Ed Bradley began his career teaching in Philadelphia public schools while working nights as an unpaid radio reporter, before moving into journalism full-time and eventually joining CBS News in 1971. He built his early reputation reporting from Vietnam and Cambodia as a war correspondent, work that included being wounded by mortar fire while covering the conflict.
Bradley went on to serve as CBS's White House correspondent and later as anchor of the CBS Sunday Night News before joining the network's flagship investigative programme, 60 Minutes, in 1981, becoming its first Black correspondent. Over the following twenty-five years, he became one of American broadcast journalism's most respected figures, conducting landmark interviews and reporting on subjects ranging from civil rights to international conflict with a distinctive, unflinching style.
Across his career, Bradley won an extraordinary 20 Emmy Awards along with numerous other journalism honours, and he continued reporting for 60 Minutes until shortly before his death from leukaemia in 2006, remaining one of the most decorated journalists in American television history.
- First Black correspondent on 60 Minutes, CBS's flagship investigative programme
- 20 Emmy Awards across his broadcast journalism career
- Reported as a war correspondent from Vietnam and Cambodia, sustaining injuries in combat coverage
- Served as CBS's White House correspondent and anchor of CBS Sunday Night News
- Breaking a barrier can define a lasting standard.. His quarter-century tenure at 60 Minutes set an example for the correspondents who followed.
- Frontline experience shapes journalistic depth.. His war reporting informed the rigour he brought to later stories.
- Consistency compounds into legacy.. His 20 Emmy Awards reflect decades of sustained excellence rather than a single breakthrough.