Arrive Magazine - March/April, 2007

North Carolina Sen. B. Everett Jordan. He earned his law degree from Duke in 1969, then went to business school at New York University. He ended up in the banking industry but, in 1972, got a job reporting for a local TV station on weekends. In 1974, his lifelong mentor, Bill Moyers, hired Rose as managing editor for his PBS programs. Under Moyers’ tutelage, Rose eventually went before the camera and flourished. The two remain very close, and the friendship is the source of much introspection for Rose. In speaking about Moyers, you get the sense that Rose—no matter how many awards he’ll win or high-prestige guests he’ll book—feels that he’ll never measure up to his mentor.

“He’s such a gifted communicator,” Rose says, “and he writes remarkably well. We are two different people— I’m more politically centrist, and he’s more left-leaning. He has so much of a stronger, better-tuned sense of conveying interest in certain issues than I. He’s much deeper about spirituality, for example. But he was and remains my greatest influence, and a dear friend.”

Gorbachev, there is no 300-page stack of research papers to prepare him. He can’t dial up pals at The New Yorker and The New York Times to ^Three ^months ^afterundergoing emergency surgery in Paris, Rose was back in the studio.

n June 12, 2006, Rose has a challenging guest

Oscheduled. But, unlike his experience with

get a sense of his subject’s persona. There are no tapes to
watch or books to read that will prepare him for this broadcast. manages to be both gracious and defiant. “Welcome to the
As a result, Charlie Rose produces one of his finest broadcast,” he says in his opening, his North Carolina drawl
hours of television. That’s because, on this June 12 broad- as inviting as ever. “As I was saying before we were so rudely
cast, the guest is Charlie Rose. interrupted—by my heart—you should know I’ve missed you
For several weeks preceding the show, Rose’s loyal view- and never doubted I would come back. And you shouldn’t
ers feared that they’d lose their favorite talker. On March 29 worry I’m coming back too soon.”
last year, Rose started feeling short of breath while on travel in Then, in a rare occurrence, he allows himself to be
Syria. He ended up in a Paris hospital to repair a mitral valve. grilled. The interviewer is none other than the great Bill Moy-
For a while, things didn’t look good. Rose was sedated for three ers. Moyers is aggressive. He’s trying to get at Rose—Damn it,
weeks. His producer, Vega, visited him daily. His former wife, Charlie, why do you work so hard at this interviewing thing?
Mary, flew to Paris to be with him for several weeks. Other “With all of your reruns, Charlie, you will never die,” Moy-
friends and family called and came to be with him. The experi- ers says. “You will go on. ... What is it about this job that you
ence changed Rose, so much that this past summer he had his want to keep doing? Why do you keep doing it? Knowing that
staff—along with their children—to his bayside home on Long you’ve been in touch with mortality, why do you—”

Island for some touch football and old-fashioned revelry. “This Rose cuts him off. “It makes me want to do it better,” he is actually fun,” Rose remarked, as if he had discovered some- says. “Better.” thing for the first time. “Let’s have more of these.” And he will. That’s the essential Charlie Rose. The work—regardless of “I think being in the hospital helped him realize that he which stage of perfection it’s in—remains its own reward. can relax a bit more,” Vega says. “He’s always going to work “The idea of slowing down doesn’t have meaning for me,” hard. But it showed to him that he has a lot of people who he says. “Everyone says I’m supposed to slow down, because care about him very much. It demons trated to him that he’s they care for me. Because they care, I’ll listen. And I’m not say-already at the apex of his career an d l ife now, and he can take ing that I don’t work too hard, or get on too many planes, or do a few moments to appreciate it better.” too much of everything else. But when people say slow down By June 12 he goes back before _the _camera. _On _his _return _show _he and smell the roses? I tell them I’m smelling more roses than anyone else I know.”