What do Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Mike Wallace, and Andy Rooney, have in common? The answer, Don Hewitt, who died on Wednesday, August 19, after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He touched them all, with his brilliance as an innovator in broadcast journalism. His decades of excellence in the TV media he embraced and helped shape, were proceeded by his experience in print media both as a reporter and also as an editor for the photo division of United Press wire service, the early years serving him well as he translated in his own inimitable way the lessons he learned along the way to create something new, as he experimented and visualized the possibilities of a nascent medium, television.
In the process he gave us Edward R. Murrow’s See It Now and Person to Person; The Kennedy/Nixon Presidential Debates, the first of its kind; The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, and what he himself considered his crowning achievement, 60 Minutes, which has featured among many noted correspondents and commentators Mike Wallace and Andy Rooney to name just two.
The accolades and honors Don Hewitt has received are multitudinous from Emmys to Peabodys. Last year he most fittingly received the Edward R. Murrow Lifetime Achievement Award.
Charlie Rose, who was associated with 60 Minutes himself, has said that what mattered most to Don Hewitt was “how to best tell a story”. It may be added, how best to tell a story using the medium of television. Hewitt told the best stories on TV, which is one reason why he most certainly must be considered a father of modern television itself.
Marshall Mcluhan (see previous post – http://bit.ly/aRoQG) promulgated the concept that the medium is the message. Don Hewitt intuitively understood the meaning of this fundamental concept underlying all effective communication.
➡https://communicatorsandcommunications.com/2009/08/20/don-hewitt-father-of-modern-tv-news/
Filed under: broadcast media, noted communicators | Tagged: 60 Minutes, Don Hewitt, Kennedy/Nixon Presidential Debates, marshall mcluhan, media | Leave a comment »
Communicators & Communications 