Ed Bradley (1941 - 2006): In It For The Love of the Game - 6:39 p.m.

I'd be lying if I told you I watched 60 Minutes on a weekly basis. It wasn't until recently - think Survivor - that my TV was ever tuned to channel 2. CBS has always been filtered in my brain as grandma and grandpa's network. The over 60 crowd hang out there.

These days the CBS morning news program is one of the best. I watch it whenever I can. Does that mean I'm getting up there? Ummm..

Then there's that Sunday at 7 thing. Not really sit and watch TV time for me. But flipping around channels I would sometimes find myself watching a 60 Minutes segment; Ed Bradley always stood out as a genuine person.

His style was a throwback to old school journalism, where the news is put in context, looked at objectively and it's all done for the love of telling the story as completely as possible. His hook though was the warm, sincere vibe he exuded. There was a down to earth quality to him that made you believe he cared about the things he talked about. In a CBS piece Wynton Marslais wrapped it in a soulfullness, "Like all the younger Afro-Americans we were impressed with him, just in awe with his sense of culture, his intelligence, his clarity and his soul. They say soul is when you have the ability to make other people feel better about being alive."

That pretty much nails it.

When I heard about his death it was surprising, considering I'd seen 60 Minutes a few weeks ago when he did a report on the Duke rape case.

Sometimes I feel like my biggest stories are R.I.P's, wasn't looking forward to doing another one for Ed Bradley, even though it was signifigant. So I waited to hear some moving tribute that would spur my own. That didn't happen. A few stations made brief mentions, but surely not anything that said much more than the headline.

It was kind of sad considering that he was such a well respected journalist. Happily I heard CBS was doing a tribute to him on 60 Minutes this weekend. Which is only right considering he spent his entire journalistic career with the company. CBS is moving along nicely into the internet age, they posted the whole show on their site. Ed Bradley's Early Years

If anything can be learned from this man's life, it would be how, for yourself and anyone you touch, a passion filled life is the most satisfying of all.

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