The "N-word": Is it ever okay to say it?
Overtime editor Ann Silvio has a frank discussion about the N-word with correspondent Byron Pitts, whose report on "60 Minutes" this week is about a new edition of "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" that omits the racial epithet and replaces it with the word "slave."
Continue Reading »Reporter's notebook: On the ground in Japan
The "60 Minutes"team on assignment in Japan takes viewers behind the story, as the crew travels from Tokyo to the heart of the catastrophe that started with an earthquake and continues with the threat of nuclear radiation leaks. Co-producers Nicole Young and Daniel Ruetenik talk us through their experiences on the long journey, as the group comes within miles of the dangerous Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor plan. And "60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley shares the kind of moment "reporters lose sleep over" just before he walks into gymnasium full of bodies.
Continue Reading »Losing it on 60 Minutes: the great "walk-offs"
This week on the broadcast, correspondent Bob Simon experienced a classic "60 Minutes" moment: his interview subject suddenly stood up, pulled his microphone off, and walked off the set. With that, the interview was over. We call them "walk-offs" and these dramatic moments are practically a tradition here at "60 Minutes."
Continue Reading »Nuclear meltdown: A refresher on Chernobyl
As Japan scrambles to contain what appears to be the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, "60 Minutes Overtime" brings you ten years' worth of reporting on Chernobyl by correspondent Steve Kroft and producer Michael Gavshon.
"60 Minutes" first visited Chernobyl's crippled nuclear reactor in 1989, three years after the accident. We were the first American television crew to be allowed almost total access. In the deserted nuclear ghost town of Pripayat, Kroft's footsteps crunching in the snow were one of the few sounds to be heard. It was once home to 45,000 people. They weren't told that anything was wrong at the nuclear plant until 36 hours after the disaster. The populace has never returned.
Continue Reading »Katie Couric on paying teachers $125,000 a year
Should teachers have "a job for life?" Tenure for teachers came about in America around time of the First World War. Initially, it was meant to prevent arbitrary dismissal of a teacher for reasons that had nothing to do with their teaching ability. But somewhere along the way, tenure became a symbol of unions run amok, and opponents say it's responsible for making bad teachers "bullet proof."
Continue Reading »Starbucks turns 40
Is Starbucks homogenizing the neighborhoods of America with its ubiquitous coffee shops? Is Starbucks homogenizing the world by opening its franchises in every corner of the globe? Is a cup of coffee even worth $4? Whether you love Starbucks coffee or hate it, there's no denying its impact and success in the American marketplace.
Continue Reading »The hidden America
We sum up our economy with numbers: the Dow Jones Average, the unemployment rate, the price of a gallon of gas. During the country's recent recession, Scott Pelley and his "60 Minutes" team of producers and editors have worked to put faces in front of those numbers and tell the stories of the men, women, and children who have suffered in the economic decline.
Continue Reading »Morley Safer on the late Rev. Peter Gomes
A special post from Morley Safer, who profiled Rev. Gomes in this memorable "60 Minutes" piece from 1997:
Peter Gomes collected people. Or perhaps more accurately people collected Peter. He had that kind of magnetism. Superficially we had very little in common. He, a devout Christian. I, neither devout nor Christian. He, African American, me, white Austro British Canadian. The list of differences is endless -- everything from education and background to belief in the hereafter to sexual orientation. He, the most socially adept and engaged man on Earth, me preferring a kind of invisibility, all the better to silently observe.
Continue Reading »60 Minutes Presents: Classic con men
Morley Safer said it best: "A con man doesn't feel he's made it as a crook until he's been on '60 Minutes.'"
A statue of Mark Zuckerberg in Tunisia?
If any American reporter can give us perspective on the uprisings in the Arab world, it's Bob Simon, a "60 Minutes" correspondent who lived in the Middle East off and on for 30 years. In this video, Simon sits down with "Overtime" editor Ann Silvio and debriefs us on his reporting assignment to Tunisia last week.
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