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We Lose Two News Biggies

In the last week we have lost 60 Minutes creator Don Hewitt and reporter/commentator Robert Novack. You know it’s a bad week when you need to hear the slow, sad-sounding piano version of the Today show theme as they go into commercial instead of the regular upbeat version.

Don Hewitt was 86 when he died yesterday. He created and produced CBS’ wildly popular 60 Minutes for 36 years. There’s simply no TV show that has withstood the test of time like this (except maybe NBC’s Meet the Press). Yes they were at times accused of ambush journalism and not getting things exactly right, but I always loved when they got a bad guy in his parking lot and asked why he’s stealing money from grandmas and widows and getting that blank stare. Hewitt, who joined CBS TV back in 1948 just when TV was starting, also produced the first televised Presidential debate in 1960. According to Fox News, he also directed the first network television newscast back in 1948, created the idea of using cue cards and is widely credited with coining the term “anchorman.” To me, growing up Sunday nights meant 60 Minutes. In this hectic time of life for me now I have not had as much time to sit down and watch. He will be missed.

Bob Novack was dubbed by the Huffington Post as a “pugilistic debater and proud owner of ‘the Prince of Darkness’ moniker. The New York Times called him “pugnacious.”  He died Tuesday at the age of 78 from a brain tumor. His newspaper columns and TV appearances were both dreaded and welcomed by his liberal opponents. He came to prominence during the Reagan era (the Times noted that his column was considered the “bulletin board of the Reagan administration”) and retained his conservative views right to the end. But he was articulate and made a point in a way that the average person could understand. He became the news in 2003 by outing CIA officer Valerie Plame when her husband was criticizing the Bush administration and suggesting they distorted information about Iraqi weapons to justify the war there. This led to some convictions (including VP Cheney’s chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby- convicted of perjury). He ultimately revealed his sources as Carl Rove, Bush’s chief of staff, and Richard Armitage, a former Deputy Secretary of State. A strong voice of the conservative movement, who somehow avoided the sensationalism of others like Rush Limbaugh, I respected him very much. Let’s hope that both left and right have more folks with the passion and yet the reserve of Novak.