(LibertyInsider.org) – Before the digital age and the use of syndicated correspondents, mainstream media news outlets relied on dedicated journalists who often traveled the world to report on breaking stories and situations. One such iconic reporter, Tom Fenton, passed away on Tuesday, July 16, leaving a legacy of journalistic integrity.
Fenton’s son, Tom Fenton, Jr., announced his father’s death at 94. The journalist worked for CBS News for 34 years, beginning in 1970. He covered an array of historic events, including the Soviet Union’s collapse, the rise of Iranian ayatollahs, the Yom Kippur War, a 1973 Arab-Israeli conflict, and the 1971 Indo-Pakistani war, a 13-day conflict spurred by Bangladesh’s bid for independence.
Former CBS News correspondent Tom Fenton, a Navy veteran and an award-winning reporter who was known as the dean of American foreign correspondents, died Tuesday morning, his son confirmed to CBS News. He was 94. https://t.co/L2FI0eWCcw pic.twitter.com/etWdTl3bNI
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) July 16, 2024
Yet, Fenton was no stranger to reporting on foreign politics and frequently interviewed foreign leaders. Notably, he became the first Western news correspondent to interview Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini after the overthrow of Iran’s ruling Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, in 1979.
Fenton served as CBS Bureau Chief in several of the network’s foreign offices over the years, including Rome, Tel Aviv, Paris, Moscow, and London, where he retired in 2004 at the age of 74. His son called his father’s time with CBS as a foreign correspondent his “cherished years.”
After retiring, Fenton wrote a controversial book, “Bad News: The Decline of Reporting, the Business of News, and the Danger to Us All,” describing how he believed mainstream media outlets had betrayed the American public by closing foreign news gathering operations after the fall of communism.
He felt the three major television news networks became little more than narrators reading reports from global wire services. Fenton believed that reporting style left the American public without a deeper context of world issues and unable to anticipate international events.
The native of Baltimore, Maryland, took a degree from Dartmouth College in 1952 before becoming a US Naval officer for ten years. He worked as a reporter for the Baltimore Sun until CBS offered him a job in 1970. He described meeting his wife, Simone France Marie Lopes-Curval, at a Discotec in Southern France and pursuing a whirlwind courtship. They raised two children abroad, a daughter, Ariane, and a son, Tom Jr.
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