A Good Reporter's Death: Bob Simon RIP

Saddened by the news of the death of Bob Simon of CBS's Sixty Minutes. Although he was 70 he died far too young. As a man who survived so much from reporting from the middle of war zones to captivity it was a cruel death on the West Side Highway in a limo accident.
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Saddened by the news of the death of Bob Simon of CBS's Sixty Minutes. Although he was 70 he died far too young. As a man who survived so much from reporting from the middle of war zones to captivity it was a cruel death on the West Side Highway in a limo accident. A great newsman and TV reporter - he was ageless. Although I did not know him I felt that I knew him - I recognized the best of the professional reporter and humanitarian in him. And he appeared ageless. Age is a strange matter, some are old at 20 while others remain young at 70 or 80 (says this ancient solipsistic writer) - it is the lottery one enters at birth - given a decent DNA that can withstand the blows that life and illness bring, if one is blessed with insatiable curiosity and have no fear of ambiguity -"certainty" is the enemy of ageless intelligence - age is an adventure and not a malady. Bob Simon had that rare quality of the truly ageless: he was serious without pomposity, dignified without stodginess, and always truly informative in his reporting. He deserved far more time on this earth but one thing we learn as we live is that we get what we get, not always what we deserve. His very modesty made him the best purveyor of the news. He never made himself the center of a story. He made no effort to stand out, but he stood out because what he did appeared effortless and truthful. And he reported what he witnessed with clarity, precision, and a good deal of heart. You can't learn his reporting skills in a journalism course at Columbia or NYU. You've got to live it, and he lived it. Simon was a man of integrity in a news industry that has lost its bearings by trying to entertain more than inform. Simon appeared to be a man who recognized that what was happening in the Balkans was more important than what was happening with Beyonce. He will be missed.

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