Associated Press
By Tom McElroy
Associated Press
NEW YORK — Longtime “60 Minutes” correspondent Bob Simon, who covered riots, Academy Award-nominated movies and wars and was held captive for more than a month in Iraq two decades ago, died in a car crash on Wednesday. He was 73.
“CBS Evening News” anchor Scott Pelley, his eyes red, announced the death in a special report.
“We have some sad news from within our CBS News family,” Pelley said. “Our colleague Bob Simon was killed this evening.”
“Vietnam is where he first began covering warfare, and he gave his firsthand reporting from virtually every major battlefield around the world since,” Pelley said.
A town car in which Simon was a passenger hit another car stopped at a Manhattan traffic light and then slammed into metal barriers. Simon was soon pronounced dead.
