Seven years after the death of the great Ed Bradley, “60 Minutes” is adding a new black correspondent. Bill Whitaker, veteran journalist, will be reporting for the venerable CBS newsmagazine. There’s some speculation on the internet that he’s replacing the currently-on-ice Lara Logan, but CBS denies this.
Anyway, since Bradley’s death, “60 Minutes” has not been a place of multi-cultural reporting. In that time, Logan as well as Anderson Cooper and Katie Couric all fell into the mix. For a while Byron Pitts was prominent on the CBS Evening News and featured occasionally on “60 Minutes.” But he left for ABC News a year ago. Russ Mitchell was always used as a fill in; he now anchors local news in Cleveland.
It’s kind of shocking in 2014 that “60 Minutes” is still pretty much an all-white clubhouse. Bradley did such great reports about African American artists, musicians, and actors, among others. He is sorely missed. Maybe Emmy winner Whitaker can fill some of that void when he joins the show next fall.
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