54-year-old CBS News journalist Maria Mercader has sadly died from Covid-19 in a New York hospital. Mercader has been with CBS News for over thirty years and has been at the forefront on reporting breaking news as well as being part of growing CBS News network.
Mercader was strong willed and for twenty of the thirty years she worked at CBS News, battled cancer and related illnesses. Not only did she report on breaking news, but she also was a producer at CBS foreign news desk, and in 2004 won an Emmy Award for a piece she worked on for CBS Sunday Morning.
CBS News mourned the loss of Mercader with the network’s news president, Susan Zirinsky, expressing that she may be gone but always remembered:
“Even more than her talents as a journalist, we will miss her indomitable spirit, Maria was part of all of our lives. Even when she was hospitalized — and she knew something was going on at CBS, she would call with counsel, encouragement, and would say ‘you can do this.’ I called Maria a ‘warrior,’ she was. Maria was a gift we cherished.”
AAJA (Asian American Journalists Association) in their statement remembered Mercader as a mentor and a dear friend to many AAJA members:
“The Asian American Journalists Association sends our sympathies and condolences to the family of Maria Mercader, a longtime and beloved member of our community. Maria, 54, a cancer survivor, died Sunday of complications from COVID-19.”
“Maria was a dear mentor and friend to many AAJA members. She was a proud 2004 graduate of AAJA’s Executive Leadership Program in Chicago. She will be greatly missed.”
Mercader loved both ballet and music which is a testament to her mother who was the pianist for the American Ballet Theatre. AAJA has asked people to donate to the American Ballet Theatre and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center as a way of remembering Mercader and honoring her legacy.
CBS News aired a touching tribute to Mercader on the CBS Weekend News.
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