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CNN Larry King Live
Encore Presentation: Tribute to Ed Bradley
Aired December 25, 2006 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LARRY KING, HOST: Hi, everybody. I'm Larry King. We're looking back at some of our most memorable shows of 2006, and talk about memorable: "60 Minutes" man Ed Bradley had one of the most memorable careers in television news. Just after his passing, a panel of Ed's former colleagues joined me for a look back at the man and the career.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEORGE BURNS, ACTOR: This is Ed Bradley. We're going to be on "60 Minutes."
KING (voice-over): Tonight: legendary "60 Minutes" correspondent Ed Bradley, remembered by his friends and colleagues after his shocking death Thursday at age 65 of leukemia, a disease only a few knew he even had.
Here to share special memories, Mike Wallace, Andy Rooney, Steve Kroft, "60 Minutes" creator Don Hewitt, and veteran CBS newsman Bob Schieffer.
Plus, Ed Bradley himself in his own words.
This is a special encore edition of LARRY KING LIVE.
Ed Bradley has left us. And what a legacy he's left behind.
Joining us in New York are Mike Wallace of "60 Minutes," Don Hewitt, the former executive producer, creator of "60 Minutes," Andy Rooney, the "60 Minutes" correspondent, and, of course, correspondent Steve Kroft.
In the next segment, we will be joined by Bob Schieffer.
Here's what happened today on CBS. Here's how Katie Couric broke into the CBS programming to announce the news.
Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATIE COURIC, CBS NEWS: Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Katie Couric, here in New York.
And we have some sad news to tell you this afternoon that has left many here in the CBS family completely grief-stricken. Ed Bradley, longtime CBS News and "60 Minutes" correspondent, died this morning at Mount Sinai Hospital, here in New York, from complications related to leukemia.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Mike, did you know how sick Ed was?
MIKE WALLACE, "60 MINUTES": I didn't. I don't think very many people did. He was very private about it.
Look, he would -- he would -- one thing about Ed, almost every day, on his way to lunch, he would pass by. We have windows in our offices. "How are you?" And he was on his way to the gym. And he exercised for at least an hour, day after day after -- always. And he -- and he -- he was a big, healthy man.
So, I guess, a couple of years ago, he had -- what -- what was it, Don?
DON HEWITT, "60 MINUTES" CREATOR: I guess it was a heart bypass, but it was a...
WALLACE: Yes.
HEWITT: It was a -- it was a heart operation.
WALLACE: Yes.
KING: He had a bypass.
(CROSSTALK)
HEWITT: And he came out of it looking like death warmed over, and it looked to me like, six weeks later, he was back to his old self.
WALLACE: That's exactly right.
(CROSSTALK)
KING: So, you didn't have any indication of this, either, Don?
HEWITT: I -- I -- I didn't know that he had had leukemia until this morning. And I talked to his wife two days ago, and got the impression that he was recovering, and that he was going to come home from the hospital soon.
WALLACE: And the talk around the office was that he needed to have his spleen removed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's true.
WALLACE: And -- and that's not a big deal -- and that they postponed the operation...
(CROSSTALK)
HEWITT: Because of pneumonia, as I understood it.
WALLACE: Because he had a temperature.
(CROSSTALK)
KING: Andy, Andy Rooney, what -- what -- what -- Andy, what did you know?
ANDY ROONEY, "60 MINUTES": I think we forgot what he looked like two or three years ago, when he was healthy, though...
HEWITT: That's true.
ROONEY: ... because he has not looked like his old self for a couple years now.
(CROSSTALK)
ROONEY: He looked -- he looked thinner. He even looked taller, as a matter of fact.
But he -- he did not he has not looked well, although I certainly had no idea he was that sick.
KING: Steve, did you have any idea?
(CROSSTALK)
KING: Hold it.
(CROSSTALK)
KING: Hold it.
Let Steve get a word in. Then we will go round-robin.
(CROSSTALK)
KING: Steve?
STEVE KROFT, "60 MINUTES": Yes, I knew how sick he was.
KING: You did?
KROFT: I think there were -- there were people in the office that knew he had leukemia, that we found out.
It was something that told -- that Ed told his friends a year or so ago. And it was a form of leukemia that, someone said, if you were going to going to get a diagnosis of leukemia, it was the best kind to have, until it wasn't.
He had undergone chemotherapy last year, and had -- and had done real well. It was in remission. And he was fine, even until a couple of weeks ago. And I went to a playoff game with him at Yankee Stadium back in October. And it was -- the next day was the last day I saw him. It came back, and it came back with a vengeance.
And, as Mike and Don said, he was a very private person. He did not want people to know. He was the kind of person who never, ever wanted to display any kind of weakness.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right.
KING: Mike, what -- what -- this is for all of you, because you might have different approaches to this.
Mike, what made Ed Bradley unique?
WALLACE: He was -- I will tell you, he was strong, direct, but he was gentle. He had immense dignity.
You know, when -- when Don taught me how to ask a tough question and go after him, they would look at me as, like, you know, what the dickens is the matter with you?
Bradley would ask the same damn question, and everybody kind of, well, that's -- that's an interesting question to ask.
(LAUGHTER)
WALLACE: It's true.
KING: All right, Don, from your standpoint -- and you brought him onto "60 Minutes" -- what made him special?
HEWITT: You know, the world is full of reporters who can get the story. There are very few reporters who go out of their way to make the world a better place.
And Ed Bradley did that on almost every story he did. And -- and that was kind of the hallmark of the guys sitting around this table with me right now. And Ed did it about as well as anybody.
But, as far as why he was hired, when he won the Paul White Award, I introduced him at a lunch in Cincinnati.
KING: Yes.
HEWITT: And I said to 1,000 people at that lunch, I would like everybody here to know why I hired Ed Bradley. I said, I hired Ed Bradley, because he's a member of a minority.
And there was a gasp in the room. And, as soon as it quieted down, I said, he's a great reporter. He's a great gentleman. And, if that ain't a minority, I never heard of one.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: Andy Rooney, what -- what -- what's your read on Bradley? ROONEY: I'm interested -- we were sitting here before we went on the air. And it was interesting to me that we were laughing about things.
And, yet, this very day, I have seen tears in the eyes of everyone here. And it's interesting that we can we -- we can come in and out of things like that. But I -- I have never seen so many people so deeply affected by a man's death as Ed Bradley's death has affected all of us.
KING: Steve Kroft, in your opinion, what made him special?
KROFT: He had a presence, both on and off camera, that I don't think anybody on television today had.
I think he was the classiest person that I ever met. There was a -- an elegance about him. He was generous and compassionate. And he had this innate sense of justice and fairness in him that was true. It was like he had a compass that always kept him on mark.
And he could talk to people, and you could get that sense of fairness and justice, whether you were talking to -- and a civility -- whether he was talking to a crook or a redneck or a guerrilla leader.
And he had a wonderful sense of humor. He just had a tremendous range. We all have different skills.
KING: Yes.
KROFT: And Ed's greatest skill was being Ed Bradley.
KING: Am I correct in reading into this, Steve, that you were close to him socially?
KROFT: I was -- I had the privilege of knowing him both at work and away from work.
(CROSSTALK)
KING: We had a memorable interview with him. We're going to show some of these clips as we go along.
He did an interview with Muhammad Ali. And, at one point in that interview, Ali, with his wife playing along, had a lot of fun, at Ed's expense.
Watch this.
(CROSSTALK)
(LAUGHTER)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But ever since the Frazier fight in Manila, Muhammad will -- it's sort of like -- like narcolepsy. He will just start sleeping, but he will have these flashbacks. And he will have -- it's like nightmares, and his face will twist up like he's boxing.
BRADLEY: So, will he start -- so, he's not putting on (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
And the doctor told us not to really try to wake him, if that does happen, because he might end up with a heart attack, because it might frighten him. So, I don't. I just get up and move.
That's -- that's -- that's the hard parts. You have to sort of...
(SNORING)
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Sums it up, doesn't it?
HEWITT: Larry, let me tell you the...
KING: Yes. Go ahead.
HEWITT: Let me tell you the sidebar to that one.
(LAUGHTER)
HEWITT: One day, I walked into his office, and I said, you know, the most virile man in the world, Muhammad Ali, can't even talk anymore. There's got to be a great story there.
And Ed said to me, how can I interview him if he can't talk?
(LAUGHTER)
HEWITT: I said, dopey, if he could talk, there wouldn't be a story.
And he said, you know, you're right. That's when he went after him.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: We will take a break.
WALLACE: Don, tell the story...
KING: Hold it. We will take a break, and we will be back with lots more.
Bob Schieffer will be joining us as well. Don't go away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BURNS: You sing harmony?
BRADLEY: No, I can't carry a tune.
BURNS: Are you sure?
BRADLEY: Positive.
BURNS: For she can carry a gun good as any mother's son.
That's one note.
For she can carry a gun good as any mother's son.
BRADLEY: For she can carry a gun good as any mother's son.
(CROSSTALK)
BURNS: (INAUDIBLE) For she can -- go ahead..
BRADLEY AND BURNS (singing): For she can carry a gun good as any mother's son.
BURNS: (INAUDIBLE) harmony.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE")
BRADLEY: As Andy said in that piece, Don is an idiot savant.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How?
BRADLEY: Of broadcasting. And I mean that as a compliment, because whatever piece you bring to him, in whatever shape, 99 times out of 100, he can make it better.
In all of the years I have been at "60 Minutes," I had one piece where he said, at the end of the screening, you know, I thought I could fix anything.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(LAUGHTER)
KING: Memorable nights.
(CROSSTALK)
HEWITT: That's right.
(CROSSTALK)
KING: ... Ed Bradley.
Joining us now from Washington is Bob Schieffer of CBS News, host of CBS News' "Face the Nation."
It -- we should point out that Ed Bradley was a great war correspondent, serving in Vietnam, in Cambodia.
Bob, from that side of the aisle, from the -- the hard news desk, what did you think of Bradley?
BOB SCHIEFFER, CBS NEWS: Oh, he was a great reporter.
He had this great sense of sensing what the story was. There was not very much that got past Ed. And he had this great way of just kind of cutting to the heart of it.
But the thing about Ed -- and we have talked about what a great reporter he was -- Ed Bradley was a great man. And that's the part that I remember about him. He had this great love of children. He never forgot where he came from.
He felt that he had a responsibility to people. And, you know, he was not one of these celebrities, Larry, that was going around, making a big deal about charities. But, when he knew that somebody needed help, he found a way to get help to them.
And, I mean, there are literally hundreds of kids out there. You always saw Ed with a kid. He had a godson there or he had some friend's kid, you know, who would follow him around. And -- and he took that part of -- of his life very seriously. And that's the part that I remember.
KING: Mike, he was never a -- a big shot, was he? He never went around with, "I'm -- I'm with '60 Minutes'"?
WALLACE: Oh, no. No. That was the -- never, for an instant.
HEWITT: Mike does that.
(LAUGHTER)
WALLACE: Yes, I'm -- I'm the one that...
(LAUGHTER)
WALLACE: Don, tell the story of Shaheeb Shahab, would you please?
HEWITT: If this is the right place, I will tell it.
WALLACE: Tell it.
KING: Go ahead.
HEWITT: I came to work one morning, and my secretary said, there's a memo on your desk I think you better go look at.
And it was a memo from Ed Bradley to me, saying he was informing the business affairs department at CBS that he was no longer to be known as Ed Bradley, but he was taking his African name, Shaheeb Shahab.
And all I could think of was: "I'm Mike Wallace." "I'm Morley Safer." "I'm Shaheeb Shahab"? You know?
(LAUGHTER)
HEWITT: And my secretary said, what are you going to do about it?
And I said, well, what can you do about it? The man has got a right to change his name.
I -- so, I went in to see him. And I said, gee, Ed, I got your memo.
And he said, well, good. He said, I -- you know, I just informed business affairs about it. And I want to start this Sunday. And let's get it done.
And I said, you know -- by this time, I realized, my God, he's -- maybe he's telling me the truth. It isn't a joke.
And I said, well, I will smoke him out. So, I said, tell you what. I think I ought though call up somebody and get this story out. It's a great story for a television column.
So, I called Kay Gardella.
Remember Kay Gardella of "The News"?
KING: Sure do.
HEWITT: So, I called Kay Gardella. And I said, Kay, I got a great story for you. Ed Bradley.
And, at that moment, a hand came across the desk that slammed down the phone. And he burst out laughing. He had me right up to that point.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: That is -- was he a funny guy, Andy?
ROONEY: I wouldn't say he -- no. He could be funny, but he was not funny.
I -- I talked to him a lot. He was a big -- he liked restaurants. He liked cooking. And I talked to him so much about food that I assumed he was a great cook. And it -- it was the only time Ed ever disappointed me.
He and Patricia invited us up to his house for dinner one night. And I thought to myself, this is going to be the test. I'm going to see whether he's a good cook or not.
And we had a drink. And then we sat down at the table. And this -- it turns out, he'd had -- he had hired two cooks to get dinner.
(LAUGHTER)
KING: Steve, he had an extraordinary interest in jazz, did he not?
KROFT: Yes. Music was a very important in his life.
He had -- you hear it coming out of his office all the time. You know, he started off in Philadelphia as a deejay at a jazz station under the name Little Jazzbo (ph).
And he was on the Board of Jazz at Lincoln Center, and found the time, somehow -- I don't know how he did it -- to host a radio show, a jazz show, on NPR.
It was one of the great things that he -- of his life. But he also -- he loved great food. He was a terrific cook. He was a wine connoisseur.
He wore clothes better than anybody I have ever seen. You could take anything and put it on Ed, and he would be ready for "GQ." He just a tremendous sense of -- a tremendous sense of style that was innate. He loved to have a good time. He had a wonderful sense of humor.
(CROSSTALK)
WALLACE: He also had the most beautiful mother.
It was -- she came to visit him in the office once. And this glorious-looking woman, she must have been six feet tall. She was -- she looked like him. She had pure white hair. And we were all stunned when she came in. We had no idea that she existed.
ROONEY: He referred to her often.
WALLACE: Did he?
ROONEY: Yes. Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
KING: Let me get a break in.
We will be back.
(CROSSTALK)
KING: Hold it.
We will be right back with Mike Wallace, Don Hewitt, Andy Rooney, Steve Kroft, and Bob Schieffer.
Lots more to come -- don't go away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "LARRY KING LIVE")
KING: What was the toughest?
BRADLEY: Aretha Franklin was tough. She turned out to be good, but she was, you know, she was -- she's a very -- she's a very wonderful, but in some ways, shy woman. And you don't think about that when you see how she emotes and performs.
KING: Ella Fitzgerald was that way.
BRADLEY: Yes. But she's very protective of herself.
KING: What was the sad...
BRADLEY: And I remember the first night, when we were sitting there.
I am sitting at the piano next to Aretha playing, one of the most extraordinary experiences I have ever had in my life, feeling the power of her playing the piano and singing. And I'm sitting on the piano bench. And we have been going -- and it's so great. We just keep going and going.
And I said -- I know it's getting late. I said, Aretha, if there was just one more song you could sing, what would it be?
And she said "Good Night, Sweetheart."
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRADLEY: I have some questions I'd like to ask about Emma (ph), too.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't.
BRADLEY: Will she come out and talk to us?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did I just tell you?
BRADLEY: Tell me again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
BRADLEY: She won't?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. Good-bye.
BRADLEY: I'm back?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I said good-bye.
BRADLEY: You leaving?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Don Hewitt, was that a very personal story for him to cover?
HEWITT: Of course. You know, he felt the civil rights movement, I guess, as deeply as anybody I know, and rightly so.
KING: We're going to show another clip, the only TV interview with the Oklahoma bomber, Timothy McVeigh. This was after he was convicted. It won an Emmy, among many he won for Ed Bradley. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRADLEY: Everyone in America saw the pictures on television, heard the news on the radio. What was your reaction when you saw those pictures?
TIMOTHY MCVEIGH, OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBER: I think like everyone else, I thought it was a tragic event. And that's all I really want to say.
BRADLEY: And the children?
MCVEIGH: I thought it was terrible that there were children in the building.
BRADLEY: I know you have a lot of time to sit here and think.
MCVEIGH: Yes.
BRADLEY: If you had your life to live over, is there anything you would do differently?
MCVEIGH: I've thought about that quite a few times, and -- I think anybody in life says, I wish I could have gone back and done this differently, done that differently. There are moments, but no one that stands out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Bob Schieffer, that was journalism at work, right?
ED SCHIEFFER, CBS ANCHOR: It surely was. And it was another example of this great ability Ed had. You know, Ed was not kind of the "grab them by the throat" kind of reporter or questioner that Mike was or Dan Rather was. He just had this ability to put people so at ease that they spoke as themselves. He got them to be who they were.
And sometimes that was to their advantage, and sometimes, as you just saw there, it was very much to their disadvantage. I think he was better at that than maybe any reporter that I ever knew.
HEWITT: Larry?
KING: Yes?
HEWITT: You know, we all live by exclusives. That's the big thing in our business. In 30 some odd years of "60 Minutes" I would say that was the best exclusive we ever got. And we were the only ones in the world who had the Oklahoma city bomber.
And that was -- Ed worked that one, boy, like crazy, until he finally got it, and he got it.
ANDY ROONEY, CBS CORRESPONDENT: I'm so tired of that word, exclusive, and news shows. Last night on all the news, everybody had exclusive and everybody had the same exclusives.
HEWITT: No, that's right. But this wasn't the same exclusive. Nobody else had it. This was a true exclusive.
KING: Andy just couldn't go through an hour without complaining about something.
HEWITT: That's right. Me.
KING: What was he like, Mike, to work with?
MIKE WALLACE, CBS CORRESPONDENT: When you say work with, I'm not sure what you mean.
KING: You all worked in the same head, you were all part of "60 Minutes". As a coworker, what was he like?
WALLACE: He was -- well, I'll tell you something. He protected his turf. You know, all of the reporters, all of the reporters on "60 Minutes", then and now, want stories. We have a system, the guy who puts his dibs on it first, a blue sheet, he's supposed to get it.
But we all want them. The fact is, that when Ed got something -- I will never forget, never forget.
I very much wanted to do Manuel Noriega and so did Ed. And so I managed to get Ed to go to Burma. And while he was in Burma, I got Manuel Noriega down. I tell you something. He was so mad at me when he -- you got me -- and the other thing was that you, apparently, in the screening room, said, I couldn't care less about this Burma story.
HEWITT: Well, that's true. And even he said that. It was -- that's the one he said, I've seen everything...
WALLACE: That was the story you couldn't fix.
HEWITT: That's right.
On that subject of Ed and the collegiality of this whole group, tonight on the "Evening News", Lesley brought up something we had all forgotten, and she remembered it. During the worst moments of "60 Minutes", when they wouldn't let us put Mike's tobacco story on the air, and we all started fighting with each other, and calling each other names, and showing up on talk shows like yours, and saying terrible things, Ed called us all to his apartment. And he locked the front door when we got in. He said, nobody gets out of here until we all kiss and make up, and we all vow to shut up and not go on and air our dirty laundry in public. And he brought the place back to sanity.
SCHIEFFER: Wow, that's true.
KING: That's a great story.
SCHIEFFER: True. True.
KING: That's a great -- Bob Schieffer, how good a war correspondent?
SCHIEFFER: Well, Ed was in Vietnam and Cambodia after I was there. So we did not cross paths. But he was as good as it got. And he was always where the action was. And that was the kind of reporter that Ed was.
You know, Ed and I we worked together when he was a White House correspondent. We first met during the 1976 campaign. He was covering President Carter -- Jimmy Carter, I was covering President Ford. And then, of course, Carter won, and so we joined and he covered the White House with me for awhile, before going on to "60 Minutes".
Ed didn't much like covering Washington. He didn't like the bureaucracy. He didn't like to talk to politicians. He liked to be where the action was and where things were happening. And that's what made him the great war correspondent that he was.
But I tell you one thing, we haven't talked about here tonight, Larry, and it was so much apart of Ed. Ed was the coolest person I have ever known. I mean, he just was Mr. Cool. And, you know, I mean, who but Ed Bradley -- we were talking about what style he had -- who but Ed Bradley wore an earring? And I wonder what Don Hewitt thought about that when he broke the news to him on that?
KING: Did you like that idea?
HEWITT: You want to know something, everybody said to me, does that upset you? And I said, no. I mean, I think Ed did sort of a put-on to everybody. It was indicative of nothing that I knew of and I think there were -- who were the other two guys? There three of them...
WALLACE: Wait a minute. Indicative of nothing? I'm not sure what you mean. I would love to see, what's his name over here, Rooney with an earring.
KING: That's next. Let me get a break. And when we come back...
WALLACE: In his ear.. In his nose.
KING: Andy Rooney with an earring on Sunday.
ROONEY: I'd have to put my bracelet away first.
KING: As we go to break, we know that Ed Bradley, as just mentioned by Bob, had a strong competitive streak. Listen to our interview with him in 2004.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRADLEY: I counted up the stories the other day. There's a competitive nature that I got from Mike Wallace. You want to know how many pieces everyone else has done. And I was proud of the fact that I've done as many pieces as anyone else on the broadcast, and more than most of the other of my colleagues.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRADLEY: I've always said, if -- when I die, and if I do get to the Pearly Gates, and St. Peter says, what have you done to deserve entry, I'd ask him if he saw my Lena Horne piece.
LENA HORNE, SINGER (singing): Ripe, juicy plum again. Bewitched by the...
BRADLEY: Would you say that I'm a rich, juicy, ripe plum again?
HORNE: Yes, but you can't help your sexual nature, you know, that's what that line means.
If a lady treats other people as she'd like to be treated, then she's allowed to go and roll in the grass if she wants to.
BRADLEY: Even if she's 64?
HORNE: Even if she's 64. Particularly then.
KING: Steve Kroft I think he rather liked her.
STEVE KROFT, CBS CORRESPONDENT: I think he liked her.
I just wanted to add one thing, Larry, to the Vietnam coverage. Ed really little made his bones in Vietnam. He covered the fall of Saigon. It was a huge story. He was, I believe the only CBS reporter there. I don't know how many awards he won for it, but it was really the beginning of his ascent. You know, and I think if you look at his career, he's up there with the greatest at CBS. I mean, White House correspondent, war correspondent, wounded in Vietnam, the exclusive interviews.
But I think his legacy is, his legacy will be that he -- this is a man, a kid from a poor Philadelphia neighborhood, a man of color, who in the words of his good friend and producer David Gelber (ph), worked his way into the homes and living rooms of millions and millions and millions of white Americans, won their respect and their admiration, at a time when nobody had really done that before. And I think that, in the end, will be something that will be associated with Ed forever.
KING: He -- that's right.
Mike Wallace, he broke a lot of new ground, didn't he?
WALLACE: He did it all. He really -- he -- the fact -- yes, he did it all, and with integrity and accuracy. You could believe him. When you finished watching a Bradley piece, you knew that every word, every word that he said was accurate.
ROONEY: But I don't think a lot of Americans sat there and thought, this is the black correspondent on "60 Minutes". I mean...
WALLACE: No, no, no.
(CROSSTALK)
HEWITT: I don't think it was front and center, but I think it was probably in the back of their minds.
ROONEY: I didn't think it ever was.
HEWITT: No, you know what they noticed it, how fair he was when he handled racial stories. He played right down the middle.
ROONEY: It's true.
HEWITT: And I think that was -- that was his trademark.
ROONEY: Ed never wore that on his sleeve. But he carried it in his heart.
HEWITT: Right.
KING: Let me get a break, and we'll come right back with this extraordinary look at an extraordinary guy -- it's so hard to say -- the late Ed Bradley.
Let's check in with Anderson Cooper, who will host "AC 360" at the top of the hour, also a new member of the "60 Minutes" team.
Anderson, what's up?
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Larry, of course we're going to have more on the remarkable career and life of Ed Bradley. It is simply hard to believe at this point that he really is gone.
We're also going to be covering all the developments today out of Washington. The Democrats officially taking control of the Senate and President Bush had lunch with the new presumptive Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi.
Everyone, of course, talked nice. Already there are signs that not everyone is ready to play nice. We'll look at that.
And the head of the Republican Party stepping down. Lately, he's not the only Republican official who's trying to get out of Dodge. We'll have all that and more at the top of the hour -- Larry.
KING: That's Anderson Cooper, the host of "AC 360" at 10:00 Eastern, 7:00 Pacific.
We'll be back with our panel, and then a special close tonight. Don't leave us. Kind of warm tribute to Ed Bradley, a unique one, too. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRADLEY: At least once a month for the past 24 years, George has visited Forest Long, where Gracie is buried.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey Googie (ph).
BRADLEY: What did you call her?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Googie.
BRADLEY: Googie?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Googie, yes.
This is -- Ed Bradley. We're going to be on "60 Minutes". We're working together again. Yes.
BRADLEY: You always talk to her when you come down?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I talk to her all the time. I hope she hears me. If she doesn't, it makes me feel good. Yes.
BRADLEY: Why is her name on the bottom?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you mean?
BRADLEY: Well, your name would go up here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, no. Change the billing (ph) it's going to be great to see Allen (ph) and George Burns.
BRADLEY: And George Burns?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, and she's going to get top billing.
BRADLEY: After hearing you, she deserves top billing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You bet.
Well, good bye kid. See you next month.
KING: We have about two minutes left, guys.
Legacy. Bob Schieffer, what's his legacy?
SCHIEFFER: I think he'll be remembered as someone who broke a lot of barriers, but someone who never forgot where he came from, and he always remembered those that were behind him and did everything he could to help them. This was a great man, Larry, not just a great reporter.
KING: Andy?
ROONEY: I had a unique relationship with Ed. My office is not in the same area as the other "60 Minutes" correspondents', and I go over there two or three times a week. And I always walk by Ed's office, and I always went in. And we had the best -- it was never long. We had the best four minute conversations. He always got up, we shook hands, and we would talk about everything, and I realized that you really don't need to talk for hours about anything. Because Ed and I -- we settled the problems of the world in four minutes 100 times over the years.
KING: Steve, legacy?
KROFT: A giant. A giant.
KING: A giant.
Don?
HEWITT: I will buy 100 percent what Bob Schieffer just said. He spoke for me as well as himself.
KING: And Mike?
WALLACE: All of a sudden. It comes -- we lost him. We lost him. And he -- we loved him. And he us.
KING: Thank you all very much.
ROONEY: Not a good day.
KING: Not a good day.
Mike Wallace, Don Hewitt, the creator of all this. Andy Rooney, Steve Kroft and Bob Schieffer. A major part of the crew, and one of the great programs in television history, a program with a deep hole in it tonight, the program "60 Minutes".
Special close coming, don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KING: Ed Bradley was many things: a great journalist, a great guy, a broadcast news pioneer, and a passionate music fan, especially of the Neville Brothers. In fact, Ed Bradley performed with them many times. Right now, here is what Aaron Neville has to say about -- and sing about -- for the brother he lost.
AARON NEVILLE, MUSICIAN: Thanks, Larry, for letting me pay tribute to Ed Bradley, who's a dear friend, and like a brother to the Neville Brothers. He was called the fifth Neville Brother, and he will always be remembered, and I know he's in heaven, because he was a cool guy.
(SINGING): When the night has come and the land is dark and the moon is the only light that you see, no I won't be afraid.
No I won't be afraid just as long just as long as you stand by me.
If the sky you look upon should crumble and fall, oh, and the mountains should crumble into the sea, I won't cry.
I won't cry. No, I won't shed a tear just as long, just as long as you stand stand by me.
So darling, darling stand stand by me.
Stand by me, please, stand by me.
If the sky we look upon should crumble and fall, oh, and the mountains should crumble into the sea, I won't cry. I won't cry, no, I won't shed a tear just as long, just as long as you stand -- stand by me.
So darling, darling stand stand by me oh stand by me please stand by me.
KING: Aaron Neville, Mike Wallace, Andy Rooney, Don Hewitt, Steve Kroft and Bob Schieffer in our tribute to Ed Bradley, one of the really good ones, gone too soon.
Thanks for joining us tonight. Stay tuned now for more news on CNN, your most trusted name in news.
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