Don Hewitt, one of the early pioneers of broadcast journalism, died today at the age of 86.
Mr. Hewitt, who spent more than a half century at CBS News, helped create 60 Minutes, and worked extensively with the late Walter Cronkite, who recently passed away.
Earlier this year, Mr. Hewitt had been diagnosed with Read More
That stopwatch stops for no man. Don Hewitt, the 80-year-old executive producer, inventor, backbone and spiritual stiff upper lip of CBS’ 60 Minutes, has always been a man who valued the blunt truth. As Mr. Hewitt told Larry King on CNN last year, he preferred the days when politicians called each other “a son of Read More
Tick, tick, tick, tick …
Tick.
Nearly a year after his retirement, Don Hewitt, the 83-year-old inventor of 60 Minutes, is talking with PBS about creating a new project-an hour-long program consisting of three separate documentary segments.
In other words, Mr. Hewitt’s new idea is … 60 Minutes.
“With general reality being shoved Read More
When Governor George Pataki and former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani commanded starring roles at the Republican National Convention in New York a few weeks ago, much was made about their presumed rivalry. It is assumed, not without reason, that the two men have their sights set on lofty goals—and that in pursuit of those goals, they Read More
I know Saddam Hussein is a monster, the “Butcher of Baghdad.” I know that he ruthlessly seized power, killed rivals and colleagues and family members, gassed his own people, commissioned a copy of the Koran written in his own blood.
I know, I know!
But I still can’t help feeling sympathy for the old Read More
That stopwatch stops for no man.
Don Hewitt, the 80-year-old executive producer, inventor, backbone and spiritual stiff upper lip of CBS’ 60 Minutes , has always been a man who valued the blunt truth. As Mr. Hewitt told Larry King on CNN last year, he preferred the days when politicians called each other “a son Read More
As the new season of Saturday Night Live gets under way on Oct. 4, Darrell Hammond-the show’s chief political impersonator, once Bill Clinton and, at this year’s Emmy Awards, the squinty-eyed Donald Rumsfeld-can’t wait to contort himself into the likeness of former Vermont Governor Howard Dean.
“I’m sitting there with writers, saying, ‘ Please give Read More
“Maybe it’ll make him a little mature,” Jayson Blair-the 27-year-old reporter who managed to successfully suffuse The New York Times with falsehoods, lies and rife fictions-tells The New York Observer ‘s Sridhar Pappu in the extraordinary interview in this newspaper today. “I fooled some of the most brilliant people in journalism.” “Him” is Howell Raines, Read More
Wednesday, Jan. 29 Jeff Fager, you’ve just been named the next executive producer of 60 Minutes. Do you-as your predecessor, 60 Minutes founder and id Don Hewitt, famously proclaimed-intend to die at your desk?
“No!” a laughing 48-year-old Mr. Fager said on Jan. 28, one day after CBS News announced a deal in which the Read More
Don Hewitt is good at offering pithy explanations for the present pathetic state of TV news.
Tell Me a Story: Fifty Years and 60 Minutes in Television , by Don Hewitt. Public Affairs, 272 pages, $26.
In his breezy new memoir, Don Hewitt informs us that, as a youngster, the journalist he most identified Read More
