"Some people, you have to grit your teeth in order to stay in the same room as them, but you get on and ask the questions you assume most of the people watching want to ask." -- Morley Safer
Morley Safer (born November 8, 1931) is a Canadian reporter and correspondent for CBS News. He is best known for his long tenure on the newsmagazine 60 Minutes, which began in December 1970.
"A lot of sponsors over the years have left us. They've all come back. But they chose to leave us for a while because of stories we have done about them or their products or their friend's products or whatever.""After four or five different wars, I grew weary of that work, partly because in an open war, open to coverage, as Vietnam was, it's not that difficult, really.""Clinton's pardoning of Marc Rich was off-the-wall.""Don may yawn at the idea, which he often does, but the great thing about Don, he has confidence in me and Mike and Ed and Leslie and Steve, that we're not going go out and do stories that will put people to sleep.""I am not in this business as a calling. I don't do what I do to right any wrongs.""I did three tours in Vietnam. I guess a total of about almost two years.""I really don't care what movie stars have to say about life.""I think it has sullied his presidency. As brilliant a politician as Bill Clinton is, as magnetic a personality as he can be, there is one little screw loose somewhere.""In many ways when Jerry Ford pardoned Nixon, in a certain way, he did speak for the country.""It is always disarming to treat with the enemy, so to speak.""Kids' views are often just as valid as the teachers'. The best teachers are the ones that know that.""Killing is the payoff of war.""Parents like the idea of kids, they just don't like their kids.""Pilgrims who are looking for a cure are soon looking for a curio.""Reality TV is sleazy, it is manipulative. It is as momentary as anything in popular culture.""The Bush Cabinet is quite interesting, there are no flashy people in there. No stars. They all seem quite focused and serious and knowledgeable about the areas to which they have been appointed.""The helicopter is a fine way to travel, but it induces a view of the world that only God and CEOs share on a regular basis.""The Republicans learned well from Bill Clinton.""We are on Sunday night because that is where they put us 30-odd years ago. I think we became a habit.""What does it say about us that people who are considered defective are instinctively caring and compassionate?""What has reality shows got to do with reality? It is beyond unreality; there is nothing real about it.""When I did that interview with Hepburn, the only ground rule was, you did not discuss Spencer Tracy. Spencer Tracy's widow is still alive, and she respected that.""Whenever it's suggested that our sponsors have some kind of influence or control of what we cover in some kind of censorship through financial pressure, it's rubbish. That's never happened.""Who knows who will be on board? A couple of spies, for sure. At least one grand duke; a few beautiful woman, no doubt very rich and very troubled. Anything can happen and usually does on the Orient Express.""You can be a great president and be ridden with flaws. Of course we know that.""You can never have enough garlic. With enough garlic, you can eat The New York Times."
Safer was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Anna (née Cohn) and Max Safer, an upholsterer. He attended Harbord Collegiate Institute, and briefly attended University of Western Ontario.
Safer began his journalism career as a reporter for various newspapers in Canada and England. Later, he joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a correspondent and producer.
In 1964, Safer joined CBS News as a London-based correspondent. In 1965, he opened the CBS News bureau in Saigon. That year he followed a group of United States Marines to the village of Cam Ne, for what was described as a "search and destroy" mission. When the Marines arrived, they gave orders in English to the inhabitants...by all accounts harmless civilians...to evacuate the village. When the homes were cleared, the Marines burned their thatched roofs with flamethrowers and Zippo lighters. Safer's report on this event was broadcast on CBS News on August 5, 1965 and was among the first reports to paint a bleak picture of the Vietnam War. President Lyndon Baines Johnson reacted to this report angrily, calling CBS's president and accusing Safer and his colleagues of having "shat on the American flag." Certain that Safer was a communist, Johnson also ordered a security check; upon being told that Safer 'wasn't a communist, just a Canadian', he responded "Well, I knew he wasn't an American."
In 1967, Safer was named the London bureau chief, a post he held for three years. In 1970, he left London to replace Harry Reasoner on 60 Minutes, after Reasoner left to anchor the ABC Evening News (although Reasoner would return to 60 Minutes in 1978, alongside Safer). Safer has been on the program since that time.
Safer is also the author of the bestselling book, Flashbacks: On Returning to Vietnam.
He and his wife, the former Jane Fearer, live in New York City. They have a daughter, Sarah, who is a graduate of Brown University.
Safer is referenced in The Golden Girls episode "Long Day's Journey Into Marinara (1987)".
2-time Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award winner
Winner of the Paul White Award from the Radio/Television News Directors Association (RTNDA)
Recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
Received the 2003 George Polk Memorial Career Achievement Award from Long Island University.
Received the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism awards’ first prize for domestic television for his insightful report about a controversial school, “School for the Homeless”
Named a Chévalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 1995
Received Brown University's Welles Hangen Award for Superior Achievement in Journalism (1993)
Recipient of The International Center in New York's Award of Excellence
