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Andrew Aitken Rooney (b. January 14, 1919) is an American radio and television writer. He became most famous as a humorist and commentator with his weekly broadcast A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney, a part of the CBS news program 60 Minutes since 1979.

Background

Rooney attended The Albany Academy in Albany, New York, and later attended Colgate University in Hamilton in upstate New York, until he was drafted into the Army in 1941. He began his career in newspapers there, writing for Stars and Stripes in the European Theater during World War II.

In February 1943, flying with the Eighth Air Force, he was one of six correspondents who flew on the first American bombing raid over Germany. Later, he was one of the first American journalists to visit the German concentration camps as World War II wound down, and one of the first to write about them.

CBS Career

Rooney joined CBS in 1949, as a writer for Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, when Godfrey was at his peak on CBS radio and TV. The program was a hit, reaching number one in 1952, during Rooney's tenure with the program. He also wrote for Godfrey's daytime radio and TV show Arthur Godfrey Time. He later moved on to The Garry Moore Show, where it also became a hit program. During the same period, he also wrote for CBS News public affairs programs such as The Twentieth Century.

According to CBS News's biography of him, Rooney wrote his first television essay, a longer-length precursor of the type he does on 60 Minutes, in 1964, “An Essay on Doors.” From 1962 to 1968, he collaborated with the late CBS News Correspondent Harry Reasoner—Rooney writing and producing, Reasoner narrating—on such notable CBS News specials as “An Essay on Bridges” (1965), “An Essay on Hotels” (1966), “An Essay on Women” (1967), and “The Strange Case of the English Language” (1968). “An Essay on War” (1971) won Rooney his third Writers Guild Award. In 1968, he wrote two CBS News specials in the series “Of Black America.” His script for “Black History: Lost, Stolen or Strayed” won him his first Emmy.

A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney

Though originally a regular correspondent, Rooney now has his own "end-of-show" segment, A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney, in which he offers satire on a trivial everyday issue, such as the cost of groceries, annoying relatives, or faulty Christmas presents. Rooney's often irritable observations are frequently parodied. In recent years his segments have become more political, as well. A strong liberal, Rooney has been very critical of George W. Bush and the 2003 Iraq War. Despite being known best for these segments, Rooney has always considered himself a writer who appears on television.

His shorter television essays have been archived in numerous books, such as Common Nonsense, which came out in 2002, and Years of Minutes, released in 2003. He also has a regular syndicated newspaper column that runs in many newspapers in the United States. He has won three Emmy Awards for his essays, which now number more than 800. He was also awarded a Lifetime Achievement Emmy.

Family Life

He has four children, including a daughter, Emily Rooney, who is also a journalist and former ABC News producer; she currently hosts a nightly Boston-area public affairs program, Greater Boston, on WGBH. His son Brian Rooney has been a correspondent for ABC since the 1980's. His wife of 62 years, Marguerite, died in 2004. He currently lives in the Rowayton section of Norwalk, Connecticut.

Trivia

• He has admitted on Larry King Live to having a liberal bias, stating, "There is just no question that I, among others, have a liberal bias. I mean, I'm consistently liberal in my opinions."

• Rooney has been rumored to be an atheist for several years. Speculation on this was brought to a head by a series of comments he made regarding Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ (2004). However, in public comments, he has described himself as an agnostic, saying "only an idiot would believe in God, and only an idiot would deny he exists."

• In 2003, an e-mail purporting to be a 60 Minutes transcript began circulating on the Internet. The e-mail assigns numerous political opinions to Rooney. Rooney claimed the remarks were not his, stating, "There's a collection of racist and sexist remarks on the Internet under a picture of me with the caption ‘ANDY ROONEY SAID ON 60 MINUTES.’ If I could find the person who did write it using my name I would sue him".

• Rooney appeared on an episode of Da Ali G Show getting extremely frustrated by the character's lack of grammar skills and questions such as why doesn't the media report the news that happens tomorrow a day earlier. Rooney ended the interview which caused Ali G then to claim that Rooney was "racialist."

Books

• Out of My Mind, 2006 (ISBN 1-58648-416-8)
• Years of Minutes, 2003 (ISBN 1-58648-211-4)
• Common Nonsense, 2002, (ISBN 1-58648-144-4)
• Sincerely, Andy Rooney, 1999 (ISBN 1-891620-34-7)
• My War, 1997 (ISBN 0-517-17986-5)
• Sweet and Sour, 1992 (ISBN 0-399-13774-2)
• Most of Andy Rooney, 1990 (ISBN 0-88365-765-1)
• Not That You Asked..., 1989 (ISBN 0-394-57837-6)
• Word for Word, 1988 (ISBN 0-399-13200-7)
• The Most of Andy Rooney, 1986 (ISBN 0-689-11864-3)
• Pieces of My Mind, 1986 (ISBN 0-689-11492-3)
• And More by Andy Rooney, 1985 (ISBN 0-517-40622-5)
• The Complete Andy Rooney, 1983 (ISBN 0-446-11219-4)
• A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney, 1981 (ISBN 0-689-11194-0)

References

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1998/07/08/60minutes/main13495.shtml

External links

• Archive of previous "A Few Minutes..." segments
• Andy Rooney Podcast among other CBS podcasts
• Snopes.com on Rooney E-Mail Snopes.com's article on false e-mail claims

• 1919 births
• Living people
• American agnostics
• American journalists
• American television journalists
• American World War II veterans
• Broadcast news analysts
• CBS personalities
• Commentators
• Irish-American writers
• People from Albany, New York
• People from Norwalk, Connecticut
• Sigma Chi brothers
• United States Army soldiers