Best-selling author Mortenson must pay back $1 million
Last spring, 60 Minutes investigated humanitarian and best-selling author Greg Mortenson for mismanaging and personally benefiting from the funds of his charity, the Central Asia Institute (CAI), which builds schools in remote villages of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The story (below) also questioned the accuracy of some of the most dramatic tales in Mortenson's book, "Three Cups of Tea," which has helped him raise millions for his charity and attain a cult-like status on the lucrative lecture circuit. Just days following the 60 Minutes broadcast, Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock launched an investigation into Mortenson's financial conduct.
Continue Reading »Space Coast: Through the lens of 60 Minutes
This week on 60 Minutes, Scott Pelley reported on the closing of NASA's space shuttle program, and the economic suffering in Brevard County, Florida, home to the Kennedy Space Center. Chris Albert, one of the 60 Minutes cameramen assigned to cover the story, roamed the area with his Canon 5D in hand, trying to capture the heart of the story in pictures. We're featuring Chris' work this week as the first in a series of Overtime videos about the filming of 60 Minutes:
Continue Reading »Morley vs. the art world: Round 2
If you watched this week's 60 Minutes story on Miami's Art Basel, one of the biggest, most lucrative art fairs in the country, you probably have a good idea of what Morley Safer thinks of contemporary art.
Continue Reading »Morley Safer's infamous 1993 art story
A vacuum cleaner. A urinal. Three basketballs floating in water? In 1993, when Morley Safer took a critical look at the contemporary art world, these kinds of household items were being sold as high-priced art.
In his now-infamous 60 Minutes story "Yes...But is it art?" Safer took on artists, dealers and critics of the 90s with equal gusto. The artists, he said, make mostly "worthless junk," or better yet, hire craftsmen to make it for them. Dealers, he said "lust after the hype-able." Critics write in a language that "might as well be in Sanskrit."
New study: Weight-loss surgery may cure diabetes
Could weight-loss surgery be a cure for type 2 diabetes? That's exactly what a new study, published today by the New England Journal of Medicine, suggests.
The study showed that weight-loss surgery is dramatically more effective in the treatment of type 2 diabetes than a conventional treatment of diet changes and medication. Patients in the study suffered from severe type 2 diabetes, and most went into remission after undergoing one of two bariatric surgeries.
Billie Jean in '72: Our first tennis profile
This Sunday, Bob Simon profiles the number one tennis player in the world, Novak Djokovic, as part of a long-running tradition here at 60 Minutes. You might call it Profiles in Tennis. Since the broadcast started in 1968, our tennis champ subjects have included Ilie Nastase in 1976, Arthur Ashe in 1979, Martina Navratilova in 1982, Boris Becker in 1986, John McEnroe in 1988, Andre Agassi in 1995, and Venus Williams in 1997.
Our tennis habit may have started because the show's founder Don Hewitt and correspondent Mike Wallace were avid players and obsessive fans of the game. Or it may have started simply because the sport reliably provides us with a great cast of oddball characters to interview. Take, for example, our first tennis profile: Billie Jean King in 1972.
Whistleblower facing foreclosure wins $18 million
(CBS News) When we first met Lynn Szymoniak on 60 Minutes last year, she was an angry homeowner facing foreclosure. Now, Szymoniak is walking away with an $18 million settlement after blowing the whistle on a "robo-signing" fraud that she says was perpetrated by some of the nation's largest mortgage companies.
Szymoniak described her win as "a little surreal," speaking by phone to 60 Minutes yesterday.
Continue Reading »Internet phenomenon Sal Khan's video lessons
Sal Khan teaches: Euclid as the father of geometry
The laws of nature are but the mathematical thoughts of God." ~Euclid
Continue Reading »The original 60 Minutes story in HBO's "Game Change"
HBO's new docudrama "Game Change" (Saturday, 9pm ET) starts and ends with a classic 60 Minutes interview. In 2010, Anderson Cooper interviewed campaign strategist Steve Schmidt, who looked back on the decision to pluck Sarah Palin from Alaskan obscurity for the Republican presidential ticket in 2008:
Continue Reading »Grace Hopper: She taught computers to talk
Believe it or not, the world of computers didn't begin with Bill Gates or Steve Jobs.
Back in 1983, Morley Safer sat down with 76-year-old U.S. Navy Captain Grace Hopper who, at the time, had the distinction of being the oldest woman in the Armed Forces. But that was far from the only reason she merited a 60 Minutes profile. Way back in 1944, Hopper helped design the legendary Mark series of computers at Harvard University. (Take a look at the Mark 1 here.)
