Richard Wagner, who hosted the CBS Evening News for over three decades, died at the age of 85. Longtime CBS news correspondent who is most recognized for his contributions to the network’s coverage of the Vietnam War.
Wagner’s wife confirms that he has died.
Donna Lewis-Wagner, Richard Wagner’s widow, confirmed his death with a heavy heart. She stated that her spouse died at his home in Charlottesville, Virginia, at the age of 85. The reason for death, however, has yet to be revealed.
A Career in Journalism That Is Exciting
When Walker Cronkite and Dan Rather were the anchors of CBS Evening News, Wagner was a regular. In 1964, while based in Saigon, he started working for CBS News. He covered the Vietnam Battle there at a time when military activities and access to war zones were constrained by the limits of military operations. Wagner addressed the terrifying aspects of combat reporting in a 2018 podcast:
Wagner had offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seattle in the United States. He covered everything from the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster to the Love Canal chemical pollution, the Challenger disaster, and neo-Nazi operations in the Pacific Northwest to the World Series and the Boston Marathon.
An International Reach…
Wagner reported from all 50 states and at least 50 foreign places over his three decades with CBS News. Wagner traveled to many places to report on various topics. He worked in London, Saigon, Hong Kong, and Johannesburg, among other places.
This provided him with the opportunity to cover crises in Northern Ireland, anti-government violence in South Korea, China’s democratic revolution, and Nelson Mandela’s release.
Wagner is most known for his coverage of South Africa’s democratic transition from apartheid. In the 1970s and 1980s, he spent a lot of time reporting on developments in Central America. Wagner, for example, won the Sigma Delta Chi prize for radio reporting in El Salvador in 1984. He was there with John Hoagland, a Newsweek photographer. who was killed as a result of a crossfire
In 1987, Richard worked in the Persian Gulf and won the Overseas Press Club Ben Grauer Award for Best Radio Spot News Reporting from Abroad. Wagner also covered events in Baghdad coming up to Operation Desert Storm’s beginning.
Other foreign assignments for Wagner include reporting on the situation in Egypt following President Anwar el-assassination, Sadat’s the Ayatollah’s return from exile in Tehran, the Iranian revolution, the war over the Falklands in South America, and the ouster of Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines.
Wagner was also the first Health and Science correspondent for CBS News. His work covering conflicts in other countries, on the other hand, is highly praiseworthy. Wagner will be remembered as a fearless reporter for the rest of his life.