Linda Mason, pioneering CBS News producer, dies at 84
CBS News said Linda Mason, its first female “CBS Evening News” producer, died at 84 surrounded by family.
By Frankie Delgado · News Reporter
2 min read
Linda Mason dies at 84, CBS News said, closing the story of a 47-year network career that began at a radio desk and rose to the producer’s chair at the “CBS Evening News.” The network said Mason died peacefully Wednesday night while surrounded by family.
Mason joined CBS News in 1966 as a radio desk assistant. In 1971, she became the first female producer on the “CBS Evening News” after joining the broadcast as a field producer, according to the International Women’s Media Foundation.
She later served as a senior producer on the evening broadcast during the tenures of anchors Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather. A CBS News retirement tribute in 2013 said Mason had worked at the network for 47 years.
What did Linda Mason do at CBS News?
Mason’s jobs ran from producing broadcasts to setting newsroom standards. CBS News said she was executive producer of “CBS News Sunday Morning,” oversaw and executive-produced the documentary series “CBS Reports,” served as vice president of public affairs and led the network’s standards department.
Her other credits included the CBS News magazine “Eye to Eye” and the anniversary specials “60 Minutes … 25 Years” and “60 Minutes at 30,” CBS News reported.
For “Sunday Morning,” Mason reported on Ronald Reagan’s first visit to the Soviet Union, the funeral of Japanese Emperor Hirohito and unrest in China before the Tiananmen Square uprising, according to CBS News.
The International Women’s Media Foundation said Mason also oversaw CBS News standards and practices, the network’s archives, internship programs and minority recruiting. She led the network’s internal examination of its Election Night 2000 mistakes, which resulted in an 87-page report and changes to CBS News election-night procedures, the group said.
A career that began in Middletown
Raised in Middletown, New York, Mason received an honors degree in international relations from Brown University in 1964. She earned a master’s degree in filmmaking from Syracuse University the following year, CBS News said.
Her work earned 13 Emmy Awards, three Peabody Awards, an Edward R. Murrow Award, an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award and the Grand Prize of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards, according to CBS News. Brown gave her its William Rogers Award in 1991, and the Deadline Club inducted her into its Hall of Fame in 2013, the International Women’s Media Foundation said.
Mason retired from CBS News in 2013. The network’s farewell video described her as a veteran producer and mentor to young journalists.
This story draws on original reporting from CBS News.