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William Small, 'Hero to Journalism' at CBS, NBC, Dies at 93

Associated Press

   NEW YORK - Longtime broadcast news executive William J. Small, who led
   CBS News' Washington coverage during the civil rights movement, Vietnam
   War and Watergate and was later president of NBC News and United Press
   International, died Sunday, CBS News said. He was 93.

   Small, whose career spanned from overseeing the news operation at a
   small radio station to testifying in Congress about press freedom, died
   in a New York hospital after a brief illness unrelated to the
   coronavirus, the network said.

   During a six-decade career, Small supervised, guided and in some cases
   hired generations of some of the best-known reporters and anchors in
   television news, among them: Dan Rather, Eric Sevareid, Daniel Schorr,
   Connie Chung, Diane Sawyer, "60 Minutes" correspondents Ed Bradley and
   Lesley Stahl and "Face the Nation" anchor Bob Schieffer.

   "He was heroic and steadfast, especially during Watergate, when it
   seemed we were getting angry calls from the White House every night,"
   Stahl said in a statement. "He made us want to be better -- and nobody
   wanted to disappoint him."

   Small hired the current CBS News president, Susan Zirinsky, to her
   first job at the network when she was 20. She remembered Small as a
   "hero to journalism" and said, "every one of us carries Bill Small's
   legacy with us -- it's the core to who we are as journalists."

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