Fred Friendly, 1915-1998

Fred W. Friendly, the esteemed former CBS News president who collaborated with Edward R. Murrow on some of TV's most groundbreaking documentaries, died Tuesday in New York after a series of strokes. He was 82. Friendly was the behind-the-scenes force on such documentaries as "Harvest of Shame" in 1961, about migrant farm workers, and the Murrow "See It Now" report that hastened the downfall of Sen. Joseph McCarthy. "He was my No. 1 cheerleader back to legitimacy," Geraldo Rivera, who was a student of Friendly's at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, told the Associated Press. "When I went into the show-bizzy aspects of the early days of my talk show, he would kind of roll his eyes and say, 'Oh, you were my smartest student. I know you've got to make money, but this is not my favorite thing.'"