RIP, Paul Harvey (Carried to the Top)
Paul Harvey, the news commentator and talk-radio pioneer whose staccato style made him one of the nation’s most familiar voices, died Saturday in Arizona, according to ABC Radio Networks. He was 90.
Harvey died surrounded by family at a hospital in Phoenix, where he had a winter home, said Louis Adams, a spokesman for ABC Radio Networks, where Harvey worked for more than 50 years. No cause of death was immediately available.
Harvey had been forced off the air for several months in 2001 because of a virus that weakened a vocal cord. But he returned to work in Chicago and was still active as he passed his 90th birthday. His death comes less than a year after that of his wife and longtime producer, Lynne.
“My father and mother created from thin air what one day became radio and television news,” Paul Harvey Jr. said in a statement. “So in the past year, an industry has lost its godparents and today millions have lost a friend.”
Known for his resonant voice and trademark delivery of “The Rest of the Story,” Harvey had been heard nationally since 1951, when he began his “News and Comment” for ABC Radio Networks.
He became a heartland icon, delivering news and commentary with a distinctive Midwestern flavor. “Stand by for news!” he told his listeners. He was credited with inventing or popularizing terms such as “skyjacker,” “Reaganomics” and “guesstimate.”
“Paul Harvey was one of the most gifted and beloved broadcasters in our nation’s history,” ABC Radio Networks President Jim Robinson said in a statement. “We will miss our dear friend tremendously and are grateful for the many years we were so fortunate to have known him.”
….. While working at St. Louis radio station KXOK, he met Washington University graduate student Lynne Cooper. He proposed on their first date (she said “no”) and always called her “Angel.” They were married in 1940 and had a son, Paul Jr.
They worked closely together on his shows, and he often credited his success to her influence. She was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1997, seven years after her husband was. She died in May 2008.
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Tributes:
- Lucianne’s home page — “The calm, intelligent voice of dignity off to tell the angels the rest of the story. Good day, Mr. Harvey, you will be greatly remembered and missed.”
- See-Dubya guesting at Michelle Malkin — “Paul Harvey was doing nationwide conservative talk radio for decades before anyone thought of it as conservative talk radio. …. Paul Harvey put news out there that no other outlet touched. His Paul Harvey News and Comment scoured the wires for random stuff–and ideologically inconvenient stuff– you just didn’t hear on the Big Three mainstream TV news …. Paul Harvey invented blogging; he just did his blogging on the radio.”
- MacsMind (bold is mine) — “Before there was Rush Limbaugh, there was Paul Harvey. You might not have known it but Harvey was a conservative commentator long before the likes of Rush, Hannity, and even after getting some flack when he told Nixon to quit American involvement in Vietnam – he later regretted it – he remained true to his conservative roots.”
- time.com — “It is hardly an exaggeration to say that, when Harvey died at 90, on Saturday, at his winter home in Phoenix, he took the whole history of radio with him.”
- Warner Todd Huston at RedState — “In a day when the goal of every other broadcaster seems to be to dive straight to the lowest common denominator, to celebrate to low born and venal, Harvey’s was always to uplift the listener and to celebrate the greatness of America.”
- Debbie Schlussel — “Paul Harvey was an American patriot, an important and influential conservative, and a person who stood for American values and culture the way they used to be.”
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Previous Post:
- May 9, 2008 — “RIP, Lynne Harvey” (last item at link)
Tom – Great collection here. Paul Harvey was one of a kind, and I doubt we’ll see the likes of him again.
Comment by Bob — March 1, 2009 @ 8:26 am
#1, thx, I agree.
Comment by TBlumer — March 1, 2009 @ 9:00 am
Paul Harvey was an icon for his folksy delivery, his unusual style, and primarily for his longevity, but the fact is, that as a NEWSMAN he was mediocre, spinning yarn after yarn based on imagination more than fact, far too often fueled by his ultra conservative political beliefs.
I used to listen to Harvey many years ago, but primarily his features, such as “The Rest of the Story”. I would never consider listening to him deliver a “newscast” if I wanted to hear any true facts.
This article, http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1394 from a decade ago, gives many detailed examples of Harvey’s distorted reporting, and how he all too frequently tailored the news to sometimes entertain, but usually to support his political and social viewpoints.
As an American character, he should be missed. As a reporter, well, the rest of the story is that he was an exceptional example of what a true journalist is not.
Comment by theHoundDawg — March 3, 2009 @ 12:57 am
#3, That FAIR piece is so thin I had to slide food through my Ethernet cord to keep it alive.
Re Heaven’s Gate — I forgive Mr. Harvey for overreacting in the wake of dozens of people needlessly killing themselves. I notice that no one in the establishment media ever criticizes a politician or a newsman who does the same thing with the second amendment after gun-related tragedies. You’ve got Harvey doing it once in 60 years. BFD – There are newsmen and pols who raise the chorus for taking guns away at every conceivable opportunity.
Comment by TBlumer — March 3, 2009 @ 6:37 am