* Joined "60 Minutes" in 1970
* Reporting from Vietnam War angered President Johnson
* Cited singer Dolly Parton among his favorite interviews
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By Bill Trott
May 19 (Reuters) - - Television journalist Morley Safer, who
made his reputation as a Vietnam War correspondent for CBS and
then became a mainstay on the network's "60 Minutes" show for 46
years, has died at age 84, a few days after his retirement, the
network announced on Thursday.
He retired from CBS last week and "60 Minutes" paid tribute
to him with a look back at his work on Sunday's show.
Safer, who spent 61 years in television news, brought an
authoritative, urbane style to "60 Minutes," CBS's
ground-breaking news program, and his work was a mix of hard and
soft news. The part-time painter often reported on art and his
disdain for contemporary works often set the art world atwitter.
Although he interviewed many artists, actors and musicians,
Safer never cared much for celebrities, saying, "I really don't
care what movie stars have to say about life." Still, he listed
country singer Dolly Parton among his favorite interview
subjects.
"If I could interview Dolly every week, I would," Safer told
the New York Post in 2009.
Safer also delivered deep investigative pieces on injustice,
corporate malfeasance and trade in human body parts among a raft
of other subjects.
"Some people, you have to grit your teeth in order to stay
in the same room as them but you get on and ask the questions
you assume most of the people watching want to ask," he once
said.
The late Don Hewitt, the creator of "60 Minutes," often
cited a Safer story as one of the show's greatest moments. In
that award-winning 1983 story, Safer reported on new evidence
that freed an innocent man who had been sentenced to life in
prison for armed robbery in Texas.
Safer's long tenure at "60 Minutes" followed years of war
reporting for CBS News, particularly from Vietnam. In a 1966
report he showed shocking images of U.S. Marines burning the
village of Cam Ne that infuriated President Lyndon B. Johnson so
much that he called CBS executives to complain. That report was
widely seen as one of the first to turn public opinion against
the Vietnam War.
Safer, a Canadian, joined CBS News in London in 1964 and
opened the network's Saigon bureau. He later returned to London
to be bureau chief.
"After four or five different wars, I grew weary of that
work, partly because in an open war, open to coverage, as
Vietnam was, it's not that difficult, really," he said.
He joined "60 Minutes" in December 1970 in the show's third
season.
Safer told a CNN interviewer that he and prickly colleague
Mike Wallace, who died in April 2012, were sometimes "like
scorpions in a bottle" before their relationship mellowed.
In 1968 Safer married anthropology student Jane Fearer,
shortly after surviving an attack by Biafran soldiers who had
killed a photographer friend and made him aware of his own
mortality. The couple had a daughter, Sarah.
(Writing by Bill Trott; Editing by Toni Reinhold)