Bob Simon

For other people named Robert Simon, see Robert Simon (disambiguation).

Bob Simon
Born	Robert David Simon (1941-05-29)May 29, 1941 The Bronx, New York City, New York, United States
Died	February 11, 2015(2015-02-11) (aged 73) Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States
Cause of death	Car accident
Nationality	American
Occupation	News reporter
Years active	1969–2015
Notable credit	60 Minutes (1996–2015)
Spouse	Françoise Simon
Children	Tanya Simon

Robert David "Bob" Simon (May 29, 1941 – February 11, 2015) was an American television correspondent for CBS News. During his career, he covered crises, war, and unrest in sixty-seven countries. Simon reported the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam, the Yom Kippur War in in 1973, and the student protests in China's Tiananmen Square in 1989. During the Persian Gulf War in 1991, he and four of his TV crew were captured and imprisoned by Iraq for forty days, about which experience he wrote a book, Forty Days.

He became a regular correspondent for CBS's 60 Minutes in 1996 and, in 1999, for 60 Minutes II. At the time of his death in an auto accident, he served as 60 Minutes senior foreign correspondent. Recognized as one of the few journalists who have covered most of the major overseas conflicts since 1969, he has received numerous awards during his career, including the Overseas Press Club awards and 27 Emmy Awards for journalism.

Early life and education

Simon was born to a Jewish family in the Bronx, New York, USA. In 1962, he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Brandeis University with a degree in history. From 1964 to 1967, Simon served as an American Foreign Service officer and was a Fulbright Scholar in France and a Woodrow Wilson scholar. From 1969 to 1971, he worked at the CBS News London bureau. From 1971 to 1977, he was based in the London and Saigon bureaus, where he worked as a Vietnam War correspondent. From 1977 to 1981, he was assigned to the CBS News Tel Aviv bureau.

Career

Simon began reporting news in 1969, during The Troubles in Northern Ireland. In Vietnam he began reporting the war beginning in 1971; for his reports of Hanoi's Easter Offensive, he won an Overseas Press Club award. He won another as part of the team that covered the final six weeks of U.S. involvement, where he boarded one of the last helicopters to leave in 1975. In subsequent years, he reported from war zones in Grenada, Somalia and Haiti. He was in Poland during martial law, with Israeli troops during the Yom Kippur War, and in Egypt following the uprisings in 2011.

From 1981 to 1982 Simon spent time in Washington, D.C., as the CBS News State Department correspondent. From 1982 to 1987, Simon served as a New York-based CBS News national correspondent, and in 1987, was named the CBS News Chief Middle Eastern correspondent.

During the opening days of the Gulf War in January 1991, Simon and his CBS News team were captured by Iraqi forces and spent 40 days in Iraqi prison, most of it in solitary confinement. Simon later said that it was a "careless mistake" for him and his crew to have crossed the border. He chronicled the experience in the book Forty Days.

In 1996 Simon joined 60 Minutes as a correspondent, and he was also correspondent for seven seasons on 60 Minutes II, from January 1999 to June 2005, after which he became a full-time correspondent. His coverage of foreign events was broadcast on all CBS News shows and earned him numerous awards, such as the Overseas Press Club's highest honor for a body of work, the President's Award. Simon also received 27 Emmy Awards, possibly the most held by a field journalist.

For a period of approximately 30 years, beginning in the 1980s and continuing until the time of his death, Simon was repeatedly criticized by organizations (both Jewish and non-Jewish), media pundits and large numbers of the public for what was perceived as a blatant and unremitting bias against the State of Israel in his reporting. CBS and 60 Minutes were criticized for permitting Simon's bias against the Jewish State and were held to be enabling and complicit.

Death

On February 11, 2015, Simon was killed in a car crash in Manhattan, New York City, New York. Simon is survived by his wife, Françoise, and their daughter, Tanya, who is a producer for 60 Minutes.

Honors and awards

Simon won three Peabody Awards and 27 Emmy Awards, including a 2012 Emmy for his report on the world's only all-black symphony orchestra in Central Africa. He would win yet another Emmy Award with his reporting about an orchestra in Paraguay whose poor members constructed instruments from the trash retrieved from a local landfill. He was a four-time Overseas Press Club recipient and received the Edward Weintal Prize given by Georgetown University's Institute for the Study of Diplomacy in recognition of distinguished reporting on foreign policy and diplomacy.

External links

• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Bob Simon on Charlie Rose
• Bob Simon at IMDb
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