60 Minutes American 60 Minutes Notable Incidents "Unintended

The name is also used by Australian and New Zealand television current affairs programs, which are based on the American show.

The BBC also used the name for a short-lived hour-long early-evening news programme in the 1980s.

The American version is also broadcast on some foreign television networks and stations, and some segments are shown on American Airlines.

1 American 60 Minutes

The American 60 Minutes is noted for its unique style and ability to generate news and controversy. As of 2004, the program (together with its contributors) has won a total of 75 Emmy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award presented in 20032003 is a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar), and also: The International Year of Freshwater The European Disability Year Summary Perhaps the defining global event of the year 2003 was the Invasion of Iraq launched by the U to creator Don Hewitt and past and present correspondents. 60 Minutes has also won many other prestigious journalism and television industry awards over the 36 years it has aired.

Many conservatives feel that 60 Minutes has a record of shoddy journalistic integrity, particularly regarding political stories attacking conservative politicians.

The format consists of three long-form news stories, without superimposed graphics. The stories are introduced from a set which has a backdrop resembling a magazine story on the same topic. The stories, often investigative, usually address topics which were previously the subject of stories in national newspapers such as The New York TimesThe New York Times is an internationally influential daily newspaper published in New York City, New York, and distributed worldwide. Overview Nicknamed "The Gray Lady" or The Times the newspaper was founded as The New-York Daily Times in 1851 by Henry J..

One common theme to the stories involves some allegedly cheating corporate executive or other high-placed alleged wrongdoer who is asked to comment on a story adverse to him or her. Invariably, the alleged wrongdoer does not want to comment and is shown running away from the pursuing 60 Minutes reporter and camera crew.

Other themes which have been associated with the show include its "Point-Counterpoint" debate segments, which originally featured James J. Kilpatrick on the conservative side of the debate and Shana Alexander for the liberals. This format was lampooned during the early years of the NBCSteff Geissbuhler. The feathers are said to represent the network's six divisions. NBC Universal Television is an American television network based in New York's Rockefeller Center. As of May 2004, it became part of NBC Universal. NBC supplies programming comedy series Saturday Night LiveSaturday Night Live SNL is a weekly late-night ninety-minute live comedy- variety show which has been broadcasted every Saturday night on the American NBC network since 1975. It is one of the longest-running network entertainment programs in American tele, with Jane CurtinJane Curtin (born September 6, 1947) is an American actress and comedian, from Cambridge, Massachusetts. Curtin became one of the original cast members for NBC's Saturday Night Live in 1975 and remained on the show until 1980. Curtin cohosted the shows We and Dan AykroydDaniel Edward Aykroyd (born July 1, 1952 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) is a comedian, actor and screenwriter. He gained fame on the American TV show Saturday Night Live from 1975 to 1979 where he was known for his impersonations of celebrities like Julia Ch as the debaters; Aykroyd would begin his remarks with, "Jane, you ignorant slut." The "Point-Counterpoint" segments were recently revived for a few months featuring Bob DoleRobert Joseph Dole (born July 22, 1923) is best known as a former Republican United States Senate Majority Leader and Senator from Kansas. He was also the unsuccessful Republican nominee for President in the 1996 election. Early years Dole was born in Rus and Bill ClintonWilliam Jefferson Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946) is a U. politician who served two terms as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A moderate Democrat who was elected Governor of Arkansas five times, Cli.

The show usually ends with a commentary by Andy Rooney expounding on topics from the war in Iraq to why they don't make paper clips the way they used to. One recurring topic is counting the amount of coffee in coffee-cans. Rooney's pieces, particularly one in which he referred to actor Mel Gibson as a "wacko," have often led to a rash of complaints from viewers.

1.1 Notable incidents

Many news organizations suffer from errors in reporting or judgement. Several episodes in particular stand out in the history of 60 Minutes.

1.1.1 "Unintended acceleration"

In 1986, Don Hewitt greenlit a story concerning the Audi 5000 automobile, a popular German luxury car. The story concerned a number of incidents where the car purportedly accelerated without warning while parked, injuring or killing people. 60 Minutes was unable to duplicate this behavior, and so hired an outside consultant to modify the transmission to behave in this manner, and aired a story about it. The incident devastated Audi sales in the United States, which did not reach the same level for another 15 years. The initial incidents which prompted the report were found by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Transport Canada to have been attributable to operator error , where car owners had depressed the accelerator pedal instead of the brake pedal. CBS issued a partial retraction, without acknowledging the test results of involved government agencies[1]. A rival to 60 Minutes, Dateline NBC, would be found guilty of similar tactics years later regarding fuel tank integrity on General Motors pickup trucks.

1.1.2 Brown & Williamson

In 1996, former Brown & Williamson (B&W) Vice President for Research & Development Jeffrey Wigand provided information to 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman that B&W had systematically hidden the health risks of their cigarettes. Furthermore, it was alleged that B&W had introduced foreign agents ( fiberglass, ammonia, etc.) for the intent of enhancing nicotine's effects. Bergman began to produce a piece based upon the information, but ran into opposition from Don Hewitt. Because of the hesitation from Hewitt, the Wall Street Journal instead broke Wigand's story. The 60 Minutes piece was eventually aired with substantially altered content, and was missing some of the most damning evidence against B&W. The exposé of the incident was published in an article in Vanity Fair by Marie Brenner , entitled The Man Who Knew Too Much [2]. The New York Times wrote that 60 Minutes and CBS had "betrayed the legacy of Edward R. Murrow." The incident was turned into a seven-times Oscar-nominated feature film, starring Russell Crowe and Al Pacino, entitled The Insider.

1.1.3 Customs Service

60 Minutes alleged in 1997 that agents for the U.S. Customs Service ignored drug trafficking across the U.S.- Mexican border at San Diego. The only evidence was a memorandum apparently written by Rudy Camacho, who was the head of the San Diego branch office. In this memo, CBS alleged that Camacho had allowed trucks belonging to a particular firm to cross unimpeded. Mike Horner, a former Customs Service employee, had passed the memos on to 60 Minutes, and even provided a copy with an official stamp. Camacho was not consulted about the article, and his career was devastated in the immediate term as his own department placed suspicion on him. In the end, it turned out that Horner had forged the documents in an act of revenge over his treatment within the Customs Service. Camacho successfully sued CBS for an unknown settlement, and Don Hewitt was forced to issue an on-air retraction. ( The Washington Post, April 13, 1999)

1.1.4 Killian memos

60 Minutes received a set of documents which alleged that, while in the service of the Texas Air National Guard, President George W. Bush was declared unfit for duty, and suspended from service. Mary Mapes passed the information on to CBS anchor Dan Rather, who aired the information on September 8, 2004. These documents were the source of a considerably controversy when their authenticity was questioned by Internet bloggers, which then spilled over into the mainstream media . CBS later admitted their "regrets" that they had "been misled" by the source of the documents, former Texas National Guard officer Bill Burkett.[3] However, it should be pointed out that Bill Burkett was a well-known nemesis of George W. Bush, whom Mr. Burkett has long accused of having a vendetta against him. To accept without much reservation any evidence from such a biased source either showed 1) incompetence on behalf of the CBS researchers or, as speculated by Bush supporters, 2) at minimum an anti-Bush bias by Dan Rather and the producers of "60 Minutes", if not an active campaign to discredit the US President. The producer of the "60 Minutes" piece in question has had a long history of supporting the Democratic Party and, in the incidence alone, put Mr. Burkett in contact with the John Kerry's campaign leadership before the "60 Minutes" segment was aired. Since many of the evidence experts employed by "60 Minutes" questioned the authenticity of the documents and cautioned against using them, it is generally held by media watchdogs that the second possibility is more likely to have taken place.

The fallout for "60 Minutes" from running this segment has greatly hurt its creditability and that of Dan Rather's. Ratings for both "60 Minutes" and "CBS Evening News" anchored by Dan Rather plummeted after the public became aware that the documents were fraudulent and CBS News refusal for days to admit their documents were fakes. The then-retired "60 Minutes" creator and executive producer Don Hewitt publicly stated that it was wrong for "60 Minutes" to air the segment and it would not have aired if he had been still in control of the newsmagazine program. Many conservative pundits point to this as one of many examples of a Liberal bias in the US press. When CBS announced 23 November 2004 that Dan Rather would leave his position as news anchor with the network effective 09 March 2005, it was widely believed that hir retirement was at least partly a consequence of the Killian memo scandal.

2 Australian 60 Minutes

The Australian 60 Minutes premiered February 11, 1979. It airs on Sunday nights on the Nine Network.

The prograrm's correspondents and commentators have included:

Tara Brown .... Correspondent (2001-)
Jennifer Byrne .... Correspondent (1986-1993)
Richard Carleton .... Correspondent (1987-)
Tracey Curro .... Correspondent (????-1996)
Ellen Fanning .... Correspondent (????-)
Liz Hayes .... Correspondent (1996-)
Ian Leslie .... Correspondent (1979-????)
Jeff McMullen .... Correspondent (1985-2001)
Ray Martin .... Correspondent (1979-????)
Mike Munro .... Correspondent (1986-1992)
George Negus .... Correspondent (1979-????)
Peter Overton .... Correspondent (2001-)
Jana Wendt .... Correspondent (1982-1990,1994)
Charles Woolley .... Correspondent (1993-)

Paul Lyneham .... Commentator (????-2000)
Peter Harvey .... Commentator (2003-)

CBS network shows News television series

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1 American 60 Minutes