Veteran reporter Bernard Kalb, who worked as a foreign correspondent for The New York Times, CBS, and NBC, has died. Kalb, who also spent two years working as spokesman for the US State Department under President Ronald Reagan but resigned over a disinformation campaign against Libya, died on Sunday at his Maryland home from complications of a fall at the age of 100.
Kalb, the older brother of CBS and NBC reporter and news magazine host Marvin Kalb, also wrote two books with his brother – a 1974 biography of Henry Kissinger titled Kissinger, and a 1981 novel titled The Last Ambassador, and was the founding anchor and panelist for the CNN media analysis show Reliable Sources, which was canceled last year.
Kalb’s parents were both immigrants from Eastern Europe: His father was a tailor and his mother ran a dry cleaner in Washington Heights, He graduated from the City College of New York in 1942 and then spent two years in the US Army, where he worked on a military camp newspaper published in Alaska.
He worked for the New York Times for 15 years until 1961, including stints in Antarctica and Indonesia. He worked at CBS until 1980, first in Southeast Asia and then at the State Department; and then at NBC until 1985.
He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Phyllis; their four daughters, Tanah, Marina, Claudia, and Sarinah; 13 grandchildren and his brother.