This week saw the death of two major figures in journalism: producer Don Hewitt of Sixty Minutes on CBS, and Chicago Sun Times and CNN journalist Robert Novak.
Hewitt was associated with CBS for sixty years, and worked with the greats, including Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite and numerous others. His production of Sixty Minutes from its inception in 1968 until his retirement in 2004 was masterful, and Sixty Minutes is still recently rated number two in television audience, and has long had a loyal fan base, and is one of the longest lasting news shows on television.
Robert Novak had a fifty year career with the NY Herald Tribune of old and the Chicago Sun Times, and was for many years the conservative protagonist on Crossfire on CNN, and also on the Capitol Gang on that cable network. He infuriated many liberals and independent minded people with his views, including myself! 🙂 But he was always interesting and stimulating and thought provoking. He could make fun of himself and call his memoir in 2007 “The Prince of Darkness”, with tongue in cheek!
Both men added immensely to the field of journalism and will be missed. They are part of the generation of newsmen beginning in the 1950s and 1960s which educated, entertained, and informed us. It is always to be mourned when we lose such giants of news coverage!