'60 Minutes' Bob Simon: Reflections on a remarkable career
Bob Simon was awarded the Overseas Press Club's President's Award on April 24, 2014. Credit: CBS PHOTO by John Paul Filo
"60 Minutes" correspondent Bob Simon will get the Overseas Press Club's President's Award on Thursday night. That's one of the highest distinctions in journalism -- bestowed on those who have changed the course of journalism, as if changing the course of a river. (Last year's recipient was Tom Brokaw; Walter Cronkite was also one.)
The OPC typically celebrates the accomplishments of reporters who work their trade far from the home front -- in places both remote and dangerous.
Simon qualifies -- he was one of the deans, if not the dean, of TV correspondents for CBS News in Vietnam over a six-year hitch, and has covered dozens of wars since. Simon, 72, has been with "60" since 1996. Bronx-born, Bob also spent part of his youth in Great Neck, which makes him an honorary Long Islander, too.
I spoke with him Wednesday about this long distinguished run -- a brief outtake follows. And a special bonus, one of Simon's classic pieces, on a subject far from the madding crowd, follows...
Lots of awards over the years, but this may be the biggest. Your reaction?
"I know this sounds predictable, but I was totally shocked. ... Other recipients included Walter Cronkite, Bob Woodward, Katharine Graham, and I figured if you had to pick one of the great journalistic feats of our time, that was it -- unseating a president. That takes more courage than [a reporter] going to a battlefield..."
How many wars have you covered?
"35 is the number -- wars, armed conflicts. The Intifada was not a war. I think the most dangerous was in Iraq [Simon and two other crew members were captured by Iraqi forces, and held over a month in 1991]. I did think I would get out of [Saigon] alive. You might be covering an intense firefight and that evening be back at your hotel.
"I was in a lot of firefights in different places. In Vietnam, during the spring offensive of ''72. That was very hairy. When you get into a situation like that, either you're lucky or unlucky."
When did you finally leave Vietnam? "I went back to cover the last week of the war [in 1975]. There were four CBS four correspondents who left Saigon that day in helicopters from the roof of the embassy, and they are gone now -- Ed Bradley, Richard Threlkeld [another Long Islander], and Bruce Dunning..."
Why a career in battlefield reporting?
"A sort of pathology. A lot of it becomes an adrenalin addiction. That's why so many people, when they retire, drop dead..."
What do you think of the coverage now?
"The people going out there were as good and as suicidal as we ever were. And look even at the networks or news organizations that tend to be extremist when they're covering this country, they're a lot better [covering international crises.]
"With all the trash that's on TV these days ... the quality and courage of people doing the war coverage is astonishing. I think Syria is more dangerous than anything I ever covered. The people who go into cover that are really taking their lives into their own hands. I was never scared being shot at as I was taken hostage, but that happens all the time in Syria.
"Back in Vietnam, there was a very large press corps, we all knew each other because we were all a band of misfits that showed up very late in the war. It's not at all the same now. The few who go into Syria deserve every kudo we have to offer..."
What was the most dangerous war you covered?
"When you look at this list, like Vietnam, like Sarajevo, they aren't necessarily the most dangerous [for reporters] but I think it was probably the time I got closest to being killed was when I was in Bucharest, when [Nicolae] Ceau?escu [Romanian leader] was toppled [in 1989]. It was totally out of control, chaotic, we were held by the military, and standing spreadeagled against a bus all night and I didn't think we'd see the dawn. When you ask people what the real wars were, very few of them would say Bucharest. I also got in very serious trouble in New Caledonia when a bunch of rebels were fighting against the French..."
Your daughter, Tanya Simon, works at CBS, too, correct? "We did a story on Detroit, another on American nuns fighting the Vatican. I love covering a story with my daughter. It's the only time I get to hang out with her."
Ever cover another war? "No, because I have a grandson now."
When do you plan to hang it up, if ever?
"When I can no longer remember my name..."
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