The CBS journalist known for his interrogative style Veteran US journalist Mike Wallace, who once declared there was \"no such thing as an indiscreet question\", has died aged 93, the CBS network said on Sunday. In almost 40 years on 60 Minutes , the ground-breaking investigative journalism show on CBS, Wallace worked on 800 reports, won 20 Emmys, and developed a relentless on-air style that was more interrogation than interview.
His death was announced on CBS\'s Sunday morning news show, Face the Nation. \"He was one of the great pioneers in journalism,\" said host Bob Schieffer. \"We are all going to miss him.\" Wallace had interviewed every US president since Kennedy – except George W Bush – and dozens of other world leaders including Yasser Arafat, Ayatollah Khomeini and Deng Xiaoping. Other interview subjects included Malcolm X, singer Janis Joplin, Martin Luther King, television star Johnny Carson, pianist Vladimir Horowitz and Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.
While just about anyone who made news in the US during the past six decades had to submit to a grilling, Wallace did draw criticism for his go-for-the-throat style and the theatrics that sometimes accompanied it.
He also became caught up in a $120m libel suit brought by a retired general, William C Westmoreland, over a CBS documentary on Vietnam. The suit was dropped but triggered depression that led Wallace to a suicide attempt.
He died on Saturday with his family at his side in New Haven, Connecticut.