LOS ANGELES—Longtime news reporter Tony Valdez, an Emmy-winning trailblazer who worked for KTTV’s Fox 11 for 35 years, has died at the age of 78, the station announced May 5.
Valdez’s son told the station his father had been battling end-stage kidney failure and passed away at his home.
Valdez started working at KTTV in 1981 and retired in 2016.
“Tony Valdez was a trailblazing reporter, advocate, and mentor,” Fox 11 Acting News Director Pete Wilgoren said in a statement posted on the station’s website. “He was one of the first Latino journalists to break the color barrier in Los Angeles. And with pride, Tony said he spent 35 years, 5 months, and 4 days covering the stories of this city on KTTV. We are better journalists, and a better community, because of the coverage and compassion of Tony Valdez,”…