Mike Wallace Never Jumped the Shark.

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Author: Unknown

EDITORIAL

Mike Wallace retiring? It can't be.

If ever there were an end of an era, this is one. For more than six decades, Mr. Wallace has provided TV audiences with a welcome and intelligent persona, one that developed over the years from a general TV personality into a renowned, vigilant truth-seeker with a comforting youthful appearance that made immortality seem possible.

It's mind-boggling to think that his career goes all the way back to the medium's earliest days, predating such antiquities as "What's My Line?," "Gunsmoke" and even "I Love Lucy."

Game show host, cigarette pitchman, aggressive interviewer and hard-hitting investigative reporter, Mr. Wallace did it all, growing with the medium as he helped define it. Sometimes he learned as he went: In an infamous live ABC-TV interview with mobster Mickey Cohen, Mr. Wallace failed to counteract Mr. Cohen's slanderous rant about the Los Angeles police chief, causing big headaches for the network and for a time damaging Mr. Wallace's reputation as a network newsman. But he persisted and ultimately prevailed when CBS News put him on staff in 1963.

It is beyond amazing that an 87-year-old man can hold a prominent position in the front ranks of television news. But Mr. Wallace's long run is largely attributable to the fact that he never became a shadow of his former self. He remains vital, contemporary, connected.

And he has yet to back off, even on the lighter-weight interviews.

In his 2005 memoir, "Between You and Me," he recounts his 1979 "60 Minutes" interview with a reticent Johnny Carson, whom Mr. Wallace confronted about his one-time drinking problem after Mr. Carson made a comment about a politician's dependence on alcohol.

"Of course, it takes one to know one," Mr. Wallace posed to Mr. Carson, who proceeded to acknowledge his own battle with the bottle.

"Ah, cruel. You're cruel," Mr. Carson quipped.

Earlier, Mr. Carson had made light of Mr. Wallace's penchant for grilling bad guys.

"Why are you doing this now? I'm not running a boiler-room operation. I have no phony real estate scam. I'm not taking any kickbacks. I did steal a ring from Woolworth's once when I was 12 years old, and I think that's why you're here," Mr. Carson said

"We're doing this because you're a national treasure. That's what they tell me, you're a national treasure," Mr. Wallace replied.

Of course, it takes one to know one.