Edward Matthew Joyce (December 13, 1932 – August 2, 2014) was a former television executive. He was president of

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...

. He lived for many years in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Santa Ynez Valley The Santa Ynez Valley is located in Santa Barbara County, California, between the Santa Ynez Mountains to the south and the San Rafael Mountains to the north. The Santa Ynez River flows through the valley from east to west. The Santa Ynez Valle ...

and in

Redding, Connecticut Redding is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 8,765 at the 2020 census. History Early settlement and establishment At the time colonials began receiving grants for land within the boundaries of present-d ...

Biography

Early life

Born in Phoenix, Arizona during the Depression, Ed Joyce’s father was a member of the

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

(an unemployment combatant during the FDR administration), making travel commonplace (think cardboard boxes, second hand at that, a precious commodity during the Depression) for the Joyce family. They moved throughout the Southwest where Ed’s father would trade advertisement in his magazine (as a side job ctually his only job, ''The Last Frontier'', for tangible goods. This was Ed’s first exposure to the world of media. He would later attend the University of Wyoming and work at small radio station as a janitor/DJ. From his media debut in small-time radio, he moved to television in Utica and Schenectady, New York.

CBS Radio and CBS News

He then hooked up with CBS Radio, first in Chicago and later in New York, where he was given a daily discussion program called “The Talk of New York” and the opportunity to interview such individuals as civil rights activist

Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Is ...

and sports legend

Jackie Robinson Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line ...

. His success with the radio station and program was only the initial step in his corporate climb. First, he earned a position as an executive producer for the

radio network, then a news director for a television station in New York, third, a Vice President of the news for all five stations in New York, then the general manager for stations in Chicago, including

WBBM-TV WBBM-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. Owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, the station maintains studios on West Washington Stre ...

, where he was well known for his decisive management style, so much so that some disgruntled employees referred to him as the "velvet shiv". Later he was dispatched to Los Angeles, and New York, culminating his career as the President of CBS News. One of his more prominent accolades was his investigation and publication on the Kennedy-Chappaquiddick fiasco wherein he bypassed the conventional reporting of events and delivered the story for what it was: sensational and dubious. He took note of the fact that Senator Kennedy was in fact a senator, and that he had walked for over a mile from the accident, past two lighted houses, waded a shallow stream, taken a bus, stopped for a lobster roll, bought an ice cream cone, gone beach combing and then waited 12 hours before reporting anything. Ed’s initiative and burning desire for truth earned him the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi journalistic award which he graciously shared with his colleagues who had given him invaluable assistance.

Memoir

In 1988, Doubleday published ''Prime Times Bad Times,'' Joyce's memoir of his time as president of CBS News. Then-

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

TV and radio critic

Robert Feder Robert Feder (born May 17, 1956) is an American media blogger who was the television and radio columnist for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1980 until 2008, a blogger for Vocalo.org from 2009 until 2010, and a blogger for ''Time Out Chicago'' fro ...

reviewed the book in May 1988, calling it an "unbelievably detailed, if utterly self-serving, record of chaos at CBS from the moment

Dan Rather Daniel Irvin Rather Jr. (; born October 31, 1931) is an American journalist, commentator, and former national evening news anchor. Rather began his career in Texas, becoming a national name after his reporting saved thousands of lives during Hurr ...

succeeded

Walter Cronkite Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' for 19 years (1962–1981). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the mo ...

as nightly news anchorman in 1981 until Joyce's downfall." Feder also wrote that Joyce was "widely regarded throughout his career as aloof, arrogant and insensitive to others," and that the book did "little to dispel that reputation despite the familiar alibi that he was only following orders." Feder concluded by writing that Joyce "wastes our time settling old scores and vainly trying to rehabilitate his image."

Personal life

Journalism is a family tradition. His only son, Randall Joyce is A Producer for CBS NEWS 60 Minutes. Also an award winner, he won an Emmy for his investigative report on the proliferation of dangerous reptiles in suburban, southwest Florida. Joyce and his wife, Maureen Jarry Joyce, moved from California's Santa Ynez Valley to Redding, Connecticut in 2007. Joyce died of throat cancer at his Redding, Connecticut home on August 2, 2014 at the age of 81.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Joyce, Ed American television executives 1932 births 2014 deaths CBS executives Presidents of CBS News People from Redding, Connecticut People from Santa Barbara County, California