An Atlanta television news pioneer, Ed Blair left his imprint on the coverage of current events here, whether they were of international or local origin.
“Ed was more a work horse than a show horse at CNN,” said Dave Walker of Mountain Brook, Ala., a retired CNN reporter and anchor.
“As a news director, Ed was bright and knowledgeable,” Walker continued, “As a writer and as an editor of other people’s writing, he was a perfectionist, constantly striving for the best way to describe a news event. He taught classes on news writing for CNN newcomers to encourage them to develop a direct, conversational style.”
Early in his 15-year tenure during CNN's formative years, Blair wrote "A Guide for Writers" for CNN staffers. Former news executive Ed Turner called the 295-page book of instructions "the CNN bible."
CNN news editor Lorraine Bennett, now retired and living in Murphy, N.C., found it a pleasure to work with Blair. “Ed had a calming effect in a pressure-cooker environment,” she said.
Edgar Thayer Blair, 84, died March 21 at his Atlanta home of cancer. His memorial service is 1:30 p.m. Sunday at the First Lutheran Church, 2800 McCallie Ave., Chattanooga, Tenn. The family asks that donations in his memory be directed to Shallowford Presbyterian Church, 2375 Shallowford Road, Atlanta, GA 30345. Advantage Funeral Home, Lilburn, is in charge of arrangements.
Born and reared in Chattanooga, Blair began his broadcast career there at station WDEF, then moved to Atlanta to anchor and produce a daily news report called “Georgia Panorama” on WAGA radio. Its ratings success helped persuade station management in 1958 to offer a similar program on WAGA-TV, 45 minutes in length, with Blair as anchor and news director.
“Ed insisted that we reporters should be completely impartial in our reporting,” said Vic Lambert of Atlanta, a former WAGA-TV newsman. “We covered all sides of a burning issue such as civil rights in the ’60s.”
Lambert said while WAGA’s news report was balanced, Blair was one of the first news directors in the country to devote a regular portion of the news report to editorial opinion. “And it was clearly labeled as such,” Lambert said.
A frequent target of Blair’s editorials was Georgia’s notorious county unit system, which favored rural Georgians over those living in the state’s six largest metro areas. The disenfranchising effect of the county unit system was eventually struck down by federal courts as unconstitutional. U.S. District Court Judge Frank Hooper gave WAGA-TV credit for shaping public opinion and creating an atmosphere conducive to the outlawing of the system.
In 1965 Blair took what he called his sabbatical from the news business. He bought a 77-passenger DC-7 jetliner, and for four years he operated a members-only travel organization that flew participants from Atlanta to pleasurable destinations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. “The world is our playground; the plane our clubhouse” was the group’s slogan.
He also spent another four years researching and writing a book entitled “Odyssey of Terror,” which told of the nerve-wracking 1972 skyjacking of a Southern Airlines plane that was supposed to fly from Birmingham to Montgomery but was diverted, first to Toronto, then to Havana, where the passengers were rescued and the skyjackers were captured by Cuban authorities.
Survivors include his wife, Caswan “Cat” Blair, and a stepson, Tommy T. Blair of Guangzhou, China.
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