Countdown For '60 Minutes II'
Dan Rather will be on America Online Wednesday night to chat about the premiere of '60 Minutes II,' the presidential impeachment trial, and the upcoming State of the Union address. To participate, sign on to AOL at 7:30 p.m. ET and type the keyword: LIVE.
How much competitiveness is there between 60 Minutes and its new offspring, 60 Minutes II?
"Plenty," says Dan Rather, anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News and now a correspondent for 60 Minutes II, which debuts Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET. But the competition is infused with a measure of good humor.
CBS This Morning Co-Anchor Thalia Assuras asked Rather if the team is trying to follow in the footsteps of 60 Minutes or establish a program with its own identity.
"We want to walk right in the footsteps of 60 Minutes Sunday," says Rather, who is now juggling the 60 Minutes II assignment in addition to his duties as anchor of the CBS Evening News and the news magazine 48 Hours.
"I like to work," Rather says, adding wryly, "When you don't have any more talent than I do, you have to get up early and stay late."
Other 60 Minutes II correspondents are Bob Simon, CBS News Middle East Correspondent; Vicki Mabrey, CBS News London-based correspondent (relocating to New York for her new assignment), and Charlie Rose, host and executive producer of his own program on PBS.
Also, Carol Marin, a reporter for WBBM-TV, the CBS-owned station in Chicago, is a contributor to 60 Minutes II. Social and political humorist Jimmy Tingle will be the commentator, filling the so-called "Andy Rooney slot" on the new program.
One of the stories on the first broadcast of 60 Minutes II is an investigative piece featuring CBS News producer George Crile.
"We'll take you someplace that very few people have ever been before," says Rather. "It's a city buried in Siberia, one that the U.S. government has been trying to visit for 40 years."
The secrets locked inside the Siberian mountain pose a threat to our own country. Since the '50s, the existence of the city of Krasnoyarsk, and even its name, have been secret. That's because the people who work there were under government orders to produce enough nuclear material to wipe the United States from the face of the Earth.
The city is a veritable fortress. U.S. intelligence has repeatedly failed to get into the railroad tunnels that lead to it.
Crile managed to get in, the first American journalist to enter Krasnoyarsk with a television crew. Viewers of 60 Minutes II on Wednesday will see the inside of the secret tunnels for the first time.
U.S. energy secretary Bill Richardson says Krasnoyarsk poses the single biggest threat to U.S. security.
"I believe him," says Rather. "Here is the reason: They are still producing plutonium to make nuclear weapons. The Iranias have been trying to buy it. Saddam Hussein has been trying to buy it. The Libyans have been trying to buy it. They haven't yet, but it's a desperate time in Russia, and it's a huge threat to us."
In addition to original reporting by its new team, 60 Minutes II will include updates on classic 60 Minutes stories.