TV News Giant Don Hewitt Dies At 86

(CBS)  Don Hewitt, recognized as a father of modern television news and the creator of the medium's most successful broadcast, 60 Minutes, died of pancreatic cancer Wednesday. He was 86 and had homes in Manhattan and Bridgehampton, New York, where he was with family at the time of death.

Hewitt was executive producer of CBS News, the title he took when he stepped down from his post as executive producer of 60 Minutes in 2004.

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This Sunday, Aug. 23 at 7 p.m. ET/PT: 60 Minutes will devote its entire hour to Hewitt. The 60 Minutes correspondents are working on individual segments that will tell the story of the legendary newsman's life, lasting contributions to the television news industry and especially their favorite stories about their boss and his times at 60 Minutes.

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Hewitt's remarkable career in journalism spanned over 60 years, virtually all of it at CBS. As a young producer/director assisting at the birth of television news, it was usually Hewitt behind the scenes directing legendary CBS News reporters like Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, using a playbook he had to write himself.

He played an integral role in all of CBS News' coverage of major news events from the late 1940s through the 1960s, putting him in the middle of some of history's biggest events, including one of politics' seminal moments: the first televised presidential debate in 1960.

Hewitt produced and directed coverage for the three networks of the debate between Richard Nixon and John Kennedy, an event that instantly transferred the political king-making powers print news once held to a new and more powerful medium where appearances mattered. Critics have long maintained that Kennedy won the debate because he looked better. As Hewitt recalled in many interviews, he offered makeup to Kennedy first, who refused. Nixon, following Kennedy's cue, also refused. But the suntanned Kennedy was a vigorous contrast to Nixon, whose pasty complexion put his five o'clock shadow in high relief.

Hewitt often rued the day as the first step in the dangerous dance between politicians and the special interests that provide the big money to buy the now crucial political television advertising.

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"It is a sad and difficult time for all of us who work at 60 Minutes. Don was a giant figure in our lives and will always have an impact on this broadcast - there's a part of him in every one of us, and it affects every decision we make. He will be remembered as a brilliant editor and story teller, an irrepressible force who changed journalism forever. Those of us who knew him and worked with him will remember him simply as a great guy to be around. He was full of life, usually armed with a joke, and he always found a way to make our stories better. I will miss Don very much." - Jeff Fager, executive producer, 60 Minutes.

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Hewitt also directed the first network television newscast, featuring Douglas Edwards, on May 3, 1948. He was the executive producer of the first half-hour network newscast when the "CBS Evening News With Walter Cronkite" became the first to go to a 30-minute format on Sept. 2, 1963. Among Hewitt's innovations was the use of cue cards for newsreaders, the electronic version of which, the TelePrompTer, is still used today. He was the first to use "supers" - putting type in the lower third of the television screen. Another invention of Hewitt's was the film "double" - cutting back and forth between two projectors - an editing breakthrough that re-shaped television news. Hewitt also helped develop the positioning of cameras and reporters still used to cover news events, especially political conventions.


Photo Gallery: Don Hewitt 1922 - 2009

Photo Gallery: Reaction

Timeline: Hewitt's Life and Career

A Producer's Memories: Working For Don

CBS Pays Tribute to Don Hewitt


Hewitt had seemingly done it all for broadcast news when he topped those achievements by producing his magnum opus, the television news magazine 60 Minutes - a new concept that changed television news forever and became the biggest hit in the medium's history. "His real monument is 60 Minutes," said another broadcasting legend, the late Roone Arledge, when he presented Hewitt with the Founder's Emmy in 1995. "He is truly an innovator in this business…[the news magazine] is an innovative format no one had done before. It's been copied all over the world…He's been a leader in our industry. He has inspired all sorts of people," said Arledge.

Hewitt's idea for 60 Minutes was to break up the traditional hour documentary into a three-segment magazine - a Life of the airwaves.

The 60 Minutes Debut:



Hewitt on Creating 60 Minutes:




It would work if he and his team could "package an hour of reality as compellingly as Hollywood packages an hour of make-believe," Hewitt often recalled. His first step was to pick a "white hat" and a "black hat." Hewitt put the black hat on the grand inquisitor, Mike Wallace, and made the avuncular Harry Reasoner the white hat to launch his news magazine on Sept. 24, 1968.

Don Hewitt Obituary:

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[pixman55]

The repeat was necessary; in this age of fast-cut news reports, and reporters who sound like robots, Hewett's lessons need to be repeated...and repeated...and repeated! Hewitt never allowed his reporters to lead into a filmed or video segment with that sophmoric slow-down lead-in that almost all reporters lean on these days. Hewitt found reporters who were not cookie-cutter copies of each other, as we have on CNN, FOX, NBC, ABC, and yes, CBS!

His scratching for the "hook", the right sentence, the perfect shot made him - and CBS - the best in the business. Hewitt went for "the story." How rare; how grand!

pixman55

[criseldaquiblat]

I came to America in 1985 and the first television program I saw was 60 Minutes. It was a Sunday evening in April and one of the stories was about a man named Farrakhan. From then on, I became a fan and indocrinated everyone in my household that 60 Minutes always tells the truth. I was sad about Harry and Ed's passing but never really knew this guy Don Hewitt. I do veer off on other networks sometimes but I always made sure that at 7 o'clock Sunday night, supper is done and I'm comfortably on the couch ready to watch another edition of 60 Minutes....

[dburdick01]

I have watched 60 Minutes every week almost from the first program. I believe the program you did last night was possible the best you have ever done! Don Hewitt would have been proud. You told us a great story. I know he would have loved to see it or even better have edited it. He was special person and I'm sure he is very proud of the job all of you did last night. I know I am.

[alfonsoteja]

My name is Alfonso Teja. I am a mexican TV journalist and for ten years was a correspondent on our version of 60 minutes. Everyone there had the greatest respect for the original american team, and a special consideration for Don Hewitt, creator of the original idea and the motor drive on this step ahead kind of electronic journalism than 60 minutes put on the screen. Our deep prayers and condolences to the family and colleagues. He will be remembered.

[eileenfleming]

The "Big Get" Don Hewitt Didn't Get:

"Sixty Minutes from the United States from the beginning they wanted to do a program, but because of the censor situation they decide not to do it."-Mordechai Vanunu, the Whistle Blower of Israel's WMD Program said in 2006.


In 2006, I mailed 60 Minutes a DVD copy of my "30 Minutes with Vanunu" which was taped a few weeks after Vanunu's Freedom of Speech trial began in Israel:

View it here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8079102468952529881&q

I never received a reply.

I have persisted in telling this story and "13 minutes with Vanunu" was taped in 2008:

View it here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2059606750949786468&hl=en

A little history:

On January 25, 2006, Vanunu was convicted by the Jerusalem Magistrates Court of 15 violations of a military order that prohibited him from talking to non-Israelis and because he supposedly attempted to leave Israel by taking a cab to go from Jerusalem to Bethlehem to attend Christmas Eve mass at the Church of the Nativity in 2004.

The original indictment included 22 different violations; Vanunu was charged with 19 and acquitted of four. He was acquitted of speaking to foreign nationals on the internet and via video and voice chats.

On July 2, 2007, Israel sentenced Vanunu to six more months in jail for speaking to foreigners-who happened to be media-in 2004.

On September 23, 2008, the Jerusalem District Court reduced Vanunu?s sentence to three months, "In light of (Vanunu?s) ailing health and the absence of claims that his actions put the country?s security in jeopardy."

On June 14, 2009 Mordechai Vanunu told me during my 7th trip to Israel Palestine since 2005:

?The Central Commander of the General Army testified in court that it is OK if I speak in public as long as I do not talk about nuclear weapons.?

On July 6, 2009, Supreme Court President Dorit Beinish continued to deny Vanunu the right to leave the Jewish State, claiming his "case is still generating great interest, like any other security-related case. The media's attention he gets is proof of that."

Much more on this story at VANUNU ARCHIVES:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/

[lporcaro]

Why was Dan Rather missing from this entire story? He certainly was a significant part of 60 Minutes.

[finnyboy]

Thankyou for the retrospective. Now I understand why I have been such a fan of 60 MInutes for the last 30 years. I hope the integrity of his broadcast will continue.
Thankyou Don and Co.
Tracie Diederich

[buenastardes]

What a brilliant and honorable gentleman. What a loss for all of us! Don was a man of good moral character and kudos to him for his guts, courage and bravery. I most respect him for his integrity. He was a pioneer, forging paths that hadn't yet been created. May he rest in peace and my condolences to his family, friends and of course his colleagues at 60 Minutes. We love 60 Minutes in this household. In fact, my husband has missed only maybe a handful of episodes since we've been married for 16 + years!! And it's because of the integrity of Don and the 60 Minutes crew!

[smallmind]

Thanks for inventing ambush journalism, and teaching all the haircuts to lean left.

[wyzguy11]

Get a grip buddy. Before there was cable TV and FoxNews....people actually read papers and watched broadcast television to get their daily news and people like Don Hewitt actually had to "work" for a story........not brain dead rehashed mush we get from Fox.

[jab232]

Hewitt came from a different era when the media tried to report, clarify, and expose corruption. Nowadays, too often that is not the case.

It is a whole lot cheaper to film rowdy town hall rallies than it is to do the kind of thing PolitiFact and FactCheck.org does. Check the facts and explain them clearly.

And it is a lot easier to have to talking partisans blabbering at each other than it is to do the kind of in-depth reporting the best 60 Minutes reporting represents.

Oh, that we could return to the old days.