By Mekeisha Madden Toby
The Detroit News
Published: 11/10/2006
Excerpt:
It's impossible to think of Ed Bradley
without picturing his eyes peering over his glasses and his thumb and
index finger cradling his face.
The maverick journalist's facial
gestures and compassionate interviewing skills put some sources at ease
and others in their place. His 40-year career came to an end Thursday
with his death from leukemia. Bradley was 65. He is survived by his
wife, Patricia Blanchet.
"He was one of the first
African-American broadcast journalists to rise to the ranks that he
did," said Al Tompkins, broadcast group leader and teacher at The
Poynter Institute, a journalism school and think-tank in St.
Petersburg, Fla.
"(Bradley) never allowed the industry to put him
in a box, interviewing everyone from Michael Jackson to Timothy McVeigh
(his only television interview). That says a lot about the gravity of
his work and reputation.
