Our Presidents

obitoftheday:

Obit of the Day: The Reporter Wore Tennis Shoes
Robert Pierpoint was assigned to the biggest stories throughout his career. His first job was with CBS Radio, where he worked with legendary broadcaster Edward R. Murrow. When the Korean War began, he travelled there to cover the first conflict of the Cold War. When the cease fire was signed in July 1953, he announced it for CBS. (Thirty years later, it was Pierpoint’s broadcast that was heard on the final episode of the CBS series, M*A*S*H.) As the network’s White House correspondent from 1957 until 1980 he covered and interviewed six presidents: Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter. He was in Dallas when President Kennedy was shot and won two Emmys for his coverage of Watergate.
His most memorable moment, though, occurred off-camera in 1970. Scheduled to play tennis with a member of President Nixon’s staff, Pierpoint received a call about an assignment at the White House. Knowing he would still have a chance to make his match, Pierpoint threw on a shirt, tie, and jacket but left his tennis shoes, socks, and shorts on. Although it went unseen by the television audience, someone else caught the moment on film. CBS was none too happy.
Pierpoint, who died at the age of 86, got a kick out of the episode and will be buried in a jacket, tie, shirt…and tennis shorts.
(Image is copyright of the Roger Pierpoint Collection at the University of Redlands and courtesy of Nieman Watchdog.)

Obit of the Day: The Reporter Wore Tennis Shoes

Robert Pierpoint was assigned to the biggest stories throughout his career. His first job was with CBS Radio, where he worked with legendary broadcaster Edward R. Murrow. When the Korean War began, he travelled there to cover the first conflict of the Cold War. When the cease fire was signed in July 1953, he announced it for CBS. (Thirty years later, it was Pierpoint’s broadcast that was heard on the final episode of the CBS series, M*A*S*H.) As the network’s White House correspondent from 1957 until 1980 he covered and interviewed six presidents: Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter. He was in Dallas when President Kennedy was shot and won two Emmys for his coverage of Watergate.

His most memorable moment, though, occurred off-camera in 1970. Scheduled to play tennis with a member of President Nixon’s staff, Pierpoint received a call about an assignment at the White House. Knowing he would still have a chance to make his match, Pierpoint threw on a shirt, tie, and jacket but left his tennis shoes, socks, and shorts on. Although it went unseen by the television audience, someone else caught the moment on film. CBS was none too happy.

Pierpoint, who died at the age of 86, got a kick out of the episode and will be buried in a jacket, tie, shirt…and tennis shorts.

(Image is copyright of the Roger Pierpoint Collection at the University of Redlands and courtesy of Nieman Watchdog.)