Ebook Fifty Years of 60 Minutes The Inside Story of Television Most Influential News Broadcast Jeff Fager 9781501135811 Books

Product details Paperback 416 pages Publisher Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (October 16, 2018) Language English ISBN-10 1501135813

Fifty Years of 60 Minutes The Inside Story of Television Most Influential News Broadcast Jeff Fager 9781501135811 Books Reviews

• "'Wille Nelson?' Mike said in disgust. 'Willie Nelson? I said Winnie and Nelson--as in Mandela!' And then with real attitude he snapped, 'Heard of them?' He ended with a classic Mike Wallace line 'Excuse me, I didn't realize I had wandered into the toy department.' Mike then left the office and, walking down the hall, shouted back to Josh, 'Good luck with your next career move!'"
  
  60 Minutes first aired in 1968, a year for news if ever there was one. It was brilliantly conceived as a television news magazine, covering multiple unrelated news stories in a single broadcast. Executive producer Jeff Fager offers the reader an insider’s peek; lucky me, I read it early and free thanks to Simon and Schuster and Net Galley. It’s for sale today.
  
  60 Minutes did the stories nobody else was doing, and its correspondents were geniuses at persuading their subjects to open up and tell the world what it wanted to know. From President-elect Richard Nixon, who promised to ‘restore respect to the presidency’, to the torture of prisoners at Abu-Ghraib, 60 Minutes has been there and spoken to those that have done these things or bourn witness to them. I’ll bet I am not the only viewer that remembers the interview with the bitter, dying tobacco executive with throat cancer, rasping out what he knows on television. From Miss Piggy to the Ayatollah Khomeini, from Lance Armstrong to Khadafi, everyone has 15 minutes of fame…did they interview Andy Warhol? I’ll bet they did.
  
  Just as on the show, the book touches briefly but meaningfully on each subject, complete with lovely color photographs, both formal and candid, and then moves on before one can become bored. The careers of the professionals that worked on the show, behind the scenes and on it, are also described. Perhaps the most poignant is when ancient Andy Rooney, past 90, developing Alzheimer’s, but still in the saddle, keeps forgetting that he is supposed to give a farewell address. He keeps returning long after he was going to get gone, and finally his son has to write cue cards for him to read on the air. Rooney seems vaguely puzzled when he discovers he has retired.
  
  The whole thing is organized in congenial sections, decade by decade, but it’s the sort of book you can leave on your coffee table for guests to flip through. If they are adults, I can almost guarantee they’ll say, “Oh hey. I remember this!” What a wonderful ice breaker.
  
  Highly recommended. Get it in hardcover.
• This book is composed of five chapters, one for each decade of 60 Minutes broadcasts. For some unexplained reason, the decades are ordered #3, #1, #2, #4 and #5. I had a difficult time starting the read in Decade 3 (1988 to 1998), so I read the chapters in chronological order and found it to be much more interesting and sensible that way. I would strongly recommend this approach for others as well.
  
  Being a big fan of 60 Minutes over the years, I thoroughly enjoyed the show's ups, downs and very poignant behind the scenes story lines. A must read for prospective journalists.
• I'm a big fan of 60 Minutes, so this was a wonderful opportunity for me to get a look behind the scenes of this magnificent program. I thought there was a good bit of repetition of information and it could have probably used a better editor. But for anyone who has enjoyed this iconic program over the years, this book is well worth reading.
• This TV program has become part of U.S culture over the past half-century. I have over 50 years experience in both print and broadcast major market journalism. Sixty-Minutes, in my opinion, has become the gold standard for TV News magazine shows. as a soon-to-be PhD in modern media (at age 72) I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in news and its modern-day dissemination.
• Admission. I first purchased this hard copy used edition, and loved it so much that after three months of dithering, I purchased the ebook. The reason is simple as a history buff, but also a person in media and entertainment, many of who we work with are in those two industries. This book is fascinating because it provides the behind-the-scenes for so many iconic moments in television, and it does so from the perspective of the producer, the person actually creating, developing, nurturing and editing the stories. I hate purchasing books and feeling like I already know most of the stories, and I feared this would be the case with 50 yrs of 60 min--but it was not. For example, the memorable context behind the unforgettable interview with Bill and Hillary Clinton post Monica Lewinsky, and the famed stand-by-your-man I'm not Tammy Wynette line. Fager provides the lead up to it, and what the producer told the Clintons to get them to address the question, which was essentially you answer this once and say you did it on 60 minutes and you'll never address it again. I'd never heard that aspect related before.
  
  Another revelation was back during the Cold War with Russia. The 60 min producers had talked their way into Russia and met with a top military general. They start talking about nuclear war, bunkers etc, and to terribly summarize, they conversation leads to the general showing the members of 60 min the arsenal and when asked, answered that yes, they would sit down and have a conversation with the US. The result--incredibly--was that this moment on television opened up a dialogue with the US that included bi-directional visits to some of each countries nuclear sites.
  
  The snippets of fact and finnesse of the 60 min crew is worth every dime spent on this, new or used, hard copy or ebook.Fifty Years of 60 Minutes The Inside Story of Television's Most Influential News Broadcast
• Very Comprehensive and informative. Well written, and reminisces stories from near my childhood. Great read!
• A birthday present for my husband and I am sure that he will get many hours of enjoyment and entertainment out of this lovely book.
• The book content is fabulous - I was disappointed with the cover - it was peeling at the top of the front and back cover - since it's brand new and the book is blank without the cover, it makes it look like a used book -- this was a gift for my father who is a huge fan of 60 Minutes so I was embarrassed that it looked shabby