Selected Product:
| Tell Me a Story: Fifty Years and 60 Minutes in Television
Hardcover
Author: Don Hewitt
Publisher: Public Affairs
Release Date: March 2001
ISBN-10: B000H2NEBS
Average Customer Rating:
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Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
One of the towering figures of television recounts his adventures in broadcast journalism, from TV's earliest days through the controversies and challenges that face the news business today. . Don Hewitt is the most successful producer in the history of television news. In more than a half century with CBS News, he has been responsible for many of the greatest moments in television history, including the first broadcasts of political conventions in 1948; the first Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960; and, most spectacularly, for the past thirty-two years, 60 Minutes, the news program that has redefined television journalism, for which he has been the creator, executive producer, and driving force. In Tell Me a Story, Hewitt presents his own remarkable life story, from his time as a reporter for Stars & Stripes during World War II, to the heady exhilaration of the early days of television, to the triumphs and controversies of 60 Minutes. Hewitt has been at the center of events, and his book is populated by the leading cultural and political figures of our century-Charles Lindbergh, Frank Sinatra, William S. Paley, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and many others-as well as the all-star roster of journalists with whom he has worked. Hewitt also speaks bluntly, with affection and humor, about the promise and the shortcomings of television news, and offers surprising perspectives on its continued power and potential, as we move into a new media environment. "I may not know a lot," Hewitt is fond of saying, "but I think I know how to tell a story. " Never has his storytelling talent been on better display than in the pages of this extraordinary book.
Tell Me A Story
| Customer Rating: | | Great book by a great guy. From Murrow to pre-Couric, he was CBS News. 60 Minutes ia an ok show, too. |
Interesting !
| Customer Rating: | | I am in Hewitt's business myself (in another part of the world). His book and his experiences give me a lot to think about. |
Television Pioneer
| Customer Rating: | I've always enjoyed reading the stories of industry pioneers, no matter what industry and Hewitt is a living pioneer of early television news. From his career as a merchant Marine in World War II up unto his creation and production of 60 minutes, Hewitt shares anecdotes and accolades of the people he's worked with and against.
He began in television news back when the Murrows and the Cronkites wouldn't have considered leaving radio. He produced the only Kennedy-Nixon debate and is convinced that not wearing makeup on TV cost Nixon the election. He didn't really care for Nixon much post Watergate, but unlike most of the newsmen of his generation, he didn't really fall for the aura of John Kennedy either.
Hewitt tells of how he convinced Frank Sinatra to sit down with Walter Cronkite in the mid 1960s, and how Sinatra blew up when questioned about his mob ties. Luckily for Hewitt he was around long enough to outlive Sinatra and get the real story from his daughter Tina 30 years later. The story gives more plausibility to the Kennedy assassination being a mob hit.
The latter half of the book focuses on Bill Clinton's infamous interview during the 1992 election and how Hewitt's treatment of James Carville got the show barred from the White House.
Near the end he goes in to a deep explanation of Lowell Bergman and the inaccuracies of the film THE INSIDER. After explaining for pages and pages of how Bergman is disingenuous, he catches us off guard by saying that he would have forgiven the filmmakers everything had they cast Robert Redford in his role. Philip Baker Hall isn't an actor, that's a dormitory, Hewitt jokes.
Hewitt is an interesting guy with a great life and it's hard not to like this book. |
A pioneer in TV Land!
| Customer Rating: | Ok, so he isn't a writing genius, but he KNOWS television and how to keep a quality broadcast show on top. The premise of the 60 minutes show is to "tell us something we don't know!" And that it does! Don Hewitt is a pioneer. When you read his book, you find out the conception of ideas that began with Hewitt.
He is humorous and shares some funny anecdotes, and yet, he keeps the story going with a cool conversational voice. It's an easy read. Hewitt shares facts about the birth of the show, the cast, and the excellent collection of guests. There are several pictures of him with Presidents and other celebrity notables.
Take time to read this book. You will not only be entertained, but you will be informed. He knows his history!!....MzRizz |
Hewitt's Medium is Not the Printed Word
| Customer Rating: | | I expected of Don Hewitt's book something on par, at least professionally, with "60 Minutes"; not so with "Tell Me A Story." This is an okay book-- always straight forward, occasionally telling, a few juicy tidbits-- it's just not a well-crafted, fascinating book. Don Hewitt is a masterful producer with a keen instinct for a good story. The medium of television is his, hands down. Hewitt is not a fine storyteller however. When Hewitt breaks into a sprint of passionate interest, the reader soon begins to realize that the excitement is all about Don, written by Don, and relived through Don's (perhaps) revisionist memory. In brief, if this were lying about at a church booksale, I'd recommend you snap it up at a tenth the price-- great beach or bath reading. |
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