Defying The Rules

Morley Safer: Taking A Chance On The Unconventional

(CBS)  CBS News Correspondent Morley Safer, who contributes to Sunday Morning, explains why a network took a chance on something "un-sellable."

---

When the CBS network became a national network, people on the East and West Coasts were able -- for the first time -- to see the same images at the same time.

Later Edward R. Murrow, the host of that history-making link, famously said, that New York can now talk to California, but, he wondered, do they have anything to say to each other?

Murrow was a bit of a Cassandra, a doom-sayer when talking about broadcasting’s cultural responsibilities, and heaven knows there is and was plenty to be discouraged about. And yet, there are some neighborhoods in this now-global village that defy the rule that cash and trash will inevitably drive out the well-considered and worthy.

A quarter century ago, a few men and women at CBS News convinced the owner of this network that there was a time and place where the news could include not just the routine mayhem and malfeasance of church, state and commerce, but might also make room for some reflections on art and music and those things that were traditionally considered inaccessible or un-sellable or too thoughtful in the all-to-often, all-too-timid world of broadcasting.

Over the decades, the faces, seen and unseen, on this broadcast have changed, but the devotion to keeping this neighborhood a special place has remained constant.

It is a place where New York and California talk not only to each other, but to a much wider world. And, it’s not just talk. It’s been a quarter century of ideas, glorious and goofy ideas -- an on-going stream of consciousness that gives a pretty accurate picture of the way we are. It's a conversation that I am privileged to contribute to occasionally. For me and clearly for so many of you, after 25 years, Sunday morning would not be Sunday morning without Sunday Morning.

Originally aired Jan. 25, 2004