Mike Wallace’s Death Spurs Wave of Journalist Elegies




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Summary: Famed 60 Minutes anchor Mike Wallace died this past weekend at the age of 93. During a seven-decade career that started in radio and moved into broadcast television, Wallace gained a reputation for a confrontational interview style that skewered athletes, celebrities, and political leaders alike. His most memorable interviews included talks with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, an at times heated sit-down with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and this [[link?]] 1979 interview with the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran. Wallace’s tenacity as a reporter and interviewer made him one of the most recognizable and successful personalities in hard-hitting TV journalism, even when he reportedly missed his mark. He was portrayed in 1999 film The Insider as buckling under corporate pressure to kill a story about a big tobacco whistleblower. Journalists around the world are still tipping their hats to the tireless interviewer, but Ann Curry’s tweet summed up his passing better than many could: “Tough questions are being asked in heaven today. RIP Mike Wallace."