The end of the 60 Minutes broadcast as we know it has sickened millions of longtime viewers, colleagues, and all who are offended by the current administration's assaults on the First Amendment.
The news of Scott Pelley's firing hits particularly hard. He spoke of risking his life and his family's happiness because of his devotion to the broadcast.
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Sarah Safer, daughter of legendary correspondent Morley Safer, expressed her grief. Her father joined the program when she was eight months old and retired 46 years later.
She recalls early memories of trying to speak to her dad through the TV on Sunday nights while he was away for weeks.
Most other 60 Minutes children weren't treated to a weekly sighting either.
The Legacy of 60 Minutes Under Threat
The most trusted program in American journalism, the legacy of loved ones' hard work and sacrifices, has been murdered in Pelley's words.
Morley Safer often criticized CBS brass or its sponsors. His usual response was: "What are they going to do?
Fire me?" Under CBS's current regime, the answer would be yes.
After his death in 2016, Sarah found copies of letters that if written today would likely threaten his job.
In 1990, he wrote to Larry Tisch: "You have ruined this company."
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Fifteen years later, he warned the CEO of CBS that changes to the newsroom suggested "some form of designer-news" that would drive out the kind of information the country needs.
Like Pelley, he would have called out the bullies decimating the broadcast today. Sarah imagines him likening the current head of CBS News to a Soviet apparatchik.
A Legacy of Courage and Integrity
Morley Safer built his reputation as a war correspondent for CBS News. In 1965, he reported on the Marine Corps' burning of Cam Ne, a Vietnamese village.
The scene of a Zippo lighter igniting a thatched roof while elderly men and women begged for mercy became an iconic image of US military excesses in Vietnam, credited with changing the course of the war.
Then president Lyndon Johnson accused CBS of "shitting on the American flag" and suggested Safer, a Canadian, was a traitor.
Johnson called on Frank Stanton to fire him, but Stanton called his bluff.
Under current leadership, both in Washington and at CBS, it's not hard to imagine that if this happened today, Safer's green card would be revoked and his career finished.
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Sarah Safer likes to imagine her father still haunting CBS News, encouraging those who carry on his legacy and making trouble for the brass.
