A Retrospective: 28 Media Leaders Who Died This Decade
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As the face of media evolves, it’s important to honor the figures who helped define, shape and set the standards in their industries. These are some of the most prominent members of the media who passed away over the past 10 years. Take a look back with some snippets from their respective New York Times obituaries.
2000
Who: Charles Schultz
Major Accomplishment: His ‘Peanuts” strip reached readers in 75 countries, 2,600 papers and 21 languages every day. Schulz drew more than 18,250 strips in nearly 50 years.
Legacy: His saga of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy and Linus ”is arguably the longest story ever told by one human being,” Robert Thompson, a professor of popular culture at Syracuse University, observed.
Who: Steve Allen
Major Accomplishment: In more than 50 years in show business, Allen demonstrated his talents in many areas. An accomplished pianist who never learned to read music, he composed more than 5,000 songs, some of them hits.
Legacy: Allen was keenly interested in social justice and wrote pamphlets on a variety of issues, including the problems facing migrant workers, as well as capital punishment and nuclear proliferation.
Editor’s Note: Mediaite has been rightly called out for a big, glaring error: On our list of 28 media leaders we’ve lost this decade there was not a single person of color. Not a one. Read Mediaite editor-at-large Rachel Sklar’s entire mea culpa here and on page 11, we’ve added 5 of the deceased black media leaders that should have been mentioned initially.
>>>NEXT: In 2001 we lost William Hanna and Katharine Graham…
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7 comments
No Farrah Fawcett? She was a media icon! That poster alone was a huge deal!
But perhaps more confusing, no Michael Jackson?
Sure we’re all sick of hearing about the coverage… but come on, if ever there was a media star, he was it. From the birth of the music video, to the television commercials, to the movies, to the wacky stuff in the later years… not to mention the music… MJ was all things media! I think he deserves to be on the list, for sure.
Well done, Danny, a significant list indeed.
What, no Ed Bradley?
Guess it only matters if we lose white “media leaders,” huh?
And for the record, including Kate Hepburn, Bob Hope, William Hanna and Johnny Carson is totally stretching the “media” designation beyond all recognition.
These are “the figures who helped define, shape and set the standards in their industries” — but there’s no mention of John H. Johnson, founder of Ebony magazine? Carl T. Rowan, public servant, author and columnist? Ed Bradley, “60 Minutes” correspondent? August Wilson, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright? Not even Richard Pryor or Michael Jackson?
Thank you for updating the list.
Do understand that the criticism of the lack of diversity this morning was not a matter special pleading, but was based on merit. The gaping omissions spoke to credibility and authenticity of the list.
Regarding the additions, Chisholm did not win a primary, but she changed the California winner-take-all primary system in 1972.
Johnson’s Ebony/Jet had iconic journalistic moments and products: The Emmett Till casket photo in 1955, the photo of widow Coretta Scott King in 1968 and the seminal book “Before the Mayflower” by editor and popular historian Lerone Bennett Jr.
Why is the original list still available to be found on this site without having the mea culpa added to it? Also, your description of John Johnson is unacceptable.To state that the only reason why Ebony and Jet magazines were remarkable is because of race-specific advertising is missing the point in its entirety. The Johnson magazine empire is legendary because Johnson dared do – and succeeded – where others could not. Black folks were being lynched for being able to read and write and Johnson still decided to start a magazine that uplifted black folk.
Johnson was friends with presidents. He created America’s first black magazine amidst a most dangerous time. He gave opportunity to black journalists when whites were too racist to be bothered with us. I don’t know who wrote up this description, but a simple Google search would have turned up quite a bit more. You could also have read his bio or gone to the Web site. He was not legendary because of advertising alone. He’s legendary because he put black people on magazine covers. He told the stories of black people. He helped to cement our perceptions of black beauty. Most importantly though, for the first three decades, he told our stories when no one else would.
He’s legendary because he started something big and it stuck.
So by adding five African-Americans of note to the end of this list, we should be pleased? Are you serious? And what about other people “of color?” This was handled very, very poorly, all-around.
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