who had won 19 Emmy awards, covered an incredible array of stories after joining the CBS newsmagazine in 1981, from brain cancer to sexual abuse in the Catholic Church to the high school shootings at Columbine.
He also reported a number of award-winning documentaries, covered political conventions and filled in on the "CBS Evening News" and other programs.
Bradley remained active on "60 Minutes," but he had been ill for some time and underwent heart surgery about a year ago.
"He was this gentle giant," said Bob Schieffer, CBS's chief Washington correspondent and a close friend. "He just did so much for so many African-American kids. He was a great role model."
From AP/YahooOther hour-long reports by Bradley prompted praise and action: "Death by Denial" won a Peabody Award for focusing on the plight of Africans dying of AIDS and helped convince drug companies to donate and discount AIDS drugs; "Unsafe Haven" spurred federal investigations into the nation's largest chain of psychiatric hospitals; and "Town Under Siege," about a small town battling toxic waste, was named one of the Ten Best Television Programs of 1997 by Time magazine.
Bradley's significant contribution to electronic journalism was also recognized by the Radio/Television News Directors Association when it named him its Paul White Award winner for 2000. He joined other distinguished journalists, such as Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite and Peter Jennings, as a Paul White recipient.
More recently, the Denver Press Club awarded him its 2003 Damon Runyon Award for career journalistic excellence. Bradley also received the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards grand prize and television first prize for "CBS Reports: In the Killing Fields of America," a documentary about violence in America, for which he was co-anchor and reporter.
Bradley's consummate skills were recognized with numerous awards, including 19 Emmys, the latest for a segment on the reopening of the 50-year-old racial murder case of Emmett Till.
Three of his Emmys came at the 2003 awards: for lifetime achievement; a 2002 "60 Minutes" report on brain cancer patients; and a "60 Minutes II" report about sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. He also won a lifetime achievement award from the National Association of Black Journalists.
With his signature earring, Bradley was "considered intelligent, smooth, cool, a great reporter, beloved and respected by all his colleagues here at CBS News," Katie Couric said in a special report.
"He certainly was a reporter's reporter," fellow "60 Minutes" correspondent Mike Wallace told CBS News Radio.
Originally posted by: randym431
Does anyone know what type of leukemia he died of?
Mr. Bradley died at Mount Sinai Medical Center of complications from chronic lymphocytic leukemia, said Dr. Valentin Fuster, his cardiologist and the director of the Cardiovascular Institute at Mount Sinai. Mr. Bradley, who underwent quintuple bypass heart surgery in 2003, learned he had leukemia ?many years ago,? Dr. Fuster said, but it had not posed a threat to his life until recently, when he was overtaken by an infection.
Hope his treatments go well.Thomas was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, the most common form of the disease.