She was outspoken and passionate, though we wondered if there wasn’t some homophobia behind her complaints. Lorraine Day was a perfect 60 Minutes subject because she wasn’t at all shy about her position. She agreed to let us film her in the suit. We had heard that she wore what amounted to a space suit in the operating room to protect her from the potentially infected blood of her patients. The story promised to be provocative and controversial, and Dr. Day wanted doctors to understand their risk of infection. Not since polio had there been such a fear of a virus, and Dr. In 1989 the AIDS epidemic was raging, and San Francisco, with its huge gay population, was at the epicenter. Producing the story was a first lesson in life at 60 Minutes. Lorraine Day, who was angry that not enough was being done, in her opinion, to protect physicians against the occupational risk of infection with HIV. The first story Steve and I did was about the chief of orthopedics at San Francisco General Hospital, Dr. He looked up with a scowl and said, “Then why don’t you start looking for another job.” He looked back down at his papers, and I slowly, one step at a time, backed out of his office.Īt the time they were handing out new computer terminals to replace the old typewriters. I have covered the world and every kind of story, and I always thought that coming here would be a promotion. We liked to joke that his sour and gruff exterior camouflaged his prickly interior.Ī month or so after starting on the job, I took a deep breath, entered his office, and said, “Phil, I have worked at CBS News since 1982. Phil was crucial, always trying to make sure the journalism was solid and accurate.

I found that out early in a conversation with Don’s number two, Phil Scheffler, the executive editor of the broadcast. Still, we both had to earn the right to be there. He was confident he could do the work well. Steve had already earned a reputation as one of the finest storytelling correspondents in an organization that included the very best. We had grown up in the hard news part of CBS News, covering conflicts, summits, plagues, and floods out of the London bureau. It was an adult place to work, with little supervision and high expectations, a refreshing place to be for Steve and me. Still, we were pretty much left to fend for ourselves.įager and Bob Simon celebrating an Emmy win. Nobody wanted the “kids” to screw up what they had worked so hard to build. He was a rascal - a very likeable rascal - with a big heart and a manic personality.īeing around Don and Mike and Morley Safer and Ed Bradley was a real thrill and an honor, but they were nervous about us newcomers. Could we do the kind of work expected of us? I remember Mike Wallace taunting me in the hall: “We’ll see if you can handle it soon enough see if you’re good enough to be here.” There was a twinkle in his eye, but I couldn’t tell if he was kidding or not, which was a fundamental part of his appeal.

There was a lot of pressure on him and on me.

I was hired as a producer to work with Steve Kroft, the first young male correspondent since Ed Bradley had joined in 1981. It was a sense that the story came first, and that the rituals and obsessions of most every other television news organization, including our own CBS News organization, did not matter so much. There was a journalistic spirit at 60 Minutes that I felt from that first day on the job in 1989, during the twenty-first season. “Just bring us good stories and everything will be all right.” “We don’t have meetings, and there are no memos to the staff,” he told me. But Don Hewitt settled that within a few hours on the job. Like a lot of young producers who first arrive for work at 60 Minutes, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Photo credit: John Filo/CBSīy the time my generation came along, 20 years later, it had become a hit… That prime decade encapsulates in many ways the reasons 60 Minutes did achieve enduring success, both through its original genius and its ability to constantly reinvent itself. Don Hewitt (left) handed over the reins to Fager in 2004.

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