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In
1967 Don Hewitt conceived of his new program, 60 Minutes,
as a strategy for addressing issues given insufficient time for
analysis in two minutes of the Evening News but not deemed significant
enough to justify an hour-long documentary. 60 Minutes was
born, then, in an environment of management tension and initial
ambiguity regarding its form. Bill Leonard, CBS vice president for
News Programming, supported the new concept, but Richard Salant,
president of the News Division, argued it countered that unit's
commitment to the longer form and risked taking the hard edge off
television journalism. In the end Salant acquiesced.
Hewitt's
direction remained flexible and uncertain, with design for the program
possibly including any number of "pages" and "chapters" lasting
one to twenty minutes, and spanning breaking news, commentary, satire,
interviews with politicians and celebrities, feature stories, and
letters to the editor. CBS proclaimed the ground-breaking potential
of this magazine form, announcing that no existing phrase could
describe the series' configuration, and that any attempt to gauge
(or predict) demographic appeal based on comparisons with traditional
public affairs programming was a limited prospect. Yet, by the Spring
of 1993 the series success was so established within the history
of network programming that CBS and 60 Minutes had competition
from six other prime-time magazine programs.
From
September 1966 through December 1975, network management shifted
the scheduling position of 60 Minutes seven times. Its ratings
were very low according to industry standards, although slightly
higher than those of CBS Reports when aired in the same time
slot, but critical response remained positive. In today's competitive
environment, where "unsuccessful" programs are quickly removed from
the schedule, the series would not remain on the air. But in the
early 1970s the CBS News Division sought a more engaging weekly
documentary form.
Almost
three decades later Hewitt flippantly claimed 60 Minutes
destroyed television by equating news with the profit motive; news
organizations sought money in magazine and entertainment news programs,
reducing their long-standing, and expensive, commitments to breaking
news. But Hewitt set the groundwork. His blunt statements suggesting
that success depends on marketing, and his continuous refinements
of the product often generated controversy. Audiences must experience
stories in the pit of their stomach, the narrative must take the
viewer by the throat, and, noted Hewitt, when a segment is over
it's not significant what they have been told--"only what they remember
of what you tell them." Hewitt predicted high ratings if 60 Minutes
packaged stories, not news items, as "attractively as Hollywood
packages fiction." Such stories require drama, a simplified structure,
a narrative maximizing conflict, a quick editing pace, and issues
filtered through personalities. Although the series profiled celebrities,
politicians, and popular or well-known people in numerous fields,
the stress on personality meant that a human being would be positioned
in the story in a manner inviting the public to "identify with"
or "stand against."
The
60 Minutes correspondents narrated and focused these "mini-dramas."
Several of the show's journalists had established positions as personalities
before 60 Minutes, but with the program's growing success
and significance, the correspondents reached international celebrity
status, becoming crusaders, detectives, sensitive and introspective
guides through social turmoil, and insightful probers of the human
psyche. A confrontational style of journalism, pioneered by Mike
Wallace, grew and was embraced by a more confrontational society.
In the 1970s certain correspondents seemed to speak for a public
under siege by institutional greed and deceit.
Through
it all Hewitt remained sensitive to balancing the series at any
one time with varying casts. Wallace's role remained consistent
as the crusading detective, played, as the series began, opposite
Harry Reasoner's calm, analytical and introspective persona. As
correspondents were added--Morley Safer, Dan Rather, Ed Bradley,
Diane Sawyer, Meredith Vieria, Steve Kroft, and Lesley Stahl--Hewitt
developed complimentary personas. The
correspondents became part of his "new form" of storytelling, allowing
the audience to watch their intimate involvement in discovering
information, tripping up an interviewee, and developing a narrative.
As a result, the correspondents are often central to Hewitt's notion
of stories as morality plays, the confrontation of vice and virtue.
The
most explosive segments of 60 Minutes, for example, accuse
companies, government agencies, or organizations of massive deceit,
of harming public welfare. Correspondents, often in alliance with
an ex-employee or group member, have confronted the Illinois Power
Company, Audi Motors, the Worldwide Church of God, tobacco companies,
Allied Chemical Corporation, the U.S. Army, adoption agencies and
land development corporations. Smaller entities and individuals,
such as owners of fraudulent health spas, used car dealers, or clothing
manufacturers, often put faces and names on compelling images of
deceit. Because of these investigative segments, the series was
the focus of consistent examination by the press concerning such
issues as journalism ethics and integrity. 60 Minutes has
been taken to task for having correspondents or representatives
use false identities to generate stories, establishing sting operations
for the camera, confronting the person under inquiry by surprise,
and revealing new documents without prior notice to a cooperative
interviewee in order to increase the shock value of the information.
By raising these issued the series focused attention on emerging
techniques of broadcast journalism. But even when stories relied
on more thoughtful critical analysis they could shake the foundations
of institutions and have strong and lasting effects. Morley Safer's
1993 story arguing that the contemporary art world is filled with
"junk" sparked more than two years of defense and response from
different members of the art community.
In
spite of widespread knowledge of these strong techniques, individuals
still subject themselves to interviews, offering the audience an
opportunity to anticipate who will win the battle. Indeed, part
of the appeal of 60 Minutes is whether the possibility of
getting a corporate perspective across is worth the risk encountered
by company representatives when facing the penetrating (aggressive)
questioning and fact-finding by the correspondent. The consequences
and repercussions of appearing on the program can be severe. Stark
revelations by eyewitnesses have lead to extensive damage and bankruptcy
of companies, even to death threats. One person, after disclosing
odometer tampering in the automotive industry had his house blown
up.
The high stakes involved in such public confrontations led Herb
Schmertz, former vice president of the Mobil Oil Corporation, to
write a guide for corporate America instructing companies and individuals
how to prepare and withstand an interview by 60 Minutes'
correspondents. But public figures still appear, seeking to enhance
their position or rectify a situation. In doing so they risk unexpected
changes in the direction of public opinion, as demonstrated by Ross
Perot's drop in approval ratings after raising questionable topics
in his interview.
The
series continues to establish historical markers regarding legal
issues of press freedom, and some cases have set precedents for
legal aspects of broadcast journalism. One reason for this continuing
involvement is that for each segment, the outtakes, transcribed
interviews, editors' notes, and relevant documents are archived
and entered into a database at CBS. Following the segment entitled
"The Selling of Col. Herbert," for example, Col. Anthony Herbert
initiated a defamation suit against producer Barry Lando. The suit
was dismissed after ten years, but not before the Supreme Court
decision giving Herbert's lawyers the right to "direct evidence"
about the editorial process. Specifically, they were given access
to film outtakes and editors' notes that could establish malicious
intent by illustrating the producer's "state of mind." Dr. Carl
Galloway's slander suit against Dan Rather and 60 Minutes
went to court after Rather left the show to anchor the Evening
News, but when Rather, and the series' production process, were
scrutinized on the witness stand the examination raised questions
about the power of editing to construct specific images of an individual.
In these and other cases, 60 Minutes continues, intentionally
and unintentionally, to be at the center of struggles concerning
the rights of the press. Risks taken by the series have the potential
to harm the image and credibility of CBS as well as that of the
program, and such concerns have conditioned CBS and the broadcast
industry to a rapid response to legal challenges.
But
60 Minutes has also become one of most analyzed programs
concerning television's effect on viewer behavior. When a story
endorsed moderate consumption of red wine to prevent heart disease,
sales of red wine jumped significantly. Although the use and gradual
discontinuation of Alar on apple crops received moderate coverage
by the press, 60 Minutes addressed the issue of this use of the
cancer causing agent in 1989. The story, and other media reports
contributing to what became a national hysteria, cost the agriculture
industry over 100 million dollars. The series' scrutiny of companies
even led to tangible effects on their stocks. During one two year
period, stocks rose an average 14% for companies negatively profiled
on 60 Minutes. Market insiders, aware of the upcoming story, bought
to increase shares, knowing that the market had previously responded
to the companies' problems.
Critics,
researchers, and the public continue to investigate the reasons
behind the longevity of 60 Minutes as a popular culture phenomenon.
The series' timeliness, its bold stand on topics, its confrontations
with specific individuals all provides audiences with the pleasure
of knowing accountability does exist. For some the program compels
with its crusades, as in the case of Lenell Geter, freed from life
imprisonment after his case was explored and analyzed. For others
the appeal comes with vigorous self-defense, as when Senator Alfonso
D'Amato (Republican, New York) poured out his wrath in a 30-minute
response to claims that he misused state funds.
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60 Minutes
Point/Counterpoint,
a program feature from 1971 to 1979, illustrated that two opposing
positions can remain unreconciled, and served, in three-minute debates
between left- and right-wing critics, to agitate viewer emotions
with ideological battles. The segment's popularity probably explains
why, in 1996, Hewitt added a similar "commentator" section, resurrecting
the art of speaking what the public may think but dare not say with
such force. And the series' perennial "light" moment, "A Few Minutes
with Andy Rooney" confirms the value of personal opinion on otherwise
mundane matters.
60 Minutes is also able to generate news about itself and
thus keep the series attractive by humanizing its trials and tribulations.
For over two decades the producers, correspondents, and Hewitt have
played out issues in public. Twice, producer Marion Goldin quit
the program after accusing the unit of sexism. Hewitt charged Rooney
with hypocrisy for criticizing CBS owner, Lawrence Tisch, on air
instead of quitting. Wallace has been reprimanded for using hidden
cameras to tape a reporter who agreed to help him with a story.
And when the series dropped to number 13 in the 1993-94 Nielsen
ratings (after being first for two years), the drop became a "story."
Hewitt and others blamed CBS, Inc. for losing affiliates in urban
areas and for allowing the FOX network win the bid for Sunday afternoon
football, 60 Minutes' long-time lead-in program.
When
Dateline NBC, a similar news magazine, was programmed opposite
60 Minutes in the spring of 1996, the press covered the move
as a battle for the hearts and minds of the audience. But for several
months before the direct competition, Hewitt began to revamp the
series, adding brief hard news segments, announcing production of
new stories throughout the summer, adding a "Commentary" section,
and tracking down new and unfamiliar topics. Although the series
has been criticized for following compelling stories broken by magazines
such as The Nation, instead of breaking news, the strategy
meets Hewitt's mandate to impact a large audience. Entering its
fourth decade, then, 60 Minutes continues to shift strategy and
change in form. The one constant is that the program's producers
still believe in validating its journalistic integrity through its
popularity on American television.
-Richard
Bartone
REPORTERS
Mike
Wallace
Harry Reasoner (1968-70, 1978-91)
Morley Safer (1970-)
Dan Rather (1975-81)
Andrew Rooney (1978-)
Ed Bradley (1981-)
Diane Sawyer (1984-89)
Meredith Vieira (1989-91)
Steve Kroft (199-)
Leslie Stahl (1991-)
PRODUCER
Don Hewitt
PROGRAMMING
HISTORY
CBS
September 1968-June 1971
Tuesday 10:00-11:00
January 1972-June 1972 Sunday
6:00-7:00
January 1973-June 1973 Sunday
6:00-7:00
June 1973-September 1973 Friday
8:00-9:00
January 1974-June 1974 Sunday
6:00-7:00
July 1974-September 1974 Sunday
9:30-10:30
September 1974-June 1975 Sunday
6:00-7:00
July 1975-September 1975 Sunday
9:30-10:30
December 1975-
Sunday 7:00-8:00
FURTHER
READING
Campbell, Richard. "60 Minutes" and the News: A Mythology
for Middle America. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991.
Coffey,
Frank. "60 Minutes": 35 Years of Television's Finest Hour.
Los Angeles: General Publishing Group, 1993.
Fury,
Kathleen, editor. Dear 60 Minutes. New York: Simon & Schuster,
1984.
Goodman,
Walter. "How 60 Minutes Holds its Viewers' Attention." The New
York Times, 22 September 1993.
Hewitt,
Don. Minute by Minute. New York: Random House, 1985.
Madsen,
Axel. "60 Minutes": The Power and the Politics of America's Most
Popular TV News Show. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1984.
Moore,
Donovan. "60 Minutes." Rolling Stone (New York), 12 January
1978.
Punch,
Counterpunch: "60 Minutes" vs. Illinois Power Company. Washington,
D.C.: Media Institute, 1981.
Reasoner,
Harry. Before the Colors Fade. New York: Knopf, 1981.
Rosenberg,
Howard. "60 Minutes: Time Out for a Correction." Los Angeles
Times, 23 August 1993.
_______________. "Child Abuse: A Compound Travesty." Los Angeles
Times, 21 May 1986.
"The
60 Minutes Team Tells: The Toughest Stories We've Ever Talked."
TV Guide (Radnor, Pennsylvania), 19-25 January 1991.
"60 Minutes" Verbatim: Who Said What to Whom--The Complete Text
of 114 Stories with Mike Wallace, Morley Safer, Dan Rather, and
Andy Rooney. New York: Arno Press, 1980.
Shales,
Tom. "Still Ticking at 25: The Great Granddaddy of Magazine Shows."
The Washington (D.C.) Post, 13 November 1993.
Shaw,
David. "Alar Panic Shows Power of Media to Trigger Fear." Los
Angeles Times, 13 September 1994
Spragens, William C. Electronic Magazines: Soft News Programs
on Network Television. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 1995.
Stein,
Harry. "How 60 Minutes Makes News." The New York Times, 6
May 1979.
Wallace,
Mike, and Gary Paul Gates. Close Encounters. New York: Morrow,
1984.
See
also Columbia
Broadcasting System; Documentary;
Hewitt, Don;
News, Network;
Sawyer, Diane; Wallace,
Mike
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