Morley Safer
CBS News Correspondent Morley Safer has been a co-editor of 60 Minutes since December 1970. The 2002-03 season marks his 33rd on the broadcast.
Safer just received the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism awards' first prize for domestic television for his insightful report about a controversial school, School for the Homeless (February 2001). Over the years, Safer's newsmaking reports and interviews have been honored with numerous awards, including 11 Emmys, three Overseas Press Club Awards, three George Foster Peabody Awards, two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, a George Polk Memorial Award and the Paul White Award from the Radio/Television News Directors Association (RTNDA). In 1995, he was named a Chévalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government for his outstanding contribution to the world of art and letters.
When citing 60 Minutes finest hour, its executive producer, Don Hewitt, often points to Safer's investigative report "Lenell Geter's in Jail" (December 1983). Safer reported on new evidence that resulted in the release from prison of Lenell Geter, an engineer wrongly convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to a life term in Texas. The report received national attention and was honored with three prestigious broadcast journalism awards. One of war reporting's finest hours was Safer's 1965 piece from Vietnam in which he showed U.S. Marines burning the village of Cam Ne. The pivotal broadcast, on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, was one of the realistic reports that helped change America's view of the war and changed war reporting forever.
As a CBS News Correspondent, Safer has written and been the principal reporter on a number of documentaries, including the CBS Reports series. In May 1994, he hosted One for the Road: A Conversation with Charles Kuralt and Morley Safer, a CBS News special marking colleague Charles Kuralt's retirement.
Safer joined CBS News in April 1964 as a correspondent based in the London bureau. He opened CBS News' Saigon bureau in 1965, served two tours in Vietnam and received several major broadcasting honors for his reporting. In 1967, he was named London bureau chief, a position he held for three years. In that post, he covered Europe, Africa and the Middle East. As London bureau chief, Safer returned to Vietnam to cover the war. In December 1970, he left London to join 60 Minutes in New York.
Prior to joining CBS News, Safer was a correspondent and producer with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He began his career as a reporter for a variety of newspapers and wire services in Canada and England.
Safer is the author of the best-seller "Flashbacks: On Returning to Vietnam" (Random House, 1990).
He was born Nov. 8, 1931 in Toronto. He and his wife, the former Jane Fearer, live in New York. They have a daughter, Sarah.