TV news pioneer Joseph Wershba, an Emmy-winning CBS News producer and reporter, whose work helped to bring the McCarthy witch hunts to an end, has died at the age of 90.

The Associated Press reports that Wershba, who was one of the original '60 Minutes' producers, died at his home at Long Island, New York of complications from pneumonia.

In a statement, CBS News Chairman Jeff Fager said, "Joe Wershba was a wonderful man who was a pioneer of broadcast journalism, without the notoriety of his more celebrated colleagues Ed Murrow and Don Hewitt. ... Almost everything he touched became part of the foundation for CBS News, including '60 Minutes.'"

In 1954 Wershba led a report on Sen. McCarthy for Edward R. Murrow's CBS TV news segment, 'See It Now.' The exposé helped discredit McCarthy, and was one of the inspirations for the movie 'Good Night and Good Luck,' in which Wershba was played by Robert Downey, Jr.

(S07E02) I really thought this was going to be a superb Monk. It had all the elements of a top notch cat and mouse affair, starting with guest star David Strathairn -- so brilliant in Good Night and Good Luck as Edward R. Murrow -- as a chess grand master, Patrick Kloster. The set up was elegant; Kloster's wife hires Monk to investigate her murder because she is certain her husband will follow through on his perfect plan to kill her. Within a day, she's dead and the chess master has an airtight alibi. How did he do it? It was a Columbo gambit, and only a genius like Columbo -- or Monk -- could figure it out.

Unfortunately, this episode wasn't written by Levinson and Link. The clues to the mystery fell into place without any great surprise or twist. The wife was poisoned when she drank from a secret stash of oleander laced wine, which was never found. That was just Monk's supposition after swiping the flowers from the garden. That would be inadmissible evidence because he had no warrant to get them from Kloster's home. Then he actually tried to plant the evidence -- again, not very smart or Monk-like.