When asked what he considered the finest hour for "60 Minutes," Don Hewitt would mention Morley Safer's award-winning, 1983 report on Lenell Geter. An engineer who was wrongly convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to a life term in Texas, Geter was freed after Safer discredited the evidence that had put him behind bars. The pioneer newsmagazine has received scores of Emmys and other prestigious awards. But it also received its share of criticism, including charges of bias, distortion, sensationalism and theatricality. Hewitt's darkest hour came in 1995 when he failed to resist CBS management's decision to shelve a Mike Wallace interview with whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand, the former vice president of research and development at Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. who agreed to go on camera with incriminating charges against his former employer regarding the dangers of its products. Wigand had signed a confidentiality agreement with the tobacco company that prohibited him from revealing inside information. Any attempt by CBS to induce Wigand to break the contract, the network was advised by its lawyers, could lead to a multibillion-dollar lawsuit that would put the network in jeopardy. source : http://www.chicagotribune.comHewitt on 60 Minutes finest, darkest moments
When asked what he considered the finest hour for "60 Minutes," Don Hewitt would mention Morley Safer's award-winning, 1983 report on Lenell Geter. An engineer who was wrongly convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to a life term in Texas, Geter was freed after Safer discredited the evidence that had put him behind bars. The pioneer newsmagazine has received scores of Emmys and other prestigious awards. But it also received its share of criticism, including charges of bias, distortion, sensationalism and theatricality. Hewitt's darkest hour came in 1995 when he failed to resist CBS management's decision to shelve a Mike Wallace interview with whistle-blower Jeffrey Wigand, the former vice president of research and development at Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. who agreed to go on camera with incriminating charges against his former employer regarding the dangers of its products. Wigand had signed a confidentiality agreement with the tobacco company that prohibited him from revealing inside information. Any attempt by CBS to induce Wigand to break the contract, the network was advised by its lawyers, could lead to a multibillion-dollar lawsuit that would put the network in jeopardy. source : http://www.chicagotribune.com|
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