Last Man Standing from Murrow's CBS?

 Arriving at CBS headquarters of Murrow’s past, you can't help but wonder. The ground floor is a BMW dealership. The CBS building stands out overlooking  the Hudson River. Where did Murrow stand and did he ever pause long enough take it all in? I called to confirm the meeting with his former cameraman and studio director, Don Hewitt, 85. He's still sharp as any journalist breathing. A year ago, if you called sometime before 7 a.m. E.S.T., there was a good chance he would grab the phone before his secretary. His reputaton was he didn't "suffer fools." That may well be true. It may also be code for he's smart, still busy trying to reinvent an influential business under attack by Web economics, and Hewitt knows time matters.  Carmen, Hewitt's secretary, walked me through what felt like an aging hallway of CBS NEWS at 555 West 57^th Street.  Hewitt’s corner office was carpeted, sunshine streaming in from across the west-facing windows. The wall on the right had two long shelves filled with rows of golden statuettes, Emmys. Beneath the figures, were many photos. I averted my eyes to avoid the distraction and temptation. Photos lined the wooden tabletops below. Memories of a lifetime of correspondence, accountability, Fourth Estate programming based on decades of service "to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." Our Cleveland family watched "60 Minutes" religiously. You didn't alk when it was on. You chewed your food silently. If you missed a word, a strained utterance, a nuance of the questioner's tongue, you didn't dare break anyone elses' concentration asking for clarification and get a scowl from my father, or anyone held rapt by interrogator-journalist Mike Wallace, Ed Bradley or Morley Safer.

   Carmen asked some questions about the rescheduled meeting, then quickly melted into the background as Mr. Hewitt rounded the corner looked up at me and reached out a hand. He graciously requested we sit down. He looked tan, silver-white hair combed and suit jacket comfortable hung over his shoulders. Someone later suggested I might be “star struck” by this television pioneer.  It seems star has replaced achiever for some. Hewitt has a record born of accomplishment: Kennedy-Nixon debate, numerous technical innovations borne at the national political conventions, the tenor and content of "60 Minutes" crafted over years probing with a TV camera.. We exchanged basics as I unpacked gear. I asked to record our conversation. “Of course,” he said without skipping a beat. I pulled the camera a bit higher in the bag, too. We began our discussion on all things Murrow. The legacy, the Murrow Boys, the ethical landscape of an early industry, the personalities swirling around WWII where Hewitt served in “Stars & Stripes” and knew firsthand Howard K. Smith, Eric Sevareid (Days later the WSJ misspelled his name; trust it was a typo), Walter Cronkite, Charles Collingwood and other giants of Murrow’s Boys.  This doesn’t include Cronkite, of course, but in Hewitt’s mind, he was a worthy competitor. The office floor was at least partially carpeted. The poster by the door had an array of celebrities from a generation ago Aretha Franklin, Robin Williams, all entertainers seemingly. Hewitt moved comfortably from past to present and then back again. He explained what he knew and what he felt about Cronkite versus Murrow, given  it was his idea to team them up for one for earliest political conventions and his regret.

   He spoke about how Murrow’s boy were historic and elite. It was not that they were the best correspondents...or of their time …or in the medium…or in Europe …or of a particular war… they were simply the best…Hewitt explained. Whether they would choose to work in print, or in radio or in television. They operated at the highest level of watchdog journalism and quality storytelling. Hewit t said was at the fringes. He watched them and moved among them. He learned from them, but he was not an equal in their eyes. He laughed. Still, it mattered in the moment …maybe a little now. Sitting in an office  shrouded in honors. He’d moved the profession forward. But, he couldn’t shake the judgment of the founders of serious radio news and later news in television. Still, now he could shake with laughter at where it had brought him a century after Murrow’s birth.  

   He recalled time and a place, Charles Collingwood’s home, where “politicians from the left and right" and journalists that reported on their public lives could fraternize, tip a glass at night and still hold their sources feet to the fire--not all the time--but enough to make it matter in the day.

      And it mattered to the public. In a time when serious news mattered to the everyday laborer, in a time when it mattered  how lawmakers and leaders led the country at home and abroad. It was a time when it mattered how leaders spoke about meaningful events and ideas that fueled action. Today, the public swims in entertainment. The leaders of news carefully fill the pool with stories that follow profit and surround it with PEOPLE pageantry.  The so-called leaders of the news watched the government lead citizens into a war with little debate. Americans rallied for vengeance after September 11 behind a new president who put foreign matters on a shelf with news leaders dutifully reporting the change. News leaders determine the public agenda by building the front page, by layering the splash page, by prioritizing the broadcast buildup. News leaders build audiences, too, especially when they respect the audience and the power of the medium. Murrow n-e-v-e-r forgot this. Hewitt explained that how he was a gifted storyteller. He was a genius in criticizing leadership and in articulating the need for social reform. He was a genius in telling stories that explained our differences with all due prejudice to which ones were worth keeping and which demeaned us all. 

  Hewitt looks at photos of Murrow's CBS work written by biographer Joseph Persico
   Hewitt showed a disdain for email but an understanding of how the Web could be used to re-package archival gold for today's technorati and Web dependents. At the WSU Murrow Symposium on April 3, he suggested that local market anchors be mixed in with the nat'l anchors' broadcasts to capture new audiences and fight shrinking market viewers. The national press listened: http://www.newsweek.com/id/131586 In my interview, he suggested the big three, the old guardians pool their resources to produce some Web tv programming that could compete with cable tv leaders. This programming would be a mix of entertainment with historic news, not current material. On another front according to the NYT, CBS is in talks about outsourcing some of its news to CNN, which is a sad statement for the Tiffany network of old, but it speaks to today's economic realities. See: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/business/media/08cbs.html?scp=7&sq=CBS+%2BCNN&st=nyt