CBS News reports that another link to the early days of broadcast journalism has passed away:
Veteran TV producer and reporter Joseph Wershba, whose resume includes Edward R. Murrow’s “See It Now” broadcasts exposing Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s Communist witch hunt in the 1950s, and who was one of the original producers of “60 Minutes,” died Saturday at age 90.
Wershba, who resided in Floral Park, N.Y., succumbed to complications from pneumonia in North Shore Hospital on Long Island, with his wife Shirley at his side.
Wershba’s career spanned more than half a century in broadcast and print journalism. A two-time Emmy Award-winner and Pulitzer Prize nominee, Wershba joined CBS News in 1944 as a radio news writer, rising to news director of WCBS Radio in New York. He became a correspondent for Murrow and Fred Friendly’s “Hear it Now” radio series, and was named a field producer when the show transferred to television.
Joseph Wershba was one of the last producers directly involved with Murrow’s 1954 “See It Now” McCarthy program, a program that ended with the following words:
In October 1997 Wershba looked back at his life and career in a 6-hour
interview for the Archive of American Television. Here is part of that interview:
Many people were introduced to Wershba in the 2005 movie, “Good Night, and Good Luck.” Robert Downey, Jr. portrayed Wershba in the film:
