Ed Joyce (journalist)

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Edward Joyce is a former television executive was president of CBS News. He currently lives with his wife Maureen in California's Santa Ynez Valley.

Born during the Depression, Ed Joyce’s father was a member of the Civilian Conservation Corps (an unemployment combatant during the FDR administration), making travel commonplace for the Joyce family. They moved throughout the Southwest where Ed’s father would trade advertisement in his magazine (as a side 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. 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 demagogue Malcolm X and sports legend Jackie Robinson. 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 CBS News 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 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: enigmatic 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, and waited 12 hours before reporting anything. Ed’s initiative and desire for truth earned him the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi journalistic award.