Pioneering CBS Newsman Joseph Wershba dies at 90

NEW YORK — Joseph Wershba, a CBS News producer and reporter whose work on a pivotal 1954 expose on Sen. Joseph McCarthy was the centerpiece of the film "Good Night, and Good Luck" has died. He was 90.

Wershba, who became one of the six original "60 Minutes" producers, died Saturday of complications from pneumonia on Long Island, N.Y., where he lived, CBS announced in a statement.

"Joe Wershba was a wonderful man who was a pioneer of broadcast journalism, without the notoriety of his more celebrated colleagues for Ed Murrow and Don Hewitt," said Jeff Fager, chairman of CBS News and executive producer of "60 Minutes." ''Almost everything he touched became part of the foundation for CBS News, including '60 Minutes.'"

His work for Edward R. Murrow on the "See it Now" segment about McCarthy helped end the 1950s communist witch hunt. Robert Downey Jr. played the role of Wershba in 2005's "Good Night, and Good Luck," the Oscar-nominated film about Murrow and his CBS News team's joust with the powerful Wisconsin senator.


http://online.wsj.com/article/AP59d46509890343eb9d29a2bf37494deb.html

Considering what passes for "journalism" nowadays and the far different treatment accorded our latter day McCarthys by the Fourth Estate.