Harry Reasoner

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Harry Reasoner (April 17, 1923 – August 6, 1991) was an American journalist known for his inventive use of language as a television commentator.

Born in Dakota City, Iowa, Reasoner studied journalism at Stanford University and the University of Minnesota. He served in World War II and then resumed his journalism career with The Minneapolis Times. After going into radio with CBS in 1948, Reasoner worked for the United States Information Agency in the Philippines. When he returned stateside, he went into television and worked at station KEYD (later KMSP) in Minneapolis. Reasoner then moved to New York, where he hosted a morning news program called Calendar on top of doing commentator and special news narration duties.

Reasoner's greatest contribution to television news reporting came in 1968, when he teamed up with Mike Wallace to begin the 60 Minutes newsmagazine series. Reasoner joined ABC in 1970 as co-anchor with Howard K. Smith (himself a CBS alumnus) of the ABC Evening News until 1976, when Reasoner became sole anchor. During most of that period, he and Smith alternated providing commentaries at the end of each newscast, generally espousing conservative viewpoints such as support for the Vietnam War and opposition to governmental social programs. These views often contrasted with the more liberal (or skeptical) observations of Walter Cronkite on CBS or David Brinkley on NBC, Reasoner and Smith's contemporaries at the time.

From 1976 until 1978, Reasoner co-anchored the news with Barbara Walters. Walters and Reasoner did not enjoy a close relationship; Reasoner not only did not like sharing the spotlight with a co-anchor but was uncomfortable with Walters' celebrity status. The disastrous arrangement ended in 1978. Reasoner returned to CBS and remained at the network until he retired in May 1991.

Reasoner was married twice, to Kathleen Carroll Reasoner for 34 years and then to Lois Harriett Weber. He had seven children by his first marriage. Reasoner died three months after his retirement at the age of 68 from a blood clot in the brain received from a fall at his home in Westport, Connecticut. He is interred at Union Cemetery in Humboldt, Iowa. An editorial cartoon the day after his death showed Reasoner arriving at the Pearly Gates, with a startled St. Peter crying, "Oh, no! It's 60 Minutes!"

Reasoner did not mind poking a little fun at his profession. Two of his more cynical comments on journalism:

• "Journalism is a kind of profession, or craft, or racket, for people who never wanted to grow up and go out into the real world."
• "If you're a good journalist, what you do is live a lot of things vicariously, and report them for other people who want to live vicariously."

[edit] External links

• Harry Reasoner's entry in The Des Moines Register "Famous Iowans" section
• A Harry Reasoner commentary from 1971
• Harry Reasoner at Find A Grave
• YouTube clip of Reasoner anchoring ABC Evening News, July 20, 1977, also featuring Barbara Walters and Frank Reynolds