CBS News legend Mike Wallace, the 60 Minutes’ pit-bull reporter whose probing, brazen style made his name synonymous with the tough interview – a style he practically invented for television more than half a century ago – died last night, CBS News reported on Sunday. “He was 93 and passed peacefully surrounded by family members at Waveny Care Center in New Canaan, Conn., where he spent the past few years. He also had a home in Manhattan.”
Among his many accomplishments, Wallace played a role in shaping black history early in his career. In 1959, Wallace helped create “The Hate That Hate Produced,” a highly charged, hour-long documentary about the Nation of Islam that helped bring Malcolm X to national attention. Airing on New York’s WNTA-TV, it was based on a series of five half-hour installments compiled from footage delivered to Wallace by black journalist Louis Lomax.
