Fifty Years of 60 Minutes by Jeff Fager

Author:Jeff Fager [Fager, Jeff]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

SIMON: Figure. Figure.

BENIGNI: Figure, white, with two people, two cardinals, very big, very big. And this little, little figure, so weak, feeble, and then he said a prayer to Jesus, and everybody with the knees.

SIMON: Did you get down on your knees?

BENIGNI: No, I didn’t, because I am not used [to] it. I don’t—I didn’t know what to do. And I couldn’t betray my nature. I jumped on him. Oh, oh, I was so full of energy and enthusiasm, and I called him “Dad,” like Pinocchio, “Babbo.”

SIMON: You jumped on the pope?

BENIGNI: Yeah, and I told him, “Babbo”—“Father”—in—how do you say?—slang. No, it’s like, really, a little boy, “Babbo,” which means “Dad.” “Dad, finally found you again. I have been so bad in my life!” And I kissed him here and here and here, and everywhere I kissed him. And the cardinal told me, “Quiet, quiet, he’s very old,” because they were afraid I could—

SIMON: When you jumped on the pope, was he surprised?

BENIGNI: Very surprised. But he like it because he told me, “You are very Italian.” Because of my enthusiasm.

The interview showed that Bob was meant for 60 Minutes. He often added a touch of wit or irony in his interviews and did well at what was expected of 60 Minutes correspondents: to listen and respond spontaneously with great questions. That’s probably why Bob won an Emmy for best interview of the year with that one.

Bob Simon was the consummate foreign correspondent, with more experience covering conflicts around the world than anyone else at CBS News. He had been reporting four to five stories a year for 60 Minutes, but the rise of 60 Minutes II brought him into the fold full-time. It was the break he’d been waiting for—and he helped give 60 Minutes II the quality control we wanted.

• • •

60 Minutes II debuted on January 13, 1999, with a broadcast that made all of us involved very proud. We started with a story called “The Secret City,” about Krasnoyarsk-26, an isolated city in the wilderness of Siberia. The story was reported by George Crile and producer Neeraj Khemlani on the ground in Russia, mixed with interviews conducted in the United States by Dan Rather, produced by Tom Anderson.

It was a terrific team all around, turning out a stunning report about a Cold War city dedicated entirely to producing weapons-grade plutonium for the Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons program—a place still cut off from the real world. Ours was the first American camera crew to gain access to the tunnels and reactors built deep into a mountain. The city still actively produced plutonium for Russia, and there was a real cause for concern that it could fall into the wrong hands.

Because of the doubts about launching 60 Minutes II—both within 60 Minutes and among those media reporters who covered the news business—enormous attention was paid to that first broadcast. We were on the front page of TV Guide, and just about every newspaper in the country wrote stories about our premiere, with reviews running the day after.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.