In February 1943, Rooney was one of only eight correspondents who flew along with the Eighth Air Force on the first American bombing raid in Germany. He received the Bronze Star for reporting under fire at the battle of St. He served in an artillery unit in England and was a correspondent for Stars and Stripes for three years. (writing for the school newspaper) and was drafted into the U.S. Rooney was born in Albany, N.Y., in 1919. Time magazine once described him as “the most felicitous nonfiction writer in television.” Indeed, Rooney won the Writers Guild Award for script of the year six times, at one time more than any other writer in the history of television. 6, on “60 Minutes.”Ĭovering topics ranging from paper clips and umbrellas to presidential politics and racism, Rooney established television essays as a viable commercial form. He often addressed criticisms of his stories on the air, and said he regretted both the Cobain and Simpson commentaries.“Underneath that gruff exterior was a prickly interior,” said longtime colleague Morley Safer, “and deeper down was a sweet and gentle man, a patriot with a love of all things American, like good bourbon, and a delicious hatred for prejudice and hypocrisy.” Safer will lead a tribute to Rooney on Sunday, Nov. Pat Robertson and Mel Gibson were “whackos,” earning 20,000 complaints - the most of any “60 Minutes” segment.
In 2004, he said God told him that the Rev. Simpson’s acquittal in 1995, he offered a $1 million reward for information leading to the real killer - saying he would never have to pay it because Simpson did it. The comments he clearly did make were shocking enough: After Kurt Cobain’s 1994 suicide, he derided Kurt Cobain for throwing away his life. Ratings for “60 Minutes,” which had been CBS’ only top-10 hit that season, dropped while he was gone, CBS News said. Then-CBS News President David Burke suspended him for three months, but demands for his return were so vocal that he was brought back after three weeks. Following his comments in a 1989 special in which he said drugs, tobacco and gay sex could lead to an earlier death, the magazine printed racist remarks it said he had made. He was suspended in 1990 following negative publicity over an interview with the gay magazine The Advocate. The racism allegation was especially upsetting to him, CBS News noted, because as a young soldier in the 1940s, he was arrested in Florida after sitting with African-Americans in the back of an Army bus and refusing to leave the seat. He refuted it in a 2005 “60 Minutes” essay. The old school writer found himself in an Internet-age mess in 2003 when a racist essay written in his style was passed off as his and circulated online.
They received thousands of response letters. CBS said ratings for “60 Minutes” climbed throughout the hour, peaking as Rooney delivered his essays. Known for his bushy eyebrows and often incredulous stare, he said he was never comfortable being on-camera, despite becoming one of television’s most iconic personalities. “Are they going to take us seriously as an enemy if they think we eat Cap’n Crunch for breakfast?” he asked. In a commentary that won him the third of his four Emmy Awards, he proposed to end a grain embargo against the Soviet Union by selling them cereal. “There’s no doubt about it,” he said in one of his most famous commentaries. (A CBS roundup of his commentaries is here.) Once he was given his “60 Minutes” slot in 1978, he used it to comment on topics from the pressing to the mundane with the same directness and wry humor. He worked for CBS for six decades, half of them on the air. “What kind of idiot wants my name on a piece of paper?” he asked.
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