photos by Dakota Fine
...
The scene in the National Press Club grand ballroom: annoying young ambitious journalism students, grandes dames a la Helen Thomas on lady dates with the Wellesley girls, old men who you know were total babes in 1972, and BYT all there to see executive producer Jeff Fager and Leslie Stahl speak on "What Makes 60 Minutes Tick?" as part of the Kalb Report lecture series.
Swoon (FYI-I'm the type of person who actually cries when seeing the 1st amendment on the exterior of the Newseum).
If you aren't a total waste of space you should watch 60 Minutes. There is no excuse not to- they have an amazing website where you can watch every episode whenever you want for free. On air since 1968, 60 Minutes is the most successful television show in history.
Basically- if the names Leslie Stahl, Morely Saffer, Ed Bradley, Mike Wallace, and Don Hewitt don't ring a bell you should probably consider killing yourself because at this age you have too much catching up to do.
Moderator Martin Kalb probed Stahl and Fager on the news gathering, team building, and massive budget required to produce such a high quality investigative news magazine. I'm pretty sure all the veteran journalists left the event nostalgic for when journalism mattered and all the aspiring journalists left realizing that they will never be given the institutional support in order to pursue and then report on anything that will matter- this is exactly what Leslie Stahl told them. SIGH. Thank god I'm not a journalist!
Highlights:
- Martin Kalb grilled Fager and Stahl on the show's notorious blunders. Unfortunately we didn't receive a compelling back story to how and why 60 Minutes bowed to Big Tobacco's influence by minimizing the story that was supposed to be the first to blow the lid on the deliberate use of additives to make cigarettes more addictive. We only received a promise that this would never occur again.
- The duo spoke of the injustice Dan Rather experienced after being unceremoniously fired from 60 Minutes and CBS News in order to gain favor with the Bush White House after the origins of documents alleging political influence was used to prevent George W. Bush from serving in any serious capacity during the Vietnam conflict.
- Reliving Leslie Stahl's tumultuous interview history, namely the classic Sarkozy walk out prompted by her asking the President if his wife had left him.
It's important to talk about what female journalists look like so here is a break down of Leslie Stahl's outfit: usually she looks like Andy Warhol but on Monday Stahl managed to impress with her hair, St. John (assumption) suit and Chanel flats...
For those of you who can't get enough of quality investigative journalism on television here are some links:
And finally, some Andy Rooney: play him out keyboard cat...
Previously in Misc/Awesome:
- 4/19: HAPPY National High Five Day!
- 4/17: Hangin' Tough with The D.C. Rollergirls
- 2/24: BYT Archives: Geek It Out
- 12/28: Terrible Boyfriend/ Girlfriend Generator.
- 12/1: The John Waters Advent Calendar-it starts today
- 11/28: It Chooses You: All I Want for Christmas is Everything from Miranda July's Pop-Up Shop
- 11/3: Things I'd Move to Minnesota For
- 9/6: PHOTOS: Maloof $$ Money Cup
- 9/2: PHOTOS: Chantilly Model Train Show
- 9/1: Libby's List: 5 Things I Want Right Now...
God loves a cheerful giver.
Leslie Stahl has some seriously hot legs and she knows it. Have you noticed those stems in interviews? You work that shit right Ms Stahl.
Is it uncomfortable for anyone that I feel this way? I can't deny it, public record.
liberal "news" for liberals. oh boy.
liberal news for liberals? swing and a miss Mark. that's msnbc. 60 minutes is for old people, most of whom are Reaganites.
um...no. i worked at cbs for 5 years and dealt with the 60 minutes producers a great deal. very liberal. swing and a miss martin.
yes, liberal like NPR aka informed with a liberal bent.
call it liberal, call it whatever you like, but it is indisputably the most successful weekly television news magazine EVER. according to them, the most success television SHOW ever.
THE most insightful and thorough investigative journalism on the planet. if that makes it liberal, i'll take it.
seems to me, conservatives like to label the upper echelon of higher education "liberal" as well. i guess in addition to holding a stranglehold on intellectuals and scholars, liberals also take the cake when it comes to investigative journalism?
i'll take that. thanks mark.
Mark, your comment was 'liberal news for liberals' not "from an insiders perspective their producers seemed to have a liberal bent" which has NOTHING to do with who watches the show.
My problem with your first comment is the idea that those who watch the show are liberals. I don't believe that's true, and if we want to take this a step farther, we can go on Cision and get their demographics, and then cross reference that with voting by demographics/region.
My other problem with your comment is that I personally HATE two party politics, and this exagerated Liberal v Conservative bullshit. I don't believe Liberal is a person, nor do I believe Conservative is a person.
There is a word to describe when we reduce people to their race, and one for when we do that by class. I HEREBY decree a new word, when we reduce people to stereotypes based on thier politics. Policist? Let's start there. Mark, congrats, you are the first person in the country to be accused of Polititism.
Mark,
What did you think of Al Pacino's Lowell Bergman in The Insider?
shouldn't it be "policism?"
policism sounds good. can we please state right now that me and Dakota came up with this term, before people are using it for the next election?
why is this here?
hear hear JT; just like Tina Brown and her bossom. ever notice how Stahl lights the hell up when she's interviewing 60-or-so-something billionaires?