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Here is video from 60 Minutes last night where 90 year-old Andy Rooney paid tribute to Don Hewitt, creator of 60 Minutes, and known as the "Father of Modern TV News." Hewitt died last week at age 86. . . . . (Watch Video)

CBS' Don Hewitt -- Fidel Castro Enabler By Humberto Fontova Forty years after his media advance-work helping install a Stalinist regime in Cuba the legendary Don Hewitt of CBS still seemed proud of his work as a Castro media auxiliary. During that interim, over 20,000 Cubans were murdered by firing squad and beaten or starved to death in forced labor camps. Another 70-80 thousand were ripped apart by sharks or drowned in the Florida straits (attempting to flee a nation that previously took in more immigrants per-capita than the U.S.) If Mr Hewitt had uttered a single word of remorse...

Journalism: After the eulogies, the fact remains that "the most trusted man in America" betrayed that trust. He helped snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in Vietnam and tried hard to do the same in Iraq.President Obama on Friday praised Walter Cronkite as a journalistic icon, calling the CBS anchor the "voice of certainty in an uncertain world." More to the point, he was the father of advocacy journalism, the patron saint of media bias. He went from reporting news to recreating it in his own image. Far from the image of the patriotic war correspondent, Cronkite was a...

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Don Hewitt, creator of CBS News' groundbreaking "60 Minutes" program and one of the most influential behind-the-scenes figures in U.S. television journalism, died of pancreatic cancer on Wednesday, CBS News said. He was 86. Hewitt worked as producer or director for CBS legends Edward R. Murrow, Douglas Edwards and Walter Cronkite, but his greatest legacy was the television news magazine format on "60 Minutes" starting in 1968

Here is video from CBS on the career of Don Hewitt, the creator of 60 Minutes, and recognized at the "Father of Modern Television News." Hewitt died today at the age of 86. Hewitt's career in TV News spanned over 60 years, and went all the way back to the days of Edward R. Murrow at CBS. He created 60 Minutes in 1968 and was its Executive Producer. . . (Watch Video)

NEW YORK (CBS News) "60 Minutes"spokesman Kevin Tedesco confirmed 86-year-old Don Hewitt has died. Earlier this year, Hewitt was diagnosed with a small, contained tumor. Hewitt was already a veteran CBS newsman in 1968 when he created "60 Minutes," pioneering the TV newsmagazine format. He served as executive producer of the program until his retirement in 2004. Hewitt has been honored with the second annual Lifetime Achievement Emmy presented by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In 1995, he was awarded the Founders Emmy by the International Council of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He's...

'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...

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR News With Views By DON HEWITT Published: April 20, 2005 BECAUSE all three of the networks' early-evening newscasts, as good as they are, generally follow an hour or so of local news and are fed into households already saturated with news from CNN, Fox or MSNBC (which they didn't use to be), and because the adults the broadcasts are aimed at probably know all they want to know from the all-news radio station they listened to in the car coming home from work, and because their children are more interested in the Internet than they are in television...

RATHER STAYS HOME; EXECUTIVES SPLIT; MOONVES LOOKS TOWARDS FUTURE *Exclusive** CBSNEWS veteran Don Hewitt called Dan Rather's disappearance from Monday's Evening News "really stupid" during a damage control meeting on Monday, sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT. One top source inside the CBS Broadcast Center claimed Rather was told to stay off the air on Monday, as a form of punishment! Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer was called in to anchor the damaged ship. CBS staffers were shocked Monday when CBS president Les Moonves suddenly tied Rather's upcoming resignation to the phony document flap, a departure from CBS's official storyline. Moonves...

Hewitt: Pull out of Iraq now, hire mercenaries By Bret Hayworth, Journal staff writer VERMILLION, S.D. -- CBS "60 Minutes" creator Don Hewitt said the U.S. should pull quickly out of Iraq, since too many young Americans are perishing in a "hellhole" in which they are unprepared to fight. As he was announced for his first public event connected with winning the 2004 Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in Journalism at the University of South Dakota, Hewitt strongly voiced his opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq. That came immediately after Neuharth introduced Hewitt as "the one who taught Walter...

'60 Minutes' Creator Slams Guard Story 16 minutes ago SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - The creator of "60 Minutes," Don Hewitt, said Thursday he would not have done the story on President Bush (news - web sites)'s National Guard service that got CBS anchor Dan Rather in so much hot water. Rather apologized Sept. 20 for a Sept. 8 "60 Minutes" story that cited documents purported to be from one of Bush's commanders in the Texas Air National Guard. Numerous questions have been raised about the documents' authenticity. Speaking on a South Dakota Public Broadcasting radio show, Hewitt said the story...

... the unmistakable voice of Mike Wallace returns the party to rapt attention. “Thirty-six years ago,” Wallace says, casting his eyes over the crowd of young assistants and producers, many of them barely born when 60 Minutes began. “Out of a job. In a room about a quarter the size of this room. With a good-looking assistant—what was her name?” “Suzanne Davis,” Hewitt says. “That’s right. Suzanne Davis. He effectively had been fired. Told, ‘Hey, come up with an idea.’ They’d already gotten rid of him because of some of his ideas. And on a Sunday he said, ‘Can I...

Tonight (Tuesday) CBS will air a tribute to Don Hewitt, the Executive Producer of 60 Minutes since its inception, whom CBS brass are forcing out as they try to make the news magazine with declining ratings more appealing to younger viewers. In an interview a few weeks ago, Hewitt told Jon Friedman of CBS MarketWatch.com that "I would bet I'll probably vote for Kerry" since “I know why I don't want to vote for George Bush" but, he conceded, “I don't know why I want to vote for Kerry. I don't know who he is." Friedman related, in his April...

A lot of folks may not instantly recognize Don Hewitt’s name, but he’s had a big influence on our times and American politics for more than four decades. Hewitt is the originator and longtime producer of “60 Minutes,” the most successful TV news magazine program ever. Less known is the fact that Hewitt is the man who produced the first televised presidential debate between then-candidates John Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Nixon’s campaign later claimed that Hewitt had cleverly switched the cameras to Nixon every time he frowned or wiped his sweaty brow. Nixon looked nervous and Kennedy looked the statesman,...

Spending 60 minutes with Don Hewitt Commentary: Newsmagazine creator no political bias By Jon Friedman, CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 12:01 AM ET April 23, 2004 NEW YORK (CBS.MW) - Don Hewitt, the executive producer and creator of the CBS news magazine "60 Minutes," says he is leaning toward voting for presidential candidate John Kerry. "I would bet I'll probably vote for Kerry," Hewitt said late Wednesday afternoon during an hour-long interview in his office on West 57th Street. "But I don't know that yet." Although Hewitt, 81, is widely recognized as one of the giants of television news, he pretty much...

Next Sunday, CBS NEWS and 60 MINUTES will feature a long interview with Bob Woodward, whose soon-to-be-released book PLAN OF ATTACK reportedly will contain important new details about the administration's decision to go to war against Iraq. But this time, even though 60 MINUTES Executive Producer Don Hewitt still argues that he does not believe it is necessary to do so, CBS will acknowledge that its parent company owns the book and will profit from any and all sales! "I'm doing it from here on out, only because of the brouhaha about it," Hewitt tells Sunday editions of the NY...

People with knowledge of the discussions said that CBS News does, indeed, want Mr. Hewitt to make room for his successor. But he might be able to enjoy a couple of more years in charge. Though Mr. Hewitt's current contract runs beyond the next television season, CBS has begun discussing an extension with him. Some people at the network speculate that a sweetener of a guaranteed, long-term position as a sort of elder statesman of the news division could make it easier for Mr. Hewitt to accept an eventual departure date.