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In covering a story like the current conflict in the Middle East -- wrought with a long and complex history – the information that gets lost in the headlines is the sometimes the most basic. On the “Evening News” Monday night, correspondent Richard Roth’s segment set out to explain some of the more basic questions about Hezbollah and its motivations. It's the type of story that has its challenges -- especially in the context of television (how do you explain Hezbollah in two minutes?) What follows is Roth’s story behind the story – how the segment came about and how it was executed:

Some of what transpired in this assignment and its execution is, I think, a reflection of some of the healthy introspection that goes on in a news organization. I didn't “pitch” the story; it was assigned to me. I kind of figured my day in Beirut would be busy - and productive - enough that I'd have a credible "hard news" piece to offer the “Evening News.” I had some ideas to pursue and some people I'd made appointments with to meet.

But Monday morning I woke up to an e-mail saying the “Evening News” wanted a story answering two questions: "What's Hezbollah?” and "What do they want?" I'd been copied on some internal e-mail traffic, and as I read it, it seemed to me some of the inspiration to try and take a small step back had actually come from a CBS News colleague. He'd been watching the broadcast, and as a viewer he had some questions - which he mused about in an e-mail.

The assignment made good sense to me, though actually I thought the questions had been asked and answered in a section of another story done for “Evening News” the week before. I did make it known that I had some other editorial business that I thought might bear fruit and that I wanted to pursue - and mentioned to a producer that I thought the "who and what" about Hezbollah might end up being just a part of my story that night.

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