PBS To Air Documentary On Slain Mexican-American Journalist

Shortly after Mexican-American journalist Ruben Salazar's untimely death in 1970 at the age of 42, I received from the Los Angeles Times a booklet containing some of his columns for the paper. In the back of the booklet was the eulogy delivered by Times publisher Otis Chandler at Salazar's funeral.
Said Chandler: "He [Salazar] was a fighter, a firm believer that all men, regardless of color or language barrier, could, in the end, live together peacefully and productively in our city.


"But he knew that before this could happen," continued Chandler, "the Anglo community had to understand the basic problems in the minority communities."

The Los Angeles Times published an article (January 8, 2014) that reported that on April 29, PBS will air a documentary called Ruben Salazar: Man in the Middle. I eagerly await the broadcast of this documentary about a courageous and important journalist whose name and work should never be forgotten.

No doubt public radio's On the Media will do a segment on the documentary prior to its scheduled airdate.

Honoring The Dead (2012)

Several months ago, Charlie Rose devoted an entire episode of his late-night public television show to video clips of past guests who died in 2012. The broadcast was riveting and memorable. After each clip, viewers were shown a still photo of the guest with the years of birth and date superimposed on the screen. Among the late luminaries interviewed by Rose and who were featured in the memorial telecast  were playwright/journalist Nora Ephron (b. 1941), film director Tony Scott (b. 1944), novelist Gore Vidal (b. 1925), jazz pianist Dave Brubeck (b. 1920), journalist Mike Wallace (b. 1918), scholar Jacques Barzun (b. 1907), novelist Carlos Fuentes (b. 1928), politician George McGovern (b. 1922), actor Andy Griffith (b. 1926), and art scholar/author Robert Hughes (b. 1938).