Tell Me A Story: 50 Years and 60 Minutes in Television

A towering figure of television news recounts his adventures in broadcast journalism, from TV's earliest days through the controversies and challenges that face the news business today. Publishers Weekly Hewitt, the founder and executive producer of 60 Minutes, delivers on his title's promise: his memoir of more than half a century in journalism is full of good stories. He dropped out of college in the early 1940s before getting a job as a copy boy at two newspapers in New York. He then worked for Stars and Stripes during WWII. After the war, he made the jump to a new medium: television. His descriptions of TV news' infancy is fascinating for those born in a later era: e.g., when he first worked at CBS News, Hewitt and his co-workers had to do one broadcast for the East Coast and a second one for the West Coast because videotape hadn't been invented. In his years at CBS, Hewitt has met celebrities, presidents and other world leaders and he has stories about them all as well as about the investigative pieces that earned 60 Minutes much of its renown. (There aren't many people who can say that they've annoyed both Frank Sinatra and Hillary Rodham Clinton Hewitt is one of them.) He tells it as he sees it, defending traditional television news journalists, while bluntly noting that they produce entertainment as well as news. He has similar praise for his 60 Minutes crew and the stories they've produced. At times near the end of the book, however, particularly when he excoriates The Insider, the movie about the Jeffrey Wigand/tobacco scandal, Hewitt's bluntness doesn't serve him so well. But he's chronicled the career of a pathbreaking but old-fashioned journalist who has created a lot of news and a lot of memories. Illus. (Apr.) Forecast: An institution in TV news, Hewitt has a huge media line-up to launch this book: in addition to first serial in Talk magazine, he will appear on 20/20 with Barbara Walters, on the Today Show, Larry King, NPR's Fresh Air and other national TV and radio shows. First printing is 50,000. Expect big sales. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information. "Don Hewitt is the most successful producer in the history of television news. In more than a half century with CBS News, he bas been responsible for many of America's greatest television moments, including the first broadcasts of political conventions in 1948; the first Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960; and, most spectacularly, for the past thirty-three years, 60 Minutes, for which he has been the creator, executive producer, and driving force of the news program that has redefined television journalism.". "In Tell Me a Story, Hewitt recounts the tale of his own life, from his time as a reporter for Stars & Stripes during the Second World War (including dramatic letters he wrote describing his experiences in England before and during the D-Day invasion), to the heady exhilaration of the early days of television, to the triumphs and controversies of 60 Minutes. Hewitt has been at the center of events, and his book is populated by the leading cultural and political figures of our time - Charles Lindbergh, Frank Sinatra, William S. Paley, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and many others - as well as the all-star roster of journalists with whom he has worked, from Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite to Mike Wallace, Morley Safer, Dan Rather, Ed Bradley, Diane Sawyer, Steve Kroft, Lesley Stahl, Bob Simon, Christiane Amanpour and the award-winning producers on the 60 Minutes team."--BOOK JACKET. "Don Hewitt is the most successful producer in the history of television news and has been responsible for many of the greatest moments in television history, including the first broadcasts of political conventions, the Kennedy-Nixon debates, and, most spectacularly, 60 Minutes. In Tell Me a Story, Hewitt presents his own remarkable story, from his time as a reporter for Stars & Stripes, to the heady exhilaration of the early days of television, to the triumphs and controversies of 60 Minutes. He speaks bluntly, with affection and humor, about the promise and the shortcomings of television news, and offers some surprising perspective on its continued power and potential. "I may not know a lot," Hewitt is fond of saying, "but I know how to tell a story.""--BOOK JACKET Don Hewitt is the most successful producer in the history of television news and has been responsible for many of the greatest moments in television history, including the first broadcasts of political conventions, the Kennedy-Nixon debates, and, most spectacularly, 60 Minutes. In Tell Me a Story, Hewitt presents his own remarkable life story, from his time as a reporter for Stars & Stripes, to the heady exhilaration of the early days of television, to the triumphs and controversies of 60 Minutes. He speaks bluntly, with affection and humor, about the promise and the shortcomings of television news, and offers some surprising perspective on its continued power and potential. "I may not know a lot," Hewitt is fond of saying, "but I know how to tell a story." The producer for "60 Minutes" recounts his early experiences and his more than fifty years with CBS, including the first broadcasts of political conventions, the Kennedy-Nixon debates, and the events portrayed in the film "The Insider." New Rochelle, New York, could have passed for a small town and did when George M. Cohan wrote about it and sang about it in the 1906 musical.