Free Republic

'Minutes' man gets Rather curt CBS legend Don Hewitt hasn't been shy about criticizing Dan Rather, but the grand old man of "60 Minutes" had stopped short of publicly recommending termination for the central figure in CBS News' painful 2004 Memogate flap. Until yesterday. "Should Dan Rather have been fired?" Time magazine managing editor Jim Kelly asked the 83-year-old Hewitt during a Court TV journalism panel at Michael's. "Yes," Hewitt answered. He suggested that the 74-year-old Rather - a "60 Minutes" correspondent since stepping down last March as "Evening News" anchor - was politically motivated in airing a controversial pre-election...

Don Hewitt's 59th Minute This will be the ?rst season of 60 Minutes without its legendary creator and executive producer. A look at the last days of a network-news King Lear. By David Blum Hewitt and his 60 Minutes team at a surprise going-away party. (Photo credit: Jeffrey Smith) On the morning of October 7, 2001—the day the United States began a rigorous bombing campaign in Afghanistan—Don Hewitt woke up in the hospital. He was there for an angioplasty. Nothing serious—just a tune-up to keep the old man moving. It was less than a month after the attacks on the...