Longtime “60 Minutes” correspondent Bob Simon, who covered most major overseas conflicts and news stories since the late 1960s during a five-decade career in journalism, died in a car crash on Wednesday, Feb. 11th. He was 73.
Simon was among a handful of elite journalists, a “reporter’s reporter,” according to his executive producer, whose assignments took him from the Vietnam War to the Oscar-nominated movie “Selma.” He spent years doing foreign reporting for CBS News, particularly from the Middle East, where he was held captive for more than a month in Iraq two decades ago.
“Bob Simon was a giant of broadcast journalism, and a dear friend to everyone in the CBS News family,” CBS News President David Rhodes said in a statement. “We are all shocked by this tragic, sudden loss.”
A town car in which Simon was a passenger Wednesday night hit another car stopped at a Manhattan traffic light and then slammed into metal barriers separating traffic lanes, police said. Simon and the town car’s driver were taken to a hospital, where Simon was pronounced dead.
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Simon had been contributing to “60 Minutes” on a regular basis since 1996. He also was a correspondent for “60 Minutes II.”
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Simon won numerous awards, including his fourth Peabody and an Emmy for his story from Central Africa on the world’s only all-black symphony in 2012. Another story about an orchestra in Paraguay, one whose poor members constructed their instruments from trash, won him his 27th Emmy, perhaps the most held by a journalist for field reporting, CBS said.
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Simon was born May 29, 1941, in the Bronx. He graduated from Brandeis University in 1962 with a degree in history. He is survived by his wife, his daughter and his grandson.
Associated Press | Tom McElroy
[Editor’s note: We put both of Mr. Simon’s stories on the symphony in Central Africa and the orchestra in Paraguay in our newsletter and on our website as they were truly relevant to the music community and showed the true grit of musicians all around the world. Thank you, Mr. Simon, for opening our eyes to the REAL PROBLEMS that musicians face.]
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JOIN THE GRAMMY CREATORS ALLIANCE
(The following is a transcript of Recording Academy President/CEO Neil Portnow’s remarks on the 57th GRAMMY Awards telecast. Portnow was joined by GRAMMY winners Jennifer Hudson and [Denver’s own!] Ryan Tedder.)
Neil Portnow: What if we’re all watching the GRAMMYs a few years from now, and there’s no Best New Artist award because there aren’t enough talented artists or songwriters who are actually able to make a living from their craft? Could that really happen? Or more importantly, could any of us ever let that happen?
As great artists remind us this evening, music matters. Music has tremendous value in our lives. So while new ways of listening to music evolve, one thing should never change: For the artists, songwriters and producers, we must promise them that new technology and distribution will pay them fairly.
Jennifer Hudson: Watching the GRAMMYs at home tonight is a new generation dreaming of one day being on this stage, just as I did. So all of us who have enjoyed success in music have a responsibility to them. And that’s why our friends at The Recording Academy started GRAMMYs on the Hill in Washington, D.C., which I was lucky enough to experience firsthand.
NP: In our first 10 years, nearly a thousand music creators have traveled to our nation’s capital to stand together and speak out for our rights. We do so to educate those who make the laws so they understand the hard work and sacrifice of those who make the music. At a recent congressional hearing I made the case that any updates to the laws that set how creators are paid must strongly protect those who create the soundtrack of our lives.
Ryan Tedder: And music activism is coming at exactly the right time. From the Turtles to Taylor Swift, longtime established and new generations are speaking out. With all the changes in how we listen to music and the review of copyright laws which are set by Congress, music creators and fans must speak out now.
JH: So tonight, we are proud to launch the GRAMMY Creators Alliance, a coalition of many artists, some of whom are sitting among you tonight. Together, we will advise those who make policy in music and in government so that our next generation of creators are able to make tomorrow’s music as great as tonight’s.
RT: Join Jennifer and me and many of your other favorite music creators. Go to GRAMMY.com/alliance and be a part of this historic movement of music makers and fans. And tweet your favorite artists with the hashtag #GRAMMYAlliance to let them know you want to help keep the music playing too.
NP: Thanks to the artists who have joined our Creators Alliance, to our Academy members who lend their voices and to the fans. Together, we can make our musical future as vibrant as we all want it to be.
http://www.grammy.com/news/join-the-grammy-creators-alliance
Comments: From Peggy Rowe –
Music is the universal language. You can send so many messages through song in a way everyone understands. Like right now would be a great time for more songs on loving others, do a good deed a day, what drugs have taken away from so many families, domestic violence. I believe that through music the message can get out. Right now music is full of hate and violence. Therefore sending a message of hate and violence is right when it’s so far from the truth. We need to get back to singing about love, respect and gratitude. #GrammyAlliance
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KANYE WEST BREAKS SILENCE ON BECK GRAMMYS DISS
Kanye West is not backing down about what he said at the Grammys on Sunday night, calling his comments “a little jolt of truth.”
He did follow up his remarks about Album of the Year winner Beck, calling the man whom he said should give his Grammy to Beyonce, one of the “most respected musicians in the game.” He also explained that his first instinct was to kind of mock himself and joke about what he’s done in the past.
“So the voices in my head told me go and then I just walked up like halfway up the stage. You know, what I really wanted to do is just joke around about what had happened before, but I just really didn’t want to take away from Beck’s moment or the time he’s having to talk,” he said today while being interviewed for “On Air with Ryan Seacrest.” “So I just walked back down because you know, it was kind of a joke like the Grammys themselves.”
About Beck, 44, himself, West said he has all the respect in the world for the man.
“Beck is one of the nicest guys and one of the most respected musicians in the game. So, there’s nothing that I will want to do as a fellow musician to disrespect him in any way. And the weird thing is like, and I don’t feel like I have the right to take away from people’s moments, but the reality of it is — and case in point by who came up to me right afterwards —- is it’s almost like a chiropractor. You know, you just get a little crook out like, ‘Wow, this crook has been there!’ It’s just a little jolt of truth, right?” he added.
In fact, West, 37, said “everyone feels better after the fact, or everyone is way more famous after the fact, or everyone sells way more albums after the fact, and then Kanye just goes on being an a****** to everyone.”
He also cleared up his comment that if Beck respected artistry, he should give his award to Beyonce.
“I think it came off the wrong way, and that was a mis-wording on my part because obviously Beck is one the most respected artists and respects artistry. But I felt — and this is my opinion and he’s his own man and he’s not wrong … but I felt that even though the Grammys some times gives awards to people who you wouldn’t think should win in the category, as a respect to artists, we mention the other artist’s name in our speech. And that was the point I was making about it. There’s like many of times I gave other people my award, literally made them come up onstage. Maroon 5, when they won best new artist, [Adam Levine] mentioned me because it was the ‘College Dropout’ and [it had] 10 nominations and all that,” he said.
West doesn’t think Beyonce would ever say something like this because “she’s a respectful individual.”
“But because she is so successful, a lot of times, success disables your ability to communicate exactly what the f*** you want to say!” he added.
On his very strong comments about the Grammys in General after the show on E!, West said when he’s given a platform to talk, that’s just what he’s going to do.
“I sat there and I kind of let that [smolder] and I was asked my opinion and I was given a platform. And when given a platform, it’s very hard as we know — and I’m going to talk in third person like I’m a crazy person — but it’s very hard for Kanye West to not be very true and vocal to what he feels. You know, it’s like people take the Grammys for granted in a way because of the commercials, because a lot of the musicians are very rich and everything, but this is our Super Bowl. You know, and someone’s got to be mad that [Marshawn Lynch] didn’t get the ball,” he said.
He continued, “It’s not a black or white thing at all. It’s not me always standing up for a black artist. I feel that racism is a distraction to humanity. We are one race. We are the human race, period.”
By Michael Rothman | Good Morning America