[60 Minutes]Bob Simon, killed in car crash

Dairy Ashford · Feb 11, 2015

Article from Washington Post, images from Daily Mail

CBS ‘60 Minutes’ correspondent Bob Simon dies in car crash

http://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...262-11e4-bf39-5560f3918d4b_story.html?hpid=z4

NEW YORK — Longtime “60 Minutes” correspondent Bob Simon, who covered riots, Academy Award-nominated movies and wars and was held captive for more than a month in Iraq two decades ago, died in a car crash on Wednesday. He was 73.

“CBS Evening News” anchor Scott Pelley, his eyes red, announced the death in a special report.

“We have some sad news from within our CBS News family,” Pelley said. “Our colleague Bob Simon was killed this evening.”

“Vietnam is where he first began covering warfare, and he gave his firsthand reporting from virtually every major battlefield around the world since,” Pelley said.

A town car in which Simon was a passenger hit another car stopped at a Manhattan traffic light and then slammed into metal barriers separating traffic lanes, police said. Simon and the town car’s driver were taken to a hospital, where Simon was pronounced dead.

The town car driver suffered injuries to his legs and arms. The driver of the other car was uninjured. No arrests were made, said police, who continued to investigate the deadly accident.

Simon was among a handful of elite journalists to cover most major overseas conflicts and news stories since the late 1960s, CBS said. He covered stories including the Vietnam War and the Oscar-nominated movie “Selma” in a career spanning five decades.

He had been contributing to “60 Minutes” on a regular basis since 1996. He also was a correspondent for “60 Minutes II.”

Anderson Cooper, who does occasional stories for “60 Minutes,” was near tears talking about Simon’s death. He said that when Simon presented a “60 Minutes” story “you knew it was going to be something special.”

“I dreamed of being, and still hope to be, a quarter of the writer that Bob Simon is and has been,” the CNN anchor said. “... Bob Simon was a legend, in my opinion.”

Simon joined CBS News in 1967 as a reporter and assignment editor, covering campus unrest and inner-city riots, CBS said. He also worked in CBS’ Tel Aviv bureau from 1977 to 1981 and in Washington, D.C., as its Department of State correspondent.

Simon’s career in war reporting began in Vietnam, and he was on one of the last helicopters out of Saigon when the U.S. withdrew in 1975. At the outset of the Gulf War in January 1991, Simon was captured by Iraqi forces near the Saudi-Kuwaiti border. CBS said he and three other members of CBS News’ coverage team spent 40 days in Iraqi prisons, an experience Simon wrote about in his book “Forty Days.” Simon returned to Baghdad in January 1993 to cover the American bombing of Iraq.

Simon won numerous awards, including his fourth Peabody and an Emmy for his story from Central Africa on the world’s only all-black symphony in 2012. Another story about an orchestra in Paraguay, one whose poor members constructed their instruments from trash, won him his 27th Emmy, perhaps the most held by a journalist for field reporting, CBS said.

He also captured electronic journalism’s highest honor, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award, for “Shame of Srebrenica,” a “60 Minutes II” report on genocide during the Bosnian War.

Former CBS News executive Paul Friedman, who teaches broadcast writing at Quinnipiac University, said Simon was “one of the finest reporters and writers in the business.”

“He, better than most, knew how to make pictures and words work together to tell a story, which is television news at its best,” Friedman said.

Simon was born May 29, 1941, in the Bronx. He graduated from Brandeis University in 1962 with a degree in history. He and his wife have a daughter, who is a producer for “60 Minutes” in New York.
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...Bob-Simon-killed-car-crash-New-York-City.html

Bandwagoner · Feb 11, 2015

Wow, WTF was his driver doing, checking email? You are supposed to be safe when you take a town car home.

Mr. Brightside · Feb 11, 2015

Damn, that car looks like it got hit by a missile. Bob Simon was the best.

Zboy · Feb 12, 2015

Brian Williams was there, crossing the road as it all unfolded.

CometsWin · Feb 12, 2015

Great on 60 Minutes. I remember seeing that African symphony report. RIP

Juxtaposed Jolt · Feb 12, 2015

Three pictures, three different angles, looks like three different cars.

Never really watched 60 Minutes, but man, this looked horrifying.

basso · Feb 12, 2015

his career spanned far more than 60 minutes- growing up, we wathed CBS news almost exclusively, and Bob Simon was probably my favorite reporter.

a man of both guts and integrity, and his loss is a sharp contrast to the frauds and clowns that have been in the news this week.

after surviving an iraqi prison, to die in a car crash- very, very sad.

Falcons Talon · Feb 12, 2015

Terrible loss. Horrible crash obviously, but I'm thinking the roof of the car was cut off with the jaws of life.

*edit* Upon reading the article, came across this.

Police on the scene cut off the roof off the Lincoln to free Simon and the driver.
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rocketsjudoka · Feb 12, 2015

Very sad to think he survived war zones and being a prisoner of Saddam's forces for 40 days only to die in a car crash in NYC.

A great reporter and a great loss.

bnb · Feb 12, 2015

The 60 minutes podcast is outstanding. I think it may just be the audio from the show.

Simons was top notch. Very sad.

Faust · Feb 12, 2015

RIP. i been watching all this man's work from the last few years. they don't make news people like him anymore. i really liked enemy of the state: the f-35 jet as last year's best episode.

rudan · Feb 12, 2015

I saw that he might have not been wearing his seatbelt, I don't think that would have helped much anyway from the looks of those pics

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[60 Minutes]Bob Simon, killed in car crash

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