Res. No. 623

Resolution honoring the life and achievements of award winning journalist Ed Bradley.

By Council Members Comrie, Avella, Brewer, Dickens, Fidler, Foster, Gentile, Gerson, Gonzalez, James, Mealy, Mendez, Nelson, Palma, Recchia Jr., Sanders Jr., Sears, Stewart, Vann, White Jr., and Mark-Viverito

                     Whereas, Ed Bradley, the pioneering and award winning African American journalist, died at age 65 on November 9, 2006; and

                     Whereas, During his thirty-nine year career at CBS, Ed Bradley won almost every broadcast news award and emerged as one of the most trusted journalists in America; and                     

                     Whereas, Ed Bradley, born Edward R. Bradley on June 22, 1941, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, grew up in a working class African American neighborhood in West Philadelphia, eventually graduating from Cheyney University of Pennsylvania; and

                     Whereas, After graduating from college, Ed Bradley taught sixth grade and covered basketball games for a Philadelphia radio station before his coverage of riots in North Philadelphia landed him a job with New York City’s WCBS Radio in 1967; and                     

                     Whereas, In 1971, Ed Bradley moved to Paris and made his first television news appearances as a stringer for CBS News; and

                     Whereas, During the next ten years, Ed Bradley developed the extraordinary journalism skills that would eventually lead him to the senior position on “60 Minutes,” the most popular television news program in the country; and                      

                     Whereas, As a CBS correspondent, Ed Bradley covered the Vietnam War and was wounded in Cambodia in 1973; and

                     Whereas, In 1976, Ed Bradley became the first African American to cover the White House for CBS; and

                     Whereas, Ed Bradley won the first of his nineteen Emmy Awards for an extraordinary 1979 story about Vietnamese boat people and other South East Asian refugees; and                     

                     Whereas, In 1981, Ed Bradley joined the popular Sunday night news magazine “60 Minutes,” a job he would hold until his death in 2006; and

                     Whereas, At “60 Minutes,” Ed Bradley conducted a number of interviews and investigative reports, including an interview with Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, a groundbreaking report that reopened the investigation into the murder of Emmett Till, a Peabody Award winning report on the AIDS epidemic in Africa, and many others; and

                     Whereas, In 2003, Ed Bradley was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Emmy in recognition of his extraordinary career in broadcasting; and

                     Whereas, Along with his nineteen Emmy’s, Ed Bradley has been awarded a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award Grand Prize, as well as multiple Peabody and du Pont  Awards; and

                     Whereas, Ed Bradley used his vast journalistic skills to expose injustices and report courageously on a wide array of issues, thus earning him a place amongst the most trusted and beloved American journalists; now, therefore, be it

                     Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York honors the life and achievements of award winning journalist Ed Bradley.

LS# 2160

JN

11/20/06