ChirpBlog

Av Westin was a producer and director, known for CBS Reports (1959), Our World (1986) and ABC World.

Av Westin was an influential television producer who rose from copy boy at CBS News for Edward R. Murrow in the 1940s to help make ABC’s “20/20” newsmagazine a perennial winner of Emmy Awards.

A documentarian at heart, Av Westin also ordered a series of features called “Moment of Crisis,” which looked back at news events like the disastrous explosion of the Challenger space shuttle and the efforts to save President Ronald Reagan’s life after he was wounded in an assassination attempt.

Av Westin’s time at “20/20” came to an end in February 1987, when he circulated an 18-page memo within ABC News and to its top executives at its parent company, Capital Cities/ABC, criticizing news-gathering procedures and calling the division inefficient and in need of a new focus.

Av Westin died on March 12 at a hospital in Manhattan, aged 92.

Av Westin was married to Ellen Rossen and she revealed that he died of cardiac arrest.

Av Westin had children but he kept them away from the media spotlight.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7u7PRZ6WerF%2Bau3DDyKSgaJmmYsSmv9OipWabkarApnnOn2SdnZGptW7DyJ%2BcZpuYnrmlvsSnZKiamanCor7YaA%3D%3D