Canadian journalists share memories of veteran reporter Morley Safer

As news of Morley Safer’s death on Thursday spread, veteran Canadian broadcasters were eager to talk about his legendary career:

CBC anchor Peter Mansbridge said it was a fortuitous move by a fellow journalist at the public broadcaster that helped Safer get his job with CBS.

“He didn’t apply for a job at CBS. This was in the mid-60s. An anchor here at the time, one of the anchors at the CBC, wanted to move from the CBC to the States — you know, get the big fame and make the big money — and sent the tape of that day, of that era, whatever kind of tape that was, of his work to New York.

“He was doing a newscast, so he sent the whole newscast. They looked at it and they said, ‘Well, he’s good, but you know who’s really good? That reporter there is really good,’ and that reporter was Morley Safer. That’s how he got the job.”

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Fox News senior national correspondent John Roberts worked at CBS News for 14 years, where Safer worked for a half-century. The Canadian journalist described Safer as a “terrific reporter” whose presentation style was as distinctive as his expansive body of work.

“Who could ever forget the voice? Morley’s voice and delivery was as much a part of his journalism as his questions were. There was no question he was absolutely iconic in so many different ways.”

Safer died a week after retiring from “60 Minutes” after a 46-year career with the newsmagazine show. Roberts said he wasn’t surprised that Safer stayed on with the program as long as he did.

“Whether it was Don Hewitt, who was the longtime executive producer of ’60 Minutes,’ or Mike Wallace, or Morley Safer, they are having so much fun, and they are so engaged in what they’re doing over the course of their career that very often they work until they literally cannot work anymore.

“Mike Wallace was retired for a short period of time, so was Don Hewitt, before they passed on…. It just goes to show their entire life was wrapped up in ’60 Minutes’ and they wanted to go out with their boots on, and that’s basically what Morley did.”

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When he wasn’t covering news stories for “60 Minutes,” Safer “had a wonderful sense of humour” and loved to cook, according to fellow veteran journalist Robert MacNeil.

“We had houses close to each other in Connecticut years ago, that’s when I saw a lot more of him. In the little village nearby, Jacques Pepin — the cook and chef, author of many books, TV series — he went and got lessons from Pepin, and Pepin taught him how to cook.

“Morley cooked very seriously. You’d go to dinner at his house and he would have it all planned out and Jane, a lovely woman, his wife, might be allowed to wash the lettuce.”

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CTV chief correspondent and “W5” host Lloyd Robertson encountered Safer several times over the years. He recalled one occasion when he was attending an event at the Canadian Consulate in New York in honour of legendary news anchor Walter Cronkite. Safer, Cronkite and the late Andy Rooney were all in attendance.

“Morley and I sat right next to each other, and he’s very sharp-tongued. He doesn’t hold back. He was very opinionated, and we had a lot of fun together. But it was something for me to sit there with these three icons of American journalism from CBS that evening. I remember it well.”