Morley Safer Ruffles Feathers at Private Club

At the height of a messy internal dispute a few weeks ago, members of the exclusive Century Association in Manhattan traded unusually tart and testy e-mail messages.

But according to Michael Barbaro at nytimes.com,  the words of a single member stood out for their harsh tone: those of Morley Safer, the longtime correspondent for CBS’s “60 Minutes.”

As the Century debated whether to sever ties with an all-male club in London, Mr. Safer described a prominent female club member as “whining,” “self-pitying” and “vindictive.”

And he seemed to compare demands for gender equality to the need for special accommodations for “nudists and transsexuals,” according to e-mails obtained by The New York Times.

Mr. Safer, 79, wrote the e-mails in late 2010 and early 2011 as the Century concluded an emotional debate about whether to end an agreement with the Garrick Club in London that gave members access to both clubhouses.

Many Centurions, as members are known, argued that the Garrick’s policies smacked of chauvinism: while male members of the 164-year-old Century have unfettered access to the British club, women can enter only in the company of a man.

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