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Global Edition | Today Is Friday, July 30, 2010 |
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60 Minutes, CBS Newsmagazine
If you’re young, and you wonder what television news was like when journalistic skill and credibility were important, look at the work Lowell Bergman is doing for Front Line.
Oakland, California
Reflecting On The Wigand Affair
Lowell Bergman, PBS Frontline
If Lowell Bergman’s departure from 60 Minutes over the Wigand affair left ruffled feelings, his reappearance to interview Jeff Fager for Front Line [ PBS Tuesdays ] set the record straight. No matter the sharp criticism aimed at Bergman by Don Hewitt, and to some degree by Mike Wallace, the passage of time has confirmed Bergman’s journalistic instincts were on the mark when he left 60 Minutes. When he returned to question Don Hewitt’s successor about television’s role in American Journalism, Bergman had come full circle–from disgraced colleague, to respected journalist.
For Front Line, Bergman also interviews Dan Rather, pressing him to comment on how Rather felt about being pushed out of CBS News. Rather declined to comment. Understandably so. But Bergman asked the tough question. That was his job.
Hewitt And Wallace
Don Hewitt, CBS News
In their own time, Don Hewitt and Mike Wallace were the intellect, conscience and voice of CBS News’ most profitable program. Bergman, who was a 60 Minutes producer with a big ego and an aggressive attitude was seen by Hewitt not only as having disgraced himself, but not up to the high standards of CBS News.
What has happened in the intervening years has shown that both Hewitt and Wallace were wrong. They can be forgiven for being pissed-off, for airing their grievances, and for deprecating a former colleague. That is the stuff of big time television.
But today, history has proven that Bergman was right, that Bergman did the responsible thing, and that Bergman is fast becoming one of this country’s most competent and productive journalists. Both Hewitt and Wallace had long and distinguished careers. They made of themselves legendary figures at CBS News and in the minds of their countrymen.
But neither Hewitt, nor Wallace, at the moment in their careers when it probably mattered the most, understood the issues, or their responsibility as clearly, or as we now know, as accurately as did Lowell Bergman.
Facing UP To The Issues
Jeff Fager has big shoes to fill, but he showed grace and comity in his Bergman interview that makes clear that he is a new game. Under his leadership 60 Minutes will be more attuned to a younger, less demanding audience. One that is less sensitive to issues of accountability, responsibility, or credibility.
Mike Wallace, CBS News
But neither 60 Minutes nor CBS News will ever regain the journalistic integrity it enjoyed during the years Bergman was at CBS. Not because Bergman is gone, but because the era of responsible adults in television news has passed.
If you’re young, and you wonder what television news was like when journalistic skill and credibility were important, look at the work Lowell Bergman is doing for Front Line.
Bergman is no Ed Murrow. For no matter his many accomplishments, Murrow had a relatively free-ride in his tenure under Bill Paley. Bergman is a better reporter, a better interviewer, and fully capable of researching, producing, writing and working on-camera.
The next time you hear someone speak of Ed Murrow as the patron saint of television news, agree with them. Murrow earned that reputation. When they smile knowingly at your understanding of Murrow’s place in the history of television news, best you explain to them that the very best television journalist in their lifetime did not walk the halls of CBS news during the William Paley era.
He lives today. Make sure you remember his name.
Lowell Bergman.