I’m late to comment on Ed Bradley’s passing.  I’ve been crazy busy the last few days and, quite honestly, I didn’t have anything particularly special to contribute to the conversation.  There’s something disrespectful about commenting on someone’s passing simply out of a sense of obligation.  We all tend to do it, but I have no desire to talk without saying nothin’ at a time like this.
But while I’m sitting here watching the tribute to Bradley on “60 Minutes,” it’s become clear what I find to be the most interesting thing about Ed Bradley, something that’s becoming hard to find–Ed Bradley was a black man whose television persona was relaxed, natural and not stuck to one of the prevalent molds of black men on television.
Part of what made him worth watching on “60 Minutes” was that he was so damn smooth and cool.  It never seemed like he was working.  Everything just seemed like a breeze, whether he was interviewing a subject or providing the results of an investigation.  Jarrett and I were discussing how Ed was one of the few journalists that could ask the tough questions without the interview becoming contentious.  And we all know that “60 Minutes” wouldn’t be “60 Minutes” without the anchors gettin in somebody’s shit.  But Ed could get into a subject and get everything he needed without seeming to thump his chest on the inside about how he was asking such tough questions.  He was thoughtful and logical, but there was huge intangible that made him so effective.
That only worked because that was who he was.  There was no attempt to make himself more of a television personality.  He was simply translating his personality to television, and it wasn’t one of the personalities it seems black men have to have to get on TV.  He wasn’t stoic, nor was humor his hook.  He wasn’t trying to entertain.  He was trying to inform, and he did so well.  It just happened that he shared the information in an interesting fashion.
That’s big to me.  Society has repeatedly demonstrated an acceptance for a small subset of black people in the public eye.  For that reason, many black people try to fit the image that they feel viewers will be comfortable with.  Or, networks will find people that happen to fit that ideal and then roll from there.
That’s no knock on those that happen to fit an acceptable caricature.  They are who they are, and I don’t really knock them for getting paid to do that.  The thing I love about my job, above all else, is that I get paid to be me, and I’m damn fortunate that people think I’m worth seeing, reading and listening to.  It’s kinda like a great philospher said once–get it how you live.
I just sincerely hope that television have room for black people that live like Ed Bradley to get theirs.  As the range of images of blacks in the media gets smaller and smaller, the need for someone like Ed Bradley becomes greater and greater.
Especially now that Ed Bradley, one of an ilk populated by very few, is gone.