Andy Rooney expressed 1,097 notions on national TV. 1,097 commentary pieces for 60 Minutes from a man from another time, a man possessing some thoughts that are, rightly, considered backwards. Always cranky, but occasionally insightful, the long time CBS News contributor and writer died yesterday at the age of 92.
Rooney is not, by definition, a cult figure. He wasn't an actor or a director. He didn't "belong" to us, to this era of polish and precision. An old man in a chair spouting off his "observations" to a world that had grown away from such simple things.
Rooney retired from CBS and 60 Minutes about a month ago, essentially ending a career that had begun with CBS Radio in 1949. He said during his final broadcast, “I wish I could do this forever. I can’t, though.”
I don't know if Rooney will be remembered for his diatribes against the inconveniences of air travel or his role at the forefront of TV news. Will we know him for the bouts of controversy that popped up during his career surrounding race and homosexuality, or his stand against CBS in the early 70's when they refused to air his essay against the Vietnam War?
I don't know that Rooney will be remembered at all. Do we do that anymore? Remember? Or has that stodgy convention passed us by as well? Maybe Andy Rooney won't be remembered by many of us, not beyond the next few days or weeks. That's not a comment on him, but rather on us and our inability to recall that which stands still. A regression, and the cost levied upon us for our endless information and limitless distractions.
Let us remember Rooney in this moment before the memory flies off into the ether. Remember him for those moments of integrity, that marriage to the truth, and the dedication he had to a craft that was originally born to deliver information to a world that had little.
A life, flawed, yet remarkable for its peaks and valleys, it's longevity, its footprint, and its proximity to history.
