CBS News and 60 Minutes Pioneer Don Hewitt Dead at 86

It was just this past weekend that I watched "Good Night and Good Luck,", the story of Edward R. Murrow's fight with Senator Joe McCarthy. Part of the story is that lengendary CBS News/60 Minutes producer Don Hewitt (pictured left) was part of Murrow's team, one of "Murrow's Boys."

Hewitt set the standard for the long-standing quality of "60 Minutes,", taking his lessons from Murrow what television news journalism should be. Never once have we seen the legacy tarnished in the ways that NBC's "Dateline" and ABC's "20/20" have over the years.

Following on the heels of Walter Cronkite's death, CBS News has once again suffered the loss of a news giant. Don Hewitt has passed away at the age of 86.


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Here is what AP has reported:

Don Hewitt, the CBS Newsman who invented "60 Minutes" and produced the popular newsmagazine for 36 years, has died. He was 86.

He died of pancreatic cancer Wednesday at his home in Bridgehampton, N.Y., said CBS.

Hewitt joined CBS News in television's infancy in 1948, and produced the first televised presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960.

He made his mark in the late 1960s when CBS agreed to try his idea of a one-hour broadcast that mixed hard news and feature stories. The television newsmagazine was born on Sept. 24, 1968, when the "60 Minutes" stopwatch began ticking.


Posted August 19, 2009

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