Ed Bradley, O.J. & Me
By Daniel D. Ziegler
Ed Bradley is gone but remembered by me.
In early June of 1994, when I was working at Turtle Lake Resort near Union
City, Michigan, and the news was still fairly fresh that we were now a nudist
resort, it attracted the attention of not only the local newspapers but eventually
was picked up by the national wire services as well. The wire services picked
up on it when one of the local papers told of how one of our members, an
ordained minister, was booted from his church when church authorities found
out he was a nudist. When the wire services picked up that story, our phones
began going crazy.
One of the many reporters that called during this frenzied time was none
other than Ed Bradley of 60 Minutes. He wanted to do something on nudism
for 60 Minutes, but something different from the usual sensationalism that we
all had seen on TV up until then. Inspired by the story of our minister member,
what he had in mind was a piece focusing on the personal and spiritual
growth aspects of the nudist lifestyle. "Wow!" I thought. "Here is a man who
understands." This was right down my alley too and perhaps I would finally
get a chance to express my thoughts on nudism to a national audience.
Being the spokes person for the resort, he spoke with me on the phone on a
couple occasions, making sure we were on the same page and getting
together on dates, etc. But it never happened.
June 12, 1994.
Enter O.J.
It was then that the whole O. J. Simpson story broke and for the next several
weeks, that story monopolized the news. I called Ed Bradley a couple times
during all that and not surprisingly he told me that the O. J. story was now the
hottest thing going, and even though he still wanted to do the piece on
nudism, it would have to wait. I never heard back from him.
Thanks, O. J.!
November 9, 2006.
Good bye, Ed. We almost did it... but, ironically, sensationalism won again.
Copyright 2008 Daniel D. Ziegler
LESS-ONS FOR TRUTH
Reclaiming Acceptance of our Original State