From My Memory Bank - How 60 Minutes Come to Be

During the early years of my time in TV news, I was fortunate enough to know and work with Mike Wallace, Harry Reasoner, Don Hewitt and others in later years.

 

But how did 60 Minutes come into being?

 

Fred Friendly was CBS News president at the time. Don Hewitt, respected news gadfly, had finished a documentary on Frank Sinatra (I think the first on Sinatra). Included were never-before-seen footage of Sinatra cutting an album in real time, his back stage entrance onto the MSG stage, his performance, Sinatra's bio and more. It was a great doc but Fred Friendly wouldn't put it on the air because it wasn't "news".

 

I was in the main newsroom to hear the Hewitt side of his conversation with Fred Friendly on the subject. To say the least, it was a loud conversation.

 

As a result of that conversation, Don was banished to the rear of the production center -- a former dairy between 10-11th ave on 57th St. That's where all the film projectors & telop machines were housed. Believe me, it was a remote part of the building. His secretary was one Suzanne Davis, a brilliant girl, who -- in a 6 degrees of separation moment -- turned out to be my college girlfriend's roommate.

 

Months, probably more than a year, it was rumored that Don was working on a new project. One day, in the hallway outside the Evening News studio-newsroom, Hewitt asked to borrow my stop watch, a new split second Heur.

 

By the time '60 Minutes' debuted, Fred Friendly had resigned over principle and Dick Salant (also a wonderful but very different executive) had replaced him. Don Hewitt and '60 Minutes' had found an ally on executive row.

 

Lo & behold, Don had filmed my stop watch running for a full 60 minutes and, of course used it (in actual time) as a logo & bumpers between segments on his new show. The original anchors were Wallace & Reasoner.

 

That's how '60 Minutes' came to be.

15,000 news locusts

I've always wondered what would have happened if 15,000 journalists focused their attention on a real story of import; how history might have been changed. 

From Morning Media Newsfeed:

"At the 2012 Conventions, 15,000 Journalists Search for a Story (HuffPost / The Backstory) Scoops and valuable, legitimate nuggets of insight and information are hard to come by in Conventionland, yet reporters who swarmed the halls en masse in Tampa are all at it again in Charlotte, where the Democrats kicked off their election kabuki Tuesday [...] "

I had fun times working with her in the early years of GMA

Bootie Call > OMG !!

Past Joys > Sesame Street Season 1 (1969-1970)

News democracy may be coming to America

“As more people get news from cable channels and websites that offer a particular point of view 24/7, it becomes increasingly important for viewers to sample multiple sources in order to best understand the issues and proposed solutions,” said Michael Freedman, a professor of media and public affairs at George Washington and executive director of its Global Media Institute. “This trend is only increasing.”

Related articles by Zemanta

• Tuning to cable TV for election news

Sunday morning viewing

Christian Amanpour's "This Week" covered one important & terribly sad issue: Army suicides. But it struck me that in her interview with vice chief of staff of the army, General Peter Chiarelli, who is in charge of solving this problem, I heard more from Amanpour than I did from Chiarelli. Not good for an interviewer.


I forgot about 'Face The Nation' & felt like I had 'been there, done that' with David Gregory's "Meet the Press" so I didn't bother.


On the other hand, Chris Matthews and his merry band voted 7 to 5 that Hillary Clinton would run as Obama's Vice President in 2012, switching jobs with Joe Biden.


And then Mathews ran some absolutely charming stories told by Bob Smith, the former White House pianist who entertained presidents from Nixon through Clinton.


Mr. Smith told the story about Richard Nixon used to order aboard empty bottles of very expensive vintage wines when entertaining on the Presidential yacht, Sequoia.. Then, before his guests arrived, he would stand at the bar with a funnel, filling the bottles with swill akin to Carlo Rossi. And when all his guests later rose in a toast, relishing their fine wines, he'd wink at the piano player as if to say: "Got 'em!".


Cary Grant ducked out of a White House dinner to sit down & play a few tunes with Mr. Smith. When dinner was announced, Cary Grant, who had been standing next to the piano with his cocktail, didn't follow the crowd into the next room. 'Mr. Grant', said the piano player, 'aren't you hungry? Don't you want any dinner?' 'No', Mr. Grant replied, explaining he was tired of everything, including being Cary Grant. All he wanted to do was to be Archie Leach (his real name), to listen to Cole Porter music & to reminisce -- which is exactly what he did for the next hour or so.


And finally, Mr. Smith told the following anecdote. After Bush senior won the presidency, the entire Bush clan came back to the White House to celebrate. And as Smith explained it, he recognized everyone: sister Dorothy, brothers Jeb, Neil, etc. etc. & then there was this guy who sat in the corner....


Chris Wallace of Fox News had an interesting interview with Ted Olsen, a conservative, who successfully argued for the rights of gays to marry (in opposition to California's Prop 8) before a gay, Republican Federal Judge. It was Olsen's contention, as a conservative, that this right is granted under the 14th amendment to the constitution & that the judge was anything but an activist judge; more to the point: he was following the original meanings of the 14th amendment.


It was clear that in the interview that Chris Wallace was totally outmatched by Ted Olsen who is used to this question and answer format, having argued so many cases before the Supreme Court. Chris Wallace tipped his hat to Olsen at the end of the interview.


Fareed Zakaria, of CNN, had two interesting interviews: one with Hamid Gul, the 74 year old former Pakistani ISA chief who is named in the WikiLeaks documents as plotting with the Taliban against Allied interests, particularly the United States. But as Gul pointed out in the interview, the U.S. pays for information & the Afghanies, a 'wily bunch who will do anything for money', simply manufacture information to get the money. Given the poverty in Afghanistan, this probably makes some sense. On the other hand, it is hard to imagine that these tips aren't well corroborated. However, I was surprised to hear Gul TOTALLY dismiss Hamid Karzai and call the Afghanies a 'treacherous' bunch. It seems there's no love lost there. Gul is credited with helping to organize the  Mujaheddin to fight against the, then, Soviet Union.


The second interview was with Serbia's well spoken, 35 year old Foreign Minister, Vuk Jeremic,  (someone I knew nothing about) who stated categorically that the current government is committed to solving all their problems with breakaway Kosovo diplomatically and legally; dismissing any & all military options as a thing of the past. If this is so, it would be a tremendous advance in Balkan politics.


This was one of those Sunday mornings when I actually felt I had learned a thing or two watching the boob tube.

A long, long time ago..... in a faraway world..... from somewhere in my past > The NYTimes critic John Corry reviewed "'Koppel Report' on TV Evangelists"

Palinisms are catching on > Jimmy Kimmel Live