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Crew member 1: One second, Mike.

Crew member 2:
Another ten seconds,
we'll do some shooting.

Crew member: Okay.

- We going?
- Crew member: We have speed.

Why is the Fox Network
increasingly popular?

People in America
are desperate for straight talk.

And they're not getting it
from the networks?

The networks are too stodgy,
too traditional.

You gotta cut through it now.

When I tell people I'm going
to do a profile of O'Reilly.

"Oh! Wonderful. Wonderful.
Don't let him off the hook.

Go get him. Bring him down.
You're the guy who can do it."

What is it about me
that offends them?

- Take a look at you.
- The O'Reilly Factoris on.

I'm asking you
to shut up about sec...

Come on, you coward!

- Say the truth!
- What do you mean coward?

See, I'm more angry about it
than you are!

Shut up! Shut up!
Yeah, you had your 35 minutes.

Shut up!

That's not an interview.
That's a lecture.

- You say you're a journalist.
- Correct.

I say
that you're an op-ed columnist.

- Which is different.
- Bill: No, it's not.

You're a dinosaur.
You have to engage now.

You have to challenge.

You have to be so provocative.

This is going to embarrass you,
Wallace.

So are you ready
to be embarrassed?

Playboymagazine wrote
that Bill O'Reilly

is the most feared interviewer
since Mike Wallace.

You're the driving force
behind my career.

I always tell everybody,
you got a problem with me?

He's responsible.

So if you don't like me...

you go to Wallace.

[upbeat music playing]

TV host: The mention
of my first guest's name

has been known to strike fear

into the hearts
of brave men and women.

I'm Mike Wallace.
I'm Mike Wallace.
I'm Mike Wallace.

- Please welcome Mike Wallace.
- [crowd cheering]

TV host: Your image.

Interviewer, journalist,
killer. All right?

This man
is going to get somebody

and we're going to watch it
right here on television.

Do you enjoy "gotcha"?

Stephen Colbert:
You are the master of nailing.

You might have even invented
nailing somebody on camera

with that last question.

- How many people did you kill?
- Five.

But I don't think
I can kill an innocent person.

What do you mean
by an innocent person?

Well, you're an innocent person.

It may just have been
that you were difficult, Bette.

- No, no, no, no.
- Not difficult. Impossible.

You're probably unpleasant
to him...

You're a son of a bitch.
Do you know that?

- Oh, come on.
- You're a son of a bitch.

Crew member: Sync.

Interviewer:
You go in to cover a story.

It's your camera.
It's your microphone.

How would you like that done
to you?

How long do you think
we'll talk?

Interviewer:
How would you like somebody
to point a camera at you,

to confront you
with embarrassing material

perhaps about a life
you once led

- or something you once did?
- Well, fine.

But I don't have to answer.
I think it's a lousy question.

- Crew member: All set.
- You rolling on both?

Interviewer: I mean,
does it ever occur to you

that what you're doing
is somehow...

It's a little bit brutalizing?

[clock ticking]

How would you like it
done to you?

I wouldn't like it.

When was the last time
we had lunch together?

Lunch?

Here we are,
having ostensibly...

This is the first time
I think, Mike.

- both: [chuckles]
- I know.

- It's been a long time.
- It has been a long time.

Shall we, gentlemen,
are we rolling?

- Crew member: We got speed.
- Okay.

- This is a Wallace question.
- Mm-hmm.

Why are you sometimes
such a prick?

Uh...

Why am I sometimes such a prick?

Example?

- Example?
- Example.

Your life, Mike, is an example.
Come on.

I want to go back
to the beginning.

Good evening, I'm Mike Wallace.

A nation's press

is a good yardstick
of a nation's health.

Take a look at the history
of any nation

which has lost its freedoms

and you'll find that the men
who grabbed the power,

also have to crush
the free press.

Tonight, we'll discuss
some of the problems

of our own fourth estate.

Man: The first kinescope
that I can remember saying,

- "Now, that's Mike Wallace,"
isNight Beat.
-Mike: Of course.

Man: How did Night Beatstart

and how did you become
Mike Wallace?

Mike: Growing up
in Brookline, Massachusetts.

My mother was humorless. Strict.

My father was honest.
Very straight forward.

I developed a case of acne
as an adolescent,

which I think marked
my personality.

Back in those days,
I yearned for...

not sunny days, gray days

so that it wouldn't show
the pockmarks.

When the sun was there,
I suddenly was exposed

in all of my painful ugliness.

Interviewer: It seems like
you've always felt

you had something to prove.

As a young man,
you said you had acne,

you felt like you've got a face
for radio.

- Mike: That's right.
- Interviewer:
That was something

you had to prove
that you were better than.

But you had already started
developing this tougher persona.

Mike: I discovered my voice

and that's what saved me.

I thought to myself,
I'd be a radio announcer.

There were no pictures.

I could hide
behind the microphone.

But I obviously wanted
to perform.

Radio Announcer: Right now,
here's Mike Wallace.

Mike: Listen Thursday
to Sky King.

All of the grocers of America

who sells Peter Pan
Peanut Butter

help make this program
possible.

This is Mike Wallace
up in Sheraton...

Ride with Rip Reed as he races
to another thrilling adventure.

The Green Hornet strikes again.

- You were the Green Hornet.
- You see, back in those days,

you did the news,
you announced dramatic shows

like Green Hornet
and Lone Ranger.

And you swept up the studio
before you went home.

You did a lot of things
in other words.

All right, boys! Let's head out.

Announcer: Ride the rails
with Ned Jordan, Secret Agent!

[static buzzing]

Morley Safer: I think that
at some point in Mike's life,

he invented a guy
called Mike Wallace,

who was gonna be
tough as nails,

no nonsense,
no-holds-barred,

never took orders from anybody.

[static tune]

Mike: All right! Phew.

Barbra: Oh,
you shooting my feet?

- Do I have to put shoes on?
- No, leave the shoes off Paul,

and start the interview please.

- They say I'm difficult?
- [buzzes]

What are you frightened of?

You know, I was brought up
being scared of everything.

You don't go in the water,
you'll drown.

You don't stand on your toes
as a ballet dancer,

you break your toes.

That's who I am today.
In other words,

I'm frightened to death

of directing and producing
a movie.

And yet I was always testing
the fear.

- Meaning I don't let the fear
stop me.
- Yup.

But it doesn't mean
I'm not frightened

every inch of the way.

I turned on the TV the other day
and it went boop,

and there is a man
who had written a book

and he's saying
"Fear is the energy

behind doing your best work."

Interviewer: You remember
the first time you saw
a television camera?

Mike: Yes,
I was scared to death.

When I first looked up
at the lights and the heat,

I figured "I'm never going
to be able to make it.

Who's going to wanna look
at this man?"

Interviewer:
How did you get over it?

Mike: Back in the early days,

television
was a kind of experiment.

As a result of which,
I was willing to take any job

in television to begin with.

- Announcer: Mike Wallace!
- [crowd applauds]

Mike Wallace!

You must let
your imagination soar.

If you didn't do it,
there's only one way

I can help ya.
I've got to know the truth!

Parliament, with its famous
high-fi recessed filter

is continually tested
for uniformity by the United...

Does that embarrass you,
the cigarette commercials,

- for example?
- You mean the fact that I...

the fact that I did commercials?

- The acting.
- The acting?

Actor, pitch man.

You yourself have
a show business background.

Did you ever take
acting lessons?

Show business?
Oh, you know, this baloney

about a show business
background.

What is a show business
background?

Well, you were a celebrity
yourself.

And you came
into the news business later...

- You have no idea...
- Not from the journalistic
side of things,

from the showbiz side of things.

Hi, I'm Mike Wallace

with a sensational
shortening discovery

for better baking and frying.

Oh man, that's some apple pie!
Golden Fluffo!

I'm asking you about the acting.

I know you are.

Your welfare doesn't come
for a...

Mike: I was a little sensitive

about being a jack
of all trades.

But I was searching
for something different.

[crowd applauding]

Little did I know
that everything

was about to change
with my life.

Crew member: Mike Wallace,
number four.

Two-two dash one. Take one.

Good evening, I'm Mike Wallace,
the show is Night Beat.

What you're about to witness
is strictly personal.

A direct, undiluted,
unrehearsed,

uncensored interview.

My role is that of a reporter.

Up to then,
interviews had been vapid.

Who was the most interesting
person you've ever painted?

Senator, I understand
that you had a lot
of tea parties

during your campaign.
Can you still drink tea?

Rod, I've watched your show
many times

and I want to tell you
it's wonderful.

Mike: And then I wrote
and then I sang and so forth.

And no one ever confronted
anybody with anything

beyond that kind of talk.

And we said, "Let's do some
research about these people

and ask questions that have
never been asked before."

Mike: I think that you'll agree
that you have a rather

remarkable record
for being called names.

- That's right.
- Mike: [sniffles]

President Roosevelt
once called you a chronic liar.

President Truman called you
an SOB at one time

and a vicious liar
at another time.

The late Tennessee Senator,
Kenneth McKellar

called you an "ignorant liar,
a pusillanimous liar,

a peewee liar, a liar
in the daytime

and a liar in the nighttime."
End quote.

What is there about Drew Pearson
that inspires such bitterness?

Well, Mike... [clears throat]

...I can't give
an objective answer on that.

Could it be that you're a liar?

People didn't ask
tough questions back then.

I mean, you invented that genre.

You're not answering
the specific question

that I put, now you know
as well as I...

Interviewer: Night Beat
was news. It was journalism

but it was also television.

-Mike: Yeah.
- Interviewer:
It was also dramatic.

Tight close ups,
every little tick

and almost like a police
investigation.

- Well, you're talking
about economic equality.
- No I'm talking...

What I'm talking
about is social equality.

Now I'm getting to that!

Larry:
We're in the same profession.

Mike: Bet your sweet ass.

Crew member: Rolling.
Okay, roll one.

Take the camera left.

Take 90. Slate.

- Nervous?
- No.

Not at all?
People say you're a patsy.

- Oh that's not...
- That's the rap.

- Yeah, I know.
- I don't think you're a patsy.

You get information your way.
I get information my way.

But the rap on King
is that he's a patsy.

He will never ask a hard
question.

I'm Larry. I'm Larry
of the corner.

And when we were on the corner

I was the kind of kid
who used to say,

"Why do you want to drive
the bus?"

But, wait a second.
Why do you want to drive a bus?

Why do you put your hand
in the coin box

and take out one out of every
three quarters...

- Now, you would
ask it that way...
- ...Mr. Bus Driver?

...and I would say,
"Aren't there temptations?"

And he would say,
"Temptations? No."

- What I would not do
because it's not my style...
- Yeah.

- ...is say,
"You've taken quarters!"
- [chuckles]

Now, okay,
there's no perfect interview.

Don't confuse anger
and hostility

with an insistence
on getting to the bottom line.

To the fact.

There will be some, I'm sure,
who will feel it is a mistake

to give network exposure
to Eldon Edwards,

the Imperial Wizard
of the Ku Klux Klan.

To you who feel that way,
I respect your views,

although I do not share them.

This will be an unrehearsed
interview with Eldon Edwards.

I don't know what he will say.

Mr. Edwards, you say
that the Klan reject violence?

It does.

Your own Grand Dragon

is quoted having said not once,
but many times,

"Negroes who try to force
their way into our white schools

are not looking
for an education.

They're looking for a funeral."

Well, I didn't hear him
say that.

Then how do you account
for a report like this.

"Armed, robed and masked men

pulled cripple from home
near Negro area.

Character assassination,
boycotts, open warnings,

anonymous telephone calls,
threatening letters."

Do you employ those techniques
to get your beliefs across?

Well, I don't care
to even answer.

I've never seen an interview
that you did not dominate.

Why do so many Hollywood stars
fear to stand up

and speak their mind?

Well, Mike, I've heard
quite a bit about you.

You're supposed to be
a pretty rough boy.

When I am sitting here now,
being myself,

that's the most difficult thing
in the world for any actor

and certainly for me.

because then you do feel naked,
you don't have a script.

Mrs. Roosevelt,
I think that you will agree

that a good many people
hated your husband.

They even hated you.

Oh, yes, a great many do still.

Why?

Is it hard to ask
those questions?

- Is it difficult?
- No, not at all.

- How do you do it?
- Mike: [chuckles]

I'm nosy and in...
and insistent

- and not to be pushed aside.
- And confident.

Confident that
when I ask a question,

there's a reason
for its being asked.

It's not a question
picked out of the air.

You're seeing behind me...

Mike: You ask tough questions
that get behind the facade

to try to understand
what's really going on

behind the scenes.

Salvador Dali
is a self-confessed genius

with an ingenious flair
for publicity,

who sees the world
through surrealist eyes.

You said, "I adore three things.

Weakness, old age, and luxury."

Why do you adore old age?

Because I believe young people
is completely stupid, you know.

- Young people are stupid.
- Exactly.

[chuckles]

Crew member:
Yeah, we're rolling.

I'm sitting
in Mike Wallace's office.

Normally, he interviews people

and I'm turning
the tables on him.

The fact is,
I'm a little nervous.

- Why?
- I don't know but I am.

Well then let me ask you,
what makes a good interview?

- I understand that...
- Yeah?

...when you prepare
for a broadcast...

Mm-hmm.

...you don't really prepare.
You don't...

that is you don't have a script,
you don't have questions.

You don't have...
What do you do, wing it?

Yeah, basically I do.

- Why?
- Because I find that...

I think that I'm a surrogate
viewer and I feel so...

I feel really connected to...

to the women
who are out there watching me.

I know. But having said that,

still, if you're going
to be proxy

you've got to ask the questions

- that they want to ask.
- That they want the answers to.

- But... All right.
- So, so, so that's what I do.

I ask the questions
that I want the answers to.

Mike:
Now that you're a film star,

is it all
that it's cracked up to be?

No. When you have been
in the business

for a certain length of time,
you first of all come to realize

that nobody gets there
in the first place

without a lotta hard work,
disappointment,

- some heartbreaks.
- Compromises?

Yes.

Compromises
with your own honesty?

Yes.

Mike: It is a form of learning
about others

and ourselves through others.

It's almost like a love affair
in a strange way.

Beverly Sills:
Yeah, boy, you do that a lot.

Do what a lot?

Oh, those love affairs on camera
and all that. [chuckles]

- One final question.
- Sure,

- I'm beginning to like this.
- Mike: [laughing]

Mike: Night Beat defined me
for myself.

I suddenly had found my bliss.

Interviewer: You had become
Mike Wallace.

Mike: Yeah, exactly.

And suddenly
we were discovered

and we were overnight, a hit.

This you immediately
knew was the way

- for Mike Wallace to go.
- Absolutely. Yeah.

And that's when I became
a prick...

on the air.

Mike: Night Beat
changed the face of television.

It was a sensation.
And then ABC wanted it.

So they made it
The Mike Wallace Interview

- and put it on the network.
- My name is Mike Wallace.

The cigarette is Parliament.

Announcer:
The Mike Wallace Interview.

A new type of interview show

springing up
all over the country.

It's the kind of show
that really digs

into the heart of things.

Mike: And suddenly
that kind of interview

became quite a big hit
across the country.

I wouldn't go
on Mike Wallace's show

if I had the time.

That guy can cut you to ribbons.

In television drama,
few names have the prestige

of that of our guest,
Rod Serling.

We'll learn what he means
by the price tag

that hangs on success.

The Twilight Zone
is your own creation.

You're doing it for money.

How many hours a day
do you work right now?

12 to 14 hours a day.

How many days a week?

Seven.

And because those become
so large,

what becomes small?

I think probably
the really valuable things,

you suddenly find yourself
having to compromise

along the line.
Giving so many hours to work

and a disproportionate number
of fewer hours to family.

[beeps]

Interviewer:

How many times
have I been married?

What in the world do you want
to ask a question like that for?

What... what relevance
does that have?

That's the kind of a question
that you might hear

on Hard Copyor A Current Affair
or Four Times.

Women and Larry King.

What a saga.

Why are you looking so serious?

Because it's an area of my life
I, uh...

haven't done well with.
I've done...

You've been married
how many times?

- Five.
- So your wife

or your love is an intruder.

Is an aside.

You know I used to say,
if I came home

and had two messages;
"Your wife called urgent,

CNN called urgent."

- I'd call CNN.
- No contest?

No contest.

[indistinct chatter]

What the hell
is that smug smile about?

What do you regret most

about the decisions
of your life?

Oh, that's hard.

Probably, the first bad decision
I made was to get married

at the age of 22.
Which is damn foolish.

Mike: I married a college chum
who was Peter's mother

and Chris Wallace's mother.

Well, we went to school
together.

And it became quite apparent

we were married
when we were too young

and that was not going to work.

What kind of a father were you?

Hmm. Absent a lot of the time,
not very good.

Not very good.

One of the most colorful
and notorious gangsters

in the United States
in the late 1940s

was Mickey Cohen.

Mickey, you've killed at least
one man or how many more?

I have killed no men...

that, uh...

in the first place,
didn't deserve killing.

Larry: Did you have any fear
of Mickey Cohen?

Mike: No.

But he succeeded to offend
all manner of people.

A police chief who happens
to be a sadistic degenerate.

Mike: He gave such ammunition
with which to sue us for libel,

and everybody did.
Everybody did.

What about this statement
that you made in your own paper?

You have no right
to sit in judgment of me.

I'm not sitting in judgment,
I'm simply asking a question.

Mike: We were doing things
that were for the time,

revolutionary.
I mean asking serious questions.

Asking abrasive questions.

I'm ready any time you want
to repeat the stupid question.

Mike: We got
into a flock of lawsuits

and it just became too
controversial.

This has been the last program.

As tonight's guest,
Arthur Larsen has said,

"Before we can tell the world
who we are

and before we can act
for the future,

we ourselves must know
who we are, what we stand for.

And what we mean by freedom."

Mike Wallace, good night.

Mike: And just like that,

The Mike Wallace Interview
was off the air.

Hello. I'm Mike Wallace
with real news.

News about Revlon's new Lanolite
lipstick,

the first non-smear lipstick
that actually beauty treats

your lips as you wear it.

Interviewer: How did you feel
about moving on

without that show?

Mike: I was lost.

I used to say,
I have to do all these things

because I have all these kids
to support and so forth

and I knew that that was...
that was less than the truth.

Gals...

I was beginning
to pay a price

for some of the television work
that I had done.

I hated it after a while.

You're right. Within us
there seems to be

a frightening void
we are forever trying to fill

but never quite do, of lostness.

What do you mean?

You've never felt that feeling?

Interviewer:

[over radio]
This is Mike Wallace
currently going around the world

in 40 days and reporting
to WBZ'sProgram PM...

[narrating] I had been on a trip
around the world

for Westinghouse Broadcasting
that summer.

[over radio] ...with
my portable tape recorder,

I'll bring you an actual
word picture

of New Delhi, Cairo, Nairobi,
other news making cities...

[narrating] My son Peter
had taken the summer off
from Yale

and had gone to Greece.

And his mother told me
that they hadn't heard from him

you know, in a couple
to three weeks.

We didn't hear from him
and didn't hear from him.

So finally I said,
"Something's got to be wrong.

I'm going to go over
and see what's going on."

We didn't know if he'd gone off
with a crowd someplace

or met a girl or something
of that sort.

And I went to Xylokastro
to this youth hostel

and there was...
I saw his bag with his clothes.

And then somebody
close by said,

they thought that he had
gone up this mountain

about three or four miles away.

I got on a donkey
and we went up the mountain.

And finally came to a ledge,

very high looking out
over the Gulf of Corinth.

And I looked down...

I uh...

I saw my son.

Nothing, nothing,
nothing like that

had ever happened to me before.

It was just shattering.

[melancholic music playing]

Morley: I cannot think
of anything worse

than losing a child.
I mean, we are programmed

so that they will outlive us.

Is that something that still
haunts you?

Mike: I was married
all that time to my job,

had kids.

I was self-absorbed.

I'm ashamed to say.

My job was more important
than my family,

and I became a casualty of that.

Are you never lonely? Honest.

I mean there are the two of you
and that's it.

That's nice. Never.

You had a son...

and he died at the age
of 40-some odd.

Still not over that?

I'm sorry,
I didn't mean to do that.

Okay.

Leona: I'm tough...
[soft chuckles]

- What do you mean?
- I am tough.

- Oh yeah.
- It's not easy.

I can see you're tough
as the Dickens.

It seems your only
vulnerability.

Don't be silly.

- Mike: There are...
- People are vulnerable,

of course, you're vulnerable.

Barbara Walters: Your son
died in 1962.

Do you ever get over that?

Mike: I mean there's always
that... The memory of this...

I mean, Peter was a... Just a...

It changed your life, didn't it?

Interviewer: Some people
when they go through a loss
like that

it hardens their heart.

It sounds like it focused
your mind.

Focused my mind.

Interviewer: How did it affect
your becoming who you are?

Mike: I'd been unwilling
to give up

doing certain things
that I was doing in television.

Circus folks
just can't get enough

of Peter Pan Peanut Butter!

And after Peter died
I said to myself,

"What is it that you want to do
with your life?"

I don't want to read
everybody else's words anymore.

I don't want to do
commercials anymore.

I would like to be
a serious reporter.

[beep]

Announcer: From CBS News,
this special report.

Interviewer: How did 60 Minutes
start?

How did you end up there?

What was the state of CBS News?

[indistinct chatter]

Man: You got 30 seconds,
30 seconds.

Good evening. Tonight,
See It Now

devotes its entire half hour

to a report
on Senator Joseph R. McCarthy.

The other big missile site

is in Matanzas province
close to Havana.

Mike: When I first got there,
everybody wanted to go work
at CBS.

Crew member: Clear that shot!
Get Sakhalov out!

- Get 'em out!
- Mike: Because it was Cronkite,

Sevareid, Murrow.

Interviewer: That was
the essence of news back then
in many ways.

Mike: That was the voice
of authority.

That was the voice
of the establishment

- giving us the news.
- And that's the way it is.

Monday, September the second.

Announcer: The world news;
concisely summarized

and clearly explained.

This is Walter Cronkite.
Good night.

Interviewer: I remember,
when the word swept
through the newsroom.

Mike Wallace
is gonna be a CBS correspondent.

And people thought, oh, my God,
the button-down world of CBS.

Wait till this cat
gets in there!

He'll really open it up.
What is the treatment

that you get
when you're frozen out?

Hazed.

Yeah.
They were less than cordial.

Are you gone?

Mike: They said who needs
this pitchman

for Philip Morris cigarettes?

So here we are.
Pennsylvania Station.

Five minutes after seven.
The lights have been on...

the lights have been out
for about an hour and a half.

Mike Wallace
at Pennsylvania Station.

I was tainted
and they were pure.

And so I was not greeted
by everybody

with great enthusiasm.

And then I met Don Hewitt.

Announcer: The newsroom
never sleeps.

The search for stories
has the attention

of Cronkite's executive
producer, Don Hewitt.

...on camera
which we'll illustrate tomorrow.

- [beep]
- Crew: Sound roll three,

60 Minutes,
interview with Don Hewitt.

Interviewer: Nothing like
interviewing your boss.

Makes you real comfortable,
you know?

Here's some descriptions
of you. You ready?

Manic, brash, genius,
cocky, competitive,

perfectionist.

I accept everything but genius.

Call me Tuesday when you get
back. Call me collect.

Don: I'm not a brain.
I'm not an intellect.

- [indistinct chatter]
- In the early days,

when there were that bunch
of intellectuals at CBS News,

I think they looked at me
as some sort of upstart.

We're in the seventh grade
of the junior high school

- division of the...
- Don: Mike and I sort of allied

as two roughneck kids
who didn't come out of Oxford.

...revolution called New Math
is all about...

Interviewer: You said
that they were skeptical of you.

Why were they skeptical?

Mike: You know, I've done all
manner of things

that had nothing to do
with the news.

Mr. Wallace?

Mr. Wallace?

- I... I give up.
- [students chuckle]

I had to prove myself.

It was apparent to me early on
that the only way

that I was going to get
people to watch

wasn't because I was
the kind of reassuring,

avuncular Walter Cronkite type.

Anchor: Mike Wallace,
who has been
traveling the country.

What about civil rights?
Let's touch on that a second.

Mike: It was because I was gonna
research thoroughly

and ask tough questions.

Do you want the lights down
a little bit

do you think for fill?

Speed.

Dr. King, you said
that you saw white man's hatred

for the Negro
more bitter than anything

that you had seen
in Mississippi.

What lies at the root
of that hatred?

I think it is basically
a hatred born of fear.

They fear each other

because they don't know
each other,

they don't know each other
because they fail

to communicate with each other,

and they fail to communicate

because they are separated
from each other.

Minister Malcolm,
I believe that you have called

for self-defense units;

rifle clubs ready
to execute on the spot

those who threaten the Negro.

In a country that spends
I think 50 billion dollars

a year for defense alone,

I'm shocked that there's
apprehension over Negroes

trying to do something
to defend themselves.

Are you the least bit afraid
of what might happen to you?

Oh yes, I probably
am a dead man already.

Anchor: Controversial leader,
Malcolm X

was gunned down
while giving a speech.

[crowd chanting] One man,
one vote. One man, one vote.

Anchor: Mike Wallace is on
the convention floor

with the Mississippi
delegate.

Ed Bradley: Let me tell you
about the first time

that I worked with you

- at the Republican convention.
-Mike: Mm-hmm.

Whenever you were going
to be on the air,

I would stop what I was doing

and leave my quadrant
to go watch you work.

As you can see it's bedlam here,
Roger, Bob.

I remember you climbing up
the steps.

Everybody else was going up
the aisles.

- You were the first one
to get to them.
- Mike: Mm-hmm.

Bradley: I mean it was
an amazing thing to watch.

Mike: So what's the point?

Bradley: The point
is I was just struck by that.

That there are all of these
veteran reporters out there.

No one else thought of that.

Mike: Listen,
I would go after a story.

[crowd chanting] No more war!
No more war! No more war!

Mike: There was such ferment
in the country generally.

Mike: Suddenly, 75-millimeter
recoilless rifle rounds

began dropping in here.

Interviewer: You went to Vietnam
for the first time.

What did you see? What did you
smell? What did you hear?

Mike: I was a hawk
when I went there.

And it wasn't long
before I began to understand

that wrong war, wrong time,
wrong place.

Escalation is no shortcut
to peace in Vietnam.

What is the enemy doing?
Are these major attacks or...

[explosion]

Television's presence
at that war

is what turned
the American public against it.

[gunfire]

There was virtually
no censorship whatsoever.

Mike: You call the Vietnamese
"gokes".

Gooks.

What had you been
briefed to do

when you got to Pinkville?

I was searching out the village
and gathering up the people.

What kind of people? Men,
women, children?

Men, women, children.

- Babies?
- Babies.

Made them squat down

and Lieutenant Kelly
came over and said,

you know what do with them,
don't you?

So he stepped back about 10,
15 feet

and he started shooting them.

And he told me
to start shooting them.

So I started shooting.
I fired about four clicks

into the group.

How many do you imagine
you killed?

I might have killed about 10,
15 of them.

Mm-hmm.
Men, women and children.

Men, women and children.

And babies.

And babies.

Obviously, the question
comes to my mind,

how do you shoot babies?

I don't know,
it's just one of them things.

[siren wailing in the distance]

Mike: The question is

what kind of country
is the United States?

That, in just the last few years

has killed a president,
President Kennedy.

Has killed Martin Luther King.

And now attempts to kill
Robert Kennedy,

Malcolm X, the black militant
leader.

What kind of curious strain
of violence is there

in the American people?

Announcer: 1968...

the most pivotal year
since the end of World War Two.

For the country, for politics,

and also in the news business.

The long dark night
for America is about to end.

As soon as he gets toward
the car.

Rolling?

This was New Hampshire's
last hurrah to Nixon.

There's only one name
on the Republican ballot

next Tuesday; Richard Nixon.

Mike: I was covering
Richard Nixon at the time.

We were getting along so well
that Nixon wanted me

to join his campaign
as press secretary.

And at that time,

Don Hewitt was a man
that everybody

had decided had had it.

He wasn't up
to the CBS News standard.

So the folks at CBS News
put Hewitt in a room

and said, "Come up with an idea.

Perhaps, we'll put it
on the air."

I stole

the idea of 60 Minutes,

lock, stock and barrel
from Lifemagazine.

The Nixon campaign
in New Hampshire

- has been smooth...
- And he came to me and he said,

"Tell you what, I'm going
to give you a chance

to do the kind of interviews
you used to do

back at Channel 5
withNight Beat."

And so I cast my lot
with Don Hewitt.

Cut.

[beep]

60 Minutes,volume one.
number one.

New opening, take one.

[indistinct chatter]

Well done for us fellows
out here in the trenches.

Crew member: In five.

[beeping]

Dissolve, cue!

Good evening.
This is 60 Minutes.

It's a kind of a magazine
for television.

Nixon acknowledges now
that he withdrew from the press,

that he was afraid of them
and their questions.

There's been so much talk
in recent years of style,

and of charisma.

No one suggests
that you have a good deal of it.

Have you given no thought
to this aspect of campaigning?

And of leading?

Richard: Let me make this
one point.

Some public men
are destined to be loved

and other public men
are destined to be disliked.

The most important thing
is not whether he's loved

or disliked,
but whether he is respected.

And I hope to restore respect
to the presidency.

Larry: Did you know Mike,
that night, that you had
a winner?

Mike: We didn't know
what we were up to.

Anchor: A fan at the University
of Tennessee wrote

"60 Minutes is wonderful.

Does this mean that it
will be dropped in a few weeks?"

We do think
this is sort of a new approach.

We realize, of course,
that new approaches

are not always
instantly accepted.

Mike: We'd finish regularly 85th
out of 100 shows in the ratings.

Mike: Tonight, on 60 Minutes...

Mike: Nobody was paying
any attention.

We were on the air
we were off the air.

- We were preempted.
- [beep]

Anchor: From CBS News
in Washington.

Nobody thought
it was going to last.

Nobody thought
it was going to last.

I think we first met
when Harry announced

he was leaving
to go to ABC and...

- That was right.
- ...I got the call.

Mm-hmm.

How did you feel
about me coming?

Intruder?
Somebody you could push around?

Oh, no, no, no, on the contrary
I was so far ahead you.

I mean everybody knew me.

Who the dickens
was Morley Safer?

You know, big deal.

- I'm Mike Wallace.
- I'm Morley Safer.

Those stories and more
tonight on 60 Minutes.

I'm Morley Safer.

Mike: We would try
and do anything
we could at that time.

Really. We were experimenting.
We were trying to find out

what worked
and what didn't work.

And then suddenly
what happened?

Watergate came along.

Mike: In the early days,

The Post was all alone
on Watergate

and the White House
was denying it

and the rest of the press corps
ignoring it...

Shabby journalism...

Mike: There were
no other broadcasts

that had the time to devote

to some of the cast
of characters of Watergate,

except60 Minutes.

Of all the characters
in the Watergate drama,

Gordon Liddy remains
the most mysterious.

They called him
the dirty tricks artist.

And because I had
a relationship

with all of the people
in the Nixon administration...

John Ehrlichman was closer
to the Oval Office...

...as a result,
I began to do interviews

with the entire top cast
of characters.

Did you see Senator Weicker
enumerate a list

of the illegal or unethical acts
of the White House?

- No I didn't.
- Mike: Let me read them.

Breaking and entering.

Wiretapping,

conspiracy
to foster prostitution,

conspiracy to commit kidnapping.

Destruction
of government documents...

Did the president
ever tell you

to get rid
of the taping equipment?

...forgery of State
Department documents

and campaign letters.

Secret slush funds...

Wait a second,
you mean Silbert knew

about what Kallenbach
was doing for you?

Paying you at that time?

...perjury.

Plans to audit tax returns
for political retaliation...

Have you done more than pray?

Have you tried to make it up
to those you've hurt?

...theft of psychiatric records.

Plans to firebomb a building...

You offered to have
yourself shot,

assassinated,

to reassure everybody
that you weren't gonna talk...

All of this by the law
and order administration

of Richard Nixon.

Is there a question
in there somewhere?

Mike: I mean, these things
hit front pages

all across America.

We've got a raft
of mail last week

following our story about...

And gave a certain,
"What is this60 Minutes?"

Mike: Whenever and however

Mr. Nixon's case is disposed of,

the press' turn will come next.
What did he mean?

The press is gonna be blamed
for it.

And what can the press
do about it if anything?

Hunker down.

Hunker down
and go about our business

which is not to be loved

but to go after the truth.

Mike: That's when we began to do
the real investigative stuff.

The kind of stuff
you hadn't seen at all,

in television.

Standing from the back room
I could hear

what was going on
in the front office;

a pretty frank discussion
about kickbacks.

So I could get five hundred
a week?

Pardon me.
Yeah, just a second, fellas.

And you know
that what you're offering to do

is to break the law.

Why?

Tonight, a story
about the big business

in mail order degrees.

Land fraud and swindle.

Kiddie Porn. Child pornography.

I've seen them as young
as six years old in here.

- Six years old?
- Six years old.

Mike: At that point,
I came in.

This time, our camera
was no longer hidden.

We have pictures of you

- selling films...
- Man: No.

- ...to my colleague here...
- No.

Where did these come from?

I don't know! He put over there!
This is my films.

Of course, you're paying
income tax on this.

- [man laughs]
- What are you laughing about?

They called on the Miami Police
to get us off their property.

Police: You have no right
to be here. I ask you to leave.

You're interrupting
a business.

- Don't. Don't. Don't.
- Come on in, fellas.

No.

Hey, wait a minute.
60 Minutesis in here.

- Can you believe it?
- Mike: How are you?

- 60 Minutes. Hold the phone.
- Nice to see you.

Now this is my favorite one.
Gosh, what's your last name?

- Wallace. Mike Wallace.
- Mike Wallace.

- [distant siren wailing]
- [horn blaring]

Don: One day somebody
came to me and said,

"You know,
you're in the Top Ten."
And I said the Top Ten what?

He will talk
to Arafat again today.

I didn't know
what a rating point was.

How much time do you think
Mike has for that thing

following the mail?

Mike: This thing took off
for reasons

I still do not understand.

We're not cutting the credits.
I think.

We heard that more people
watch your show

than Walter Cronkite.

And people watch you
more than they watch him.

You know something,
Walter is down the hall

and you don't want to get Walter
angry at me, do you?

Anchor: Its patented blend
of hero reporters

and sweating villains
has redefined TV news.

For better or for worse
is a question for debate,

but you can't argue
with ratings.

60 Minutes is the most watched
news program ever.

Okay. We're very excited
about our first guest tonight.

His dogged interviewing style...

...singular brand
of browbeating charm...

...who is highly respected
among his peers.

It's my pleasure
to welcome Mike Wallace.

[crowd applauding, cheering]

- David Hartman: Mike Wallace!
- Merv Griffin: Mike Wallace!

- Mike Wallace!
- Dinah Shore: Mr. Mike Wallace!

Crew member: Rolling.

Why are you doing this now?

- Doing what?
- This.

You walked out
on us once before.

- Didn't walk out on us.
- Well...

I understood
that you're paying me

a large amount of money
for this.

You're wrong.

- You...
- Why are you doing this now?

I'm not running
a boiler room operation.

I have no phony
real estate scam.

I'm not taking any kickbacks.

Well, there's a stereotype

- of Carson. You know there is.
- What is it? What is it?

Ice water in his veins.

- I had that taken out
years ago.
- Mike: Is that so?

I went to Denmark
and had that done,

- it's all over now.
- Shy.

- Probably true.
- Mike: Defensive.

Sometimes in a social situation,
or with people,

I feel a little uncomfortable.

See when I'm in front
of an audience,

- it's a different thing.
- Why?

I'm in control.
I can handle the audience,

and I can set the timing,
and I can set the pacing.

And then I can play with that.
There's Carson the performer,

then there's Carson
the private individual.

When the camera goes on...

- Yeah.
- ...they are your family.

- That's right.
- Man: Here's AB Roll...

Morley: People started
to tune in to us in big numbers

to see what Mike Wallace
was gonna be up to next.

Okay.

You're never gonna live it down,
Mike. I guarantee it.

I'll use it to show
just what the press is.

You're contemptible,
I mean this not for the camera.

I'd like you
to get out of here, immediately.

I hope you got it
and I hope you have the guts

to use it!

There is a new billionaire
in town. Trump's the name.

Donald Trump
is a major dealmaker,

a swashbuckler.

Donald,

you're in your late 30s.

You got 40 years to live,
minimum.

Well I hope you're right
about that.

What are you gonna do?

There are a lot of things to do.

You know, a fertile imagination
and a good fertile mind, Mike,

it's an amazing...
It's really amazing

what can be thought of,
there's so many things to do.

- Politics?
- There's so many...

No, not politics.

You've said that you could do
a better job at negotiating

an arms control
agreement with the Soviets,

than some of these professionals

who've been trying
to do it for years.

I didn't say me, Mike,
I said somebody has to do it.

If it were me, that'd be fine,

- I could do it.
- You...

Somebody has to help
this country

and if they don't,
the country and the world

are in big trouble.

Because within
a short period of time,

as sure as we're sitting here,
there's not gonna be a country

and there's not gonna be
a world.

Anchor: He could get
with a question,

- to the very core of the story.
- How much do you make?

[speaking in foreign language]

- What's your salary?
- [speaking in foreign language]

Hard question.

Simple question.

Morley: There was no off switch

If it was in his head,
it came out of his mouth.

You really believe
that you lived lives before?

- And...
- Oh, yes, Mike. I don't...

There is no doubt
in my mind about it.

Mike: Mm-hmm.

And you really believe
in extraterrestrial...

Have they... Do they
come visit you on the porch?

"Now you're being unpleasant,
Wallace" is what you're saying.

Oh, yes. This is
what I was a little afraid of.

- Mike: Oh...
- You don't have
to be that unpleasant.

It doesn't become you, you know?

Morley: But Mike
would steal stories.

There is
that schoolboy competitiveness.

- [indistinct chatter]
- Maestro, tell me something...

Morley: Competitive
beyond belief.

Here we are
at Madison Square Garden...

Anchor: And at the same time,
unsure of himself.

Mr. Right...

Morley: That he had not paid
his dues as a journalist.

That uncertainty
or that even perhaps shame...

- haunted him.
- What is a racist?

Morley: He was going to go out
and prove

I'm as good as anybody
in this racket.

60,000 jobs have gone down
the drain. You've laid out...

Morley: And I once said to him,
I said,

"Mike, you don't have to prove
yourself, for God's sake.

Everybody knows you're good.
You're terrific.

You're a big star."

You've had a reputation
as a very difficult guy.

For years.

Why? Where did that all
come from, Kirk?

It shows you
what a good actor I am,

because I really am
the sweetest.

Come on. Everybody says

that in the old days
you were an exceedingly...

Even your own kids said
that you were very difficult.

Oh, there's no doubt about that.

But I think most the things
that I did wrong

comes out of an insecurity.

What the dickens
are you insecure about?

Michael, I think that no one
is ever free of insecurities

whether maybe in the
relationship with their kids,

in the relationship
with their wife,

and in the relationship
with their work.

Twenty or 30 years
of psychoanalysis,

I say to myself, what is it
that she's trying to find out

- that takes 20 to 30 years?
- I'm a slow learner.

For some reason
I feel like your father

- or your uncle or something.
- Barbra: Well, that's good.

At least you're feeling.

- That's good.
- Oh, I've got to tell you,

my feelings are as close
to the surface...

- Are they?
- ...as your own.

- So you put on this facade...
- You are damn right.

...in other words, you put on
this facade of toughness.

Crew member: Roll one, take one!

Don: Look, there's a lot
of temperament in Mike.

It's gonna be dull
as hell, please.

Crew member: Take three!

No, no, no. You're going
much too fast.

Crew member: Take five!

What the fuck are doing?
This is supposed to be here.

- Are you reading?
- Yes.

Here we go, this is the one.

God damn, could give me
a slightly shot...

slightly different shot?

But show me someone
with no temperament,

and I'll show you someone
with no talent.

Sweet shit, should we start
from the beginning again?

The journalist
as a household word,

Oriana Fallaci.

She is an Italian journalist.
Resourceful, ambitious,

arrogant.

Her revealing interviews
are merely conversations

to begin with, she says.

Then she transcribes
them herself

and turns them
into morality dramas.

She plays the role of judge;
the interviewee is on trial,

and few are found innocent.

I hate objectivity, you know.
I have told it many times.

I do not believe in objectivity.

I believe in what I see,
what I hear and what I feel.

- Power, you have power?
- Oh no, I have no power.

- No? None whatsoever?
- You are not one of those

who think that we journalists
have power.

- No?
- Ah.

We are like the dogs.
[mimics dog barking]

And nobody listens to us.

You're an entertainer?

I'm an historian.

- You're not an historian.
- Yes, I am.

- You're a journalist.
- No, sir.

- A journalist is an historian.
- No, no, wait.

Listen, a journalist is a person
who writes history

in the same moment
that history happens.

And it is the damn best way
to write history.

[crowd chanting in Persian]

Good evening. In Tehran tonight,

the American embassy
is in the hands

of several hundred
Iranian students

who took control
after a three-hour skirmish

with U.S. Marines.
They are holding hostages.

One report says
as many as a hundred.

Muslim students in Iran
spurred on by Ayatollah Khomeini

today escalated their war
against what he calls

the Great Satan America.

I'm really infuriated because...

this is not Islam.

Islam doesn't teach at all

what this man...
Such a lunatic like this man.

Mike: I was standing
in a toxic waste dump

in Stockton, California.

When all of a sudden
the word came:

Khomeini will see you.

Morley: Did you have
any concern

about going over there
at that time?

Mike: What are they going to do
Take you hostage yourself?

Morley: Maybe. They took
the other Americans hostage.

You never thought...
It never crossed your mind?

Mike: Honest, if you got
a hell of a story

on your hands, no.

Morley: What was
the atmosphere in the room like?

Mike: I was immediately told

you have to give us
the questions ahead of time.

Morley: Was there a lot
of tension in the room

when you went in there?

Mike: He had
his own cameras there.

Everybody had to be satisfied
with the questions.

[speaking in foreign language]

Well, let's... let us begin.

Do you still say, Imam,

that if the Shah
is not returned to Iran

that those American hostages
in the American embassy compound

will not be freed?

[speaking in foreign language]

But that is not an answer
to whether the hostages

will be freed.

His Eminence prefers
that you put up

the rest of the questions
and then later on,

I'll translate for you
so that...

his Eminence can be faster.

Unless I know what he is saying,
it will not make sense.

I must understand as we go.

Otherwise it is not
an interview

and I will have no way
of understanding.

[speaking in foreign language]

Imam, President Sadat of Egypt,

a devoutly religious man,

a Muslim,

says that what you are doing now
is quote, "A disgrace to Islam."

And he calls you, Imam,

forgive me, his words, not mine,

"A lunatic."

I know that you have heard
that comment.

I'm not sure if I can get
the answer

because this was not
in the questions.

Please ask him. I'm sure...
It's a very simple,

straightforward question.

I heard that the Imam
is a disgrace to Islam.

And he used the word a lunatic.

[speaking in foreign language]

[speaking in foreign language]

Then he is a traitor to Islam,
Sadat?

[speaking in foreign language]

He calls upon
the Egyptian people

- to overthrow Sadat.
- Translator: Exactly.

Interviewer: It's the first time
I remember you

asking a question that way.

"Forgive me."

It's a very artful way
to ask the question.

Mike: In effect, he called
for the overthrow

of Anwar Sadat.

That was interpreted

as calling
for the assassination.

[gunfire]

And of course,
that's exactly what happened.

Anchor: The celebration turned
to terror.

President Sadat and others
on the reviewing stand
with him,

raked with gunfire.

President Sadat,

62 years old is dead.

Charles: Mr. Wallace.

Are you aware
that what you are doing

is seriously endangering people?

That's the way you're going
to educate the public,

- through your questions?
- Through the questions

and the answers, yes.

Are you tempted
during those interviews,

to usurp

the powers of our secretary
of state

and go right for "I'll...

Mike Wallace will settle this!"

Television journalism
has been coming

under recent criticism.

Some polls have shown
that public confidence

is eroding.

We have heard increasingly
talk about news glut.

Information is becoming
certainly a bigger business.

- Is it bad?
- It's hard to cope with,
I guess.

You used the word "business",

and let's face it.
It is a business.

The business of network news

has become one of the highest
stakes games in television.

Interviewer:

I think there are too many
news magazines

on the networks now, sure.

Good evening. I'm Hugh Downs
and this is 20/20.

Announcer:
On the ABC News Magazine.

Anchor: Dateline Monday.

- Anchor 1: Day One.
- Anchor 2: This is Nightline.

Mike: I think the reason
they're there

is because there has been
a thirst in the audience.

How to turn news
into a primetime ratings hit.

I think the magazine programs
outside of the network purview

have helped journalism
tremendously.

Like Bonnie and Clyde,

they crossed the country
in a crime rampage.

Maury Povich: Pitbull terriers.
Kids' pets or killer dogs?

I'm Maury Povich.
Tonight on A Current Affair.

Crew member: Take two!

- All right, here we go.
- Crew member: Standby.

- Rolling?
- You gotta be back, buddy.

You gotta be out of the shot.

So Keigel Vay, who himself stood

to profit handsomely
when his clients expand...

You reach people
very well that way in a very...

I'm not ashamed to use the word
in a very dramatic way to say,

- wait a minute.
- Charles: Mr. Taylor,

is what Mr. Wallace does
good journalism?

[all laughing]

I think it's marvelous drama,

and has very little to do
with journalism.

I can't believe
that I'm hearing this from you.

I really cannot believe it.

Mr. Wallace.

Do you think that the way
he reports on business

- is good journalism?
- Yes.

Why won't you say the same
for him? I mean that's...

Taylor: Because I don't,
I don't think it's journalism.

I think it's show business.

Bring it back down,
let's do it again.

Mike: We were the number one
broadcast in America.

But I don't care who you are
and how lucky,

you realize that...

life is going to even up
somehow.

Perfect, let's go home.

[overlapping conversations]

Life is gonna turn around
and bite you in the back.

Interviewer: When60 Minutes
was at the peak

of its power in the early '80s,

CBS News and you
personally are sued

by General William Westmoreland,

the commander of American Forces

in the lost American war...

- Mm-hmm.
- ...in Vietnam.

I have been subjected
to a vicious, scurrilous

and premeditated attack

on my character
and personal integrity.

The sham was perpetrated
by the unscrupulous

and arrogant, Mike Wallace.

With distorted false
and specious information

an attempt to execute me
on the guillotine...

of public opinion.

Retired U.S. Army General
William Westmoreland today

filed suit against
CBS Incorporated.

He charged in federal court
that he was libeled

in a CBS News documentary

about enemy
troop strength reports

during the Vietnam War.

You couldn't ask
for more troops.

Therefore,
you couldn't let the enemy

be perceived as larger.

Well, that is absolutely
fallacious.

It has no validity, whatsoever.

I'm absolutely amazed
that you would come out

with a statement like that.

- It's not a statement...
- It has...

- It's a question.
- It has no basis, whatsoever.

Didn't you make this clear
in your August 20th cable...

William: No, no, yeah, no.

I have a copy
of your August 20th cable...

Sure, okay, okay.

Spelling out
the command position

on the self-defense controversy.

As you put up in the cable,
you say the principle reason

why the South Defense Militia
must go, quote,

"Was press reaction."

I made the decision.
It was my responsibility.

I don't regret making it.
I stand by it.

And the facts prove
that I was right.

- Now, let's stop it.
- All right, Sir.

It was all there.

The arrogance, the color,
the drama, the contrived plot,

the close shots...

everything but the truth.

[camera shutters clicking]

Mike Wallace
and his boy George Crile

in my view...

are a disgrace
to American journalism.

[horns blaring]

Anchor: Opening arguments
began today

in the 120 million-dollar
libel case

by William Westmoreland
against CBS.

Many journalists worry
that the immediate accusations

could damage public trust
in all the media.

There have also been accusations

that Wallace only played
the part of a reporter.

Anchor: TV Guide called it
a smear

and that triggered a top-level
internal investigation.

I want to talk
about the Westmoreland case.

The TV Guide article

that originally caused
so many questions

about the whole
Westmoreland case says,

"George Crile, the producer
of the Westmoreland Hour,

wrote virtually
all of your questions."

- True?
- He wrote a lot of questions.

Don Cowet said "Mike Wallace,

America's most feared
investigative reporter

had merely been a puppet
on George Crile's knee."

Do you think so?

- What do you think?
- Oh, of course not.

Is that the way
you usually work,

with two thirds
of your questions

written by someone else?

I was at that same time
trying to do

a good many pieces
on 60 Minutes.

- And so...
- So why do they need you?

I mean if somebody else
is writing...

Well, that's a perfectly
good question.

Not to have something to do
with the so-called...

star system or the...

- Or the... Heavy System.
- You don't want to be thought

of as an actor who comes in
and reads questions.

- And I think that you're...
- And you're not.

- And you're not.
- That's right, okay.

So, what's the question?

Doesn't it trouble you
to be called a puppet?

[camera shutter clicking]

Winston Churchill
called it "The Black Dog".

Abe Lincoln was so anguished
by it he cried,

"I am now the most miserable man
living.

If what I feel
were equally distributed

to the whole human family,

there would be not one
cheerful face on earth."

It is mental depression.

George: Fear is something
that I've never known.

I've never been afraid
of anything.

But here was this damnable
kind of annoying fear that...

- that maybe I was losing
my grip...
- Well, now wait a minute.

Former Assistant Secretary
of Defense,

head of successful company,
a millionaire and...

then all of a sudden?

That's right.
These things started to happen.

Now, you must understand...

that this is a gradual onset.
It's an insidious thing.

I got to the point
where this thing

preyed on my mind
so and I was filled

with such agonizing fear
that I couldn't...

hardly bring myself
to answer the phone

for fear it'd be somebody
I'd have to talk to.

Total continuing, unrelenting,
unremitting depression,

24 hours a day.

Morley: A lot of people who...
who suffer from depression

say they really had it

a long time before
it was actually diagnosed.

Is that true?

Mike: I had no idea what it was
when it hit me.

The battle goes
on in Federal court

over CBS's documentary

on enemy troop strength
during the Vietnam War.

[indistinct chatter]

Mike: I had been asking
nasty questions

of all kinds of people
for some years

and now you are afraid
that they're gonna start

asking those questions of you.

[indistinct chatter]

Mike: And day, after day,
after day,

you were called
every dirty name imaginable.

You begin to wonder
if you haven't...

done something dishonest.

You don't want to eat.

You find it difficult to sleep.

[sighs] It's never out
of your mind.

Anchor: The trial
has already produced

more than 6,000 pages
of testimony...

Mike: Went on
for years and years.

Morley Safer:
And you worked through it.

Mike: I had no idea
what I was doing.

I would ask a question.

Couldn't hear
or understand the answer.

Didn't know what question
was supposed to come next.

Look, I was ashamed
of having a depression.

That's one of the things
that's so awful about it.

But there are some...
there is some blot.

[elevator dings]

- Morley Safer:
It was such a dirty word.
- Mike: That's correct.

That's correct.

You whispered.

All you focus on is yourself...

and how bad you feel.

You... You're wrapped up
in here...

in your own petty...

monumental selfishness...

self-absorption.

- [camera shutters clicking]
- [indistinct chatter]

Mike: Pains and spaciness...

and feelings of fraud
and feelings of...

that I was a fake and... and...

and self-esteem
that just plummeted.

Did you ever contemplate
suicide, Mr. Pike?

I... I felt like a dead man.
And I wished I were dead.

Interviewer:

Oh, I hit bottom, yeah.

- Interviewer:
- Yes.

- Interviewer:
- No.

Interviewer:

I know that, uh...

articles have been written
about that but...

And I... I really don't want
to particularly discuss it.

Mike: When you don't sleep,

hour after hour,
night after night,

day after day...

and you are obsessed...

with what a fourth-rate
individual you are,

you contemplate anything
to get out of it.

But, thank God...

there was enough common sense
so that I didn't really...

try anything.

Interviewer:

- Yeah.
- Interviewer:

[indistinct chatter]

Interviewer: Did you
think about killing yourself?

Mike: Of course.
Of course you do.

To get out of it?

Damn right.

That'll be a shock to people.
I mean, Mike Wallace,

the man on top of the world.

Morley Safer: All of the fame
and the glory

and the accolades
and everything,

really kind of didn't mean
anything to you anymore?

It was just dust
like everything else?

Mike,

did you try to commit suicide
at one point?

I thought very seriously
about it.

I've never...

I promise you, anybody
who's in a deep depression...

thinks about suicide.

Uh...

I've never said this before.

Yeah, I tried.

And Mary found me.

I wrote a note...

and Mary found it.

She found the pills
that I was taking on the floor.

I was asleep.

You got lucky.

Yes, I did get lucky.

I don't know why the hell
you asked me that question

cause other people have...
and I've...

It's the first time
I've answered it honestly.

Cut.

[somber music playing]

Good evening,
this is the CBS Evening News,

Dan Rather reporting.

One of the New York
newspaper headlines reads,

"Westy Raises White Flag".

This after William Westmoreland

suddenly dropped his 120
million-dollar libel suit

against CBS.

Westmoreland will get no money
from CBS.

The documentary
about which he complained

will remain intact,

without apology
and without any retraction.

Reporter: CBS agrees to sign
a statement saying,

"CBS respects General
Westmoreland's long

and faithful service
to his country."

Oh, I consider that I won.

By... by virtue
of that statement.

When a plaintiff wants
to drop a lawsuit

without any money
and without any apology,

- I think we ought to let him.
- [all laughing]

The war between the General
and the network

officially ended today...

but there are serious questions
that remain.

I think the greatest risk
we have...

is that these suits
will intimidate

many news organizations,

because the cost
of doing aggressive journalism

is going to be exorbitant.

What it comes down to,
if you listen to the media,

is a question of how tough
journalism will be.

It's what journalists call
the "chilling effect".

Tell me what you think
of investigative journalism

these days.

It's lousy, isn't it?

- No.
- Well, come on.

They go after the guy
who runs the pizza place

in the corner
because he charges too much

for pepperoni, but they won't go
after the Pentagon

because things
like the Westmoreland suit

has scared corporations
to death.

Last year, American's smoked
582 billion cigarettes.

The Surgeon General
of the United States

says that cigarettes
cause lung cancer.

More deaths,
than the combined total

of Americans killed each year
by auto, fire,

and other accidents,
by alcohol, murder, and suicide,

by AIDS, cocaine, and heroin.

Do you consider tobacco
a health hazard?

No, I think
that when the secret

to cancer is finally discovered,

that we're gonna find,
that it's brought on by a virus.

Interviewer: Are we ready?

You have chronicled the demise
of the cigarette.

And unfortunately,
one of the biggest scandals

to hit 60 Minutes,

was the case
of Jeffrey Wigand.

Mike: We have been trying
for years, to talk to the CEO

of the tobacco companies.

And all of a sudden,
we heard that we were set

to learn what this insider
had to offer.

The head of research
and development

for a major tobacco company
who wants to lay it on the line.

Dr. Wigand...

you're the first tobacco
executive

as far as I know
to come forward.

The element in cigarettes,
that make them attractive,

- is the nicotine, right?
- Most certainly.

And that's what cigarettes
are for?

It's a delivery device
for nicotine.

Put it in your mouth,
light it up,

- and you're gonna get your fix.
- You get your fix.

Are you worried
about going public this way?

Somewhat.

- I had life threats on my kids.
- What?

It says, "Leave tobacco alone
or else...

you'll find your kids hurt.

They're pretty girls now."

Then why are you doing it?

Because I believe it's right.

Okay, we got it?

Jeffrey Wigand: I just want
to make sure that

until I get a lot of things
in order...

Oh, don't worry about that.

We're not going to go
forward with any kind

- of broadcasting on this?
- Absolutely.

Mike: We had the story cold.

We know that it's true.

And all of a sudden,
we were told by our lawyers

that we had induced
the breaking

of a confidentiality agreement

between Jeff Wigand
and the Brown

and Williamson Tobacco Company.

Don Hewitt: We've got a gun
pointed at our head,

of 15 billion dollars.

We may opt to get out
of the line of fire.

Mike: Put it on the air.
Let them sue.

I cannot believe that any court

would have come down
against us.

In your office or Phil's?

Interviewer: I'm sure
that this was your argument

to CBS, to Don.

They did not want to hear
that argument.

The management didn't want
to hear that argument.

- [sighs]
- Interviewer: Even between you
and Don?

Mike: Don didn't want
to hear it.

Yes, we did! You agreed!

No, I just disagree
with you totally.

Mike: He was on
the company's side
and I and a couple of others...

were not.

The sense is that you lost

your dedication
to getting the truth out.

That happened at one point
for a period

of about 12 to 15 hours.

And that was all of it.

We at 60 Minutesare proud
of working here

and at CBS News,

and so we were dismayed
that the management at CBS

had seen fit to give in
to perceived threats

of legal action against us
by a tobacco industry giant.

Woman: I can't believe that
there wasn't something else

that you could have done.
Is there not?

No, no.

Mike went as far as you...
Mike went further than I did.

-Mike raised hell about it.
- 60 Minuteshas been to court

or has been sued,
not infrequently over the years

and we've never lost one.

Because we've been willing
to go to court.

This is the first time
that they said no.

Today, it was revealed
that CBS's 60 Minutes

had decided to back off
a tough investigative report

on the powerful
tobacco industry.

...raising new questions
tonight about

corporate power
and what's acceptable

in journalism, what's not.

This is part of what's so sad

because Mike Wallace
and Don Hewitt

are pioneers
of aggressive investigative

television journalism

and the fact
that they are intimidated

is very disturbing.

Woman: Why don't you stand up
and say "I'm Mike Wallace.

I've got a reputation.

Either this piece goes on air
or I'm walking?"

Mike: If I'm outside, that piec
would never...

Would never gotten
on the air, period.

CBS Management
wouldn't let us broadcast

our original story,
and our interview

with Jeffrey Wigand.

But now, things have changed.

Last week, the Wall Street
Journal got hold of,

and published a confidential
deposition Wigand gave

in a Mississippi case.

And while a lawsuit
is still a possibility,

not putting Jeffrey Wigand's
story on60 Minutes,

no longer is.

The hope would be
that no matter who owns

the network
or who owns the paper...

they'll have the courage

and the sense of obligation

to let the truth be told.

You very carefully said
the hope, the confidence?

The hope.

People ask why I didn't quit.

I really do believe
that I would've walked away...

and they would have said,
"Well, it's a pity.

Well, he was getting old,
anyway."

They would've said,
"Fine. So long."

Crew member: Take ten.

Sound goes by.

- It was my first...
- I'll ask the question please.

I beg your pardon.

Tell me this. You really said,
"It has been my experience

that one cannot
in any shape or form

depend on human relations
for any lasting reward.

It is only work
that truly satisfies?"

Yes, that stands by you.

It isn't that many people
don't...

um, add a great deal
to your life...

and I'm talking
about as a permanent thing.

That's the least disappointing
relationship you can have.

- Is work?
- Mm-hmm.

And really, that's the way
you've lived your life.

Unfortunately, yes.

Contract is running down.
Everybody wants to know

- if you're going to retire.
- Contract is not running down.

Contract will be up
a year from now.

Well, that's running down
in my book.

Are you going to quit
or are you going to keep going?

Larry King: Mike Wallace,
the stories keep appearing

that you're cutting back.

How much so and how much longer
with the program?

I don't think it's any
of your business, Larry.

- The, uh...
- [all laughing]

Mike could slow down.
Mike could stop.

Mike can do anything
he wants to do,

and yet he continues to work
just as hard.

Why?

Why still the same need,
and push, and drive?

Why... What does he think
he hasn't accomplished?

Interviewer: Tell me
your dreams, Mike.

If I were your psychiatrist,
and I said,

"Did you dream last night?

Or what's the last dream
you remember?"

Where am I?

Where am I?

Mike?

Mike Wallace?

What are you doing here?

Why, I'm interviewing you.
We're on television.

I'm giving you a chance
to defend yourself

before all my viewers.

- Defend myself?
- [all laughing]

- I mean, what... what did I do?
- What are you trying to prove?

Prove? Nothing!

- [all laughing]
- Then why don't you quit?

Mike: Father Kirsch...

I want to read you
what Susan Sandoval

says about you.

She was 15 years old
when she woke up

with Father Robert
Kirsch's tongue

in her mouth...

- You guys are bastards.
- ...in a small New Mexico town,

she lost her virginity that day.

Now, why would she say that
about you, Father Kirsch,

if it were not so?

Why would she say that?

Interviewer:

Do I worry about death?
I'm getting closer.

I think about it
every now and then, I confess.

Look, when you're 75
and you see people

around you dropping, sure.

How much
in the retirement packages

of the people who have voted
okay on this,

- how much are they getting?
- Civilian: Answer the question.

Mike: It's a very
simple question, Mr. Silverman.

Why are you so reluctant...

- Why are you so reluctant...
- Aide: Excuse me. You gotta
get over here, Mike.

Go on, just get right over here.

You're kind of the last man
standing in this line of work

- of your generation.
- [Mike scoffs]

Morley: You have some
tough questions left?

Mike: Sure.

- Morley: Haven't run out?
- [birds chirping]

You're in good shape, yes.

- That's remarkable.
- You, too.

- You too, yeah, really.
- Well, for...

87.

Could somebody please tell me
what's going on with the...

Crew member: It's not working.
They're doing a test for you.

- What's that?
- Crew member: They're doing
a sound test before we...

I can barely hear.

I'm deaf. I can't see very well.

- Oh!
- [claps hands]

There we go.

Corruption is every place
in Russia.

To get anything done...

money.

Is Russia a democracy?

[speaking in Russian]

In order to be a journalist
today in Russia...

do you have to, in effect...

bow the head
and bend the knee to Putin?

[chuckles]

[speaking in Russian]

Your people run
these news channels.

One channel even begins
each newscast with,

"What did Putin do today?

Who did he see?

What does..."
and so forth and so forth.

[speaking in Russian]

Where?

Your English is really very,
very good, isn't it?

You understand every word
that I'm saying.

You don't need the translation.

What would you like to say
to the American people?

All the best to every family
in America.

Good luck.

Do you feel it's time to...

maybe pack it in and reflect?

- Or is...
- Reflect about what?

- All of...
- Gimme a break.

What am I gonna reflect about?

About the fact
that I'm not workin'?

- Do you hate getting old?
- No, I feel good.

I feel fine.
I don't hate getting old.

- You still work...
- I don't even hate to die.

- I don't give a damn.
- What do you mean?

I don't care.

You mean when your toes turn up.

That's it.

That don't ever bother me.

And I want you to give
if you will the answer

- to just one more question.
- Frank Lloyd Wright: Go ahead.

Do you believe
in your personal immortality?

Yes. To me,
young has no meaning.

It's something you can do
nothing about, nothing at all.

But youth is a quality.

And if you have it,
you never lose it.

And when they put you
into the box,

that's your immortality.

If I die tomorrow...

I've accomplished far more
than I ever thought
I was going to accomplish.

And far more than anyone else
ever thought

I was going to accomplish.
So, I'm proud of myself...

for hanging in there,

persevering, working
unbelievably hard and winning.

Winning the game
of broadcast journalism.

I've won it.

Anchor: Do you understand
why some people feel...

such disaffection
from the mainstream media?

Oh, yeah, no.
They think we're wild-eyed...

commies, liberals.

Yes?

That's what they think.

We're in a fairly cynical,

almost hostile
public environment.

Nobody believes anything
anymore, to generalize.

And it's very important
that they believe us.

And if they don't believe us,
we're useless.

Is this nation getting better
or getting worse?

Oh, I think this nation
is getting worse.

We're not as straightforward...

a people, as we used to be.

Interviewer: Do you think
the public is less interested

in news than it used to be?
Less trusting what they hear?

Mike: I think they're probably
less trusting you know,

because there are
so many voices...

- That is not fair.
- Mike: So many voices,
so many...

who do you trust?

Anchor: Whether it's too much
or made up,

all of this strikes
at the heart

of the most important
product journalists

have to offer:
their credibility.

Anchor: Our job
is to ask those questions

and you know something,
this is not new.

This is the relationship
we have

with all levels of power.

A narrow and distorted picture
of America often emerges

from the televised news.

The views do not represent
the views of America.

Everybody back there.
The fake news media,

- look at all of them.
- [audience cheering]

The government
at its highest levels

with its powers over us,

criticizes us so strongly,
so emotionally

and with such
self-serving purposes.

The temptation
is for television news

to go easy,
to duck controversies,

stay out of trouble,
please the government.

But that would be fatal.

Or as Walter said,

"We're not defending
a precious right of our own,

of freedom of speech and press.

What we're defending
is the people's right to know.

- [camera beeps]
- [birds chirping]

Mike: You ever think
about an epitaph?

Epitaph?

Never gave it
a moment's thought.

Mike: Give it a moment.

I've had a fine, various,
not so fine life.

And there comes a time
when you say, "What's left?"

It's time to go.

Interviewer:

Uh...

The fellow who...

The fellow who did...

The fellow who investigated,
who muckraked,

who asked some tough questions
and who...

Uh, bullshit.

Come on. I don't know.

Interviewer:

Well, fine,
but I don't have to answer them.

- I think it's a lousy question.
- Well, you're a legend!

I think it's a lousy question.

Interviewer:

Yeah. Tough, but fair.

[grunts]

The guy who enjoyed immensely
what he did.

Did it honestly,
straightforwardly,

perhaps, moved the dialogue
ahead...

that much in certain areas.

Used his life sensibly.

Basically, a decent guy.

That's... that would be fine.

- Arthur: Epitaph.
- [crickets chirping]

I'll leave the first thought
that occurs to me is,

he worked awful hard.

Mike: And you're still working.

Arthur: Oh, yeah.
Life without work to me

would be incredible,
unbelievable.

I couldn't imagine it.

Like breathing.

And what did he work for?

Oh, some little...

moment of truth.

[crickets chirping]

Mike: All right.
If that's it, then.

Crew member: Oh, yeah.
He can hear us.

Ready?

Mike: Are we goin'? Cut a sec.

All right, one last run,
and that is it.

If I put this on the air,
I'm gonna look like a damn fool.

You deserve to look
like a damn fool

at least once.

- Johnny Carson: What do you
make a week?
- I'd be ashamed

- to tell you.
- [chuckles]

You better learn
to sing and dance.

Yeah. [chuckles]

Man: You got it, perfect.
All right, good.

Man: Seven rolling, take one.

Oh, yeah. You're smiling,
why are you smiling?

I feel something is coming up
that I'm going to get angry.

Man: Seven rolling, take one.

Man: Roll 12 A, sound, take 11.

When I see people saying
purposely negative things,

they have problems, not me,
they have problems.

Man: We just ran out of film.

- You go from 40...
- [phone rings]

- Oh, we forgot to turn off
the phone.
- It's all right. Yes.

[Barbara laughs]

- You know something?
- Barbara: Mm-hmm?

I like you a lot better than
I remembered feeling about you.

I hate you with a venomous
passion right now.

- That's a good place to stop.
- [Barbra sniffs]

[beeps]