Tick... Tick... Tick... by David Blum

Author:David Blum
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins

When Hewitt got in to work early on the morning of October 11, he spotted fellow early riser Diane Sawyer and burst into her office. “Let’s buy CBS News,” he said, and explained his plan.

He’d had the idea the night before, watching an Evening News broadcast with Dan Rather appearing by remote via satellite. As he looked at the satellite dish from his window atop the news headquarters across the street, he had a thought: What if I had a dish? And, more to the point, what if my millionaire friends—and famous TV star colleagues—got together to form our own TV news network to use said dish? Sure, it sounded crazy; but with CBS bleeding assets, maybe it wasn’t completely far-fetched to imagine company president Thomas Wyman (a former food industry executive) sensing the business possibilities of such a deal.

“Sure, Don. Yeah,” Sawyer said. “Count me in.” It may not have crossed Sawyer’s mind that Hewitt actually planned to take his idea to the chairman of CBS, Laurence Tisch. With Sawyer’s endorsement he returned to his office to make calls. Bill Moyers. Check. Dan Rather. Check. Morley Safer. Check. Mike Wallace. Check. With five CBS stars on board, Hewitt raced across town to present his proposal to Gene Jankowski, president of the CBS Broadcast Group, at Black Rock. But Jankowski wasn’t in yet, so he called James Rosenfield, senior executive vice president of the CBS Broadcast Group, at home; Peter Boyer’s history of that period, Who Killed CBS?, details that day’s developments.

“Jimmy, where are you?” Hewitt asked.

“Don, it’s quarter to eight in the morning,” Rosenfield replied. “I’m in the bathroom, shaving.” Hewitt agreed to wait until Rosenfield could get to the office to pitch his concept. Hewitt laid out the basics—claiming he’d gathered enough big-money backers to foot the bill—and convinced Rosenfield to take him seriously. A series of meetings and phone calls followed, and then Jankowski finally informed Hewitt that the news division simply wasn’t for sale. But the message to management was clear, particularly when news of Hewitt’s audacious bid became public soon afterward: the leading lights of the news division were unhappy with current management and wanted to see significant change. Leading the revolt was Don Hewitt, a man Morley Safer once described as having a “whim of iron.”

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