Just weeks after the death of Walter Cronkite comes news that Don Hewitt, the man who put the anchor on the map, has passed away as well. In 2004, I paid tribute to Hewitt in conjunction with a documentary on him. I thought I’d share that story again.

   Television has had its share of scary icons: the one-armed man.
J.R. Ewing. Pauly Shore. But none are quite as intimidating as Don
Hewitt when he’s on a tear.

   As one of the architects of the network evening news, the
producer of the first debate between presidential candidates and
the creator of the TV newsmagazine, Hewitt has ruled electronic
journalism for more than half a century with a fiery style that
could make even Mike Wallace duck under his desk.

   At the end of this month, Hewitt, 81, goes into semi-retirement
and the news business will never be quite the same - or quite as
loud.

   You can feel some of Hewitt’s heat by watching tonight’s show
“Tell Me a Story: The Man Who Made `60 Minutes,’ ” especially the
old footage of Hewitt slamming down a phone in the control booth,
or a roundtable discussion among some formidable correspondents who
recall their boss’ tirades after showing him their stories.

   “Most everybody who produced at `60 Minutes’ at one point or
another has a story about what happened when the lights went on and
Don didn’t like your story,” said Jeff Fager, the producer tapped
to replace Hewitt, at a news conference this year. “He said to me
once, `Kid, where do you want it? Right between the eyes?’ ”

   Fager remembered the time another producer emerged from the
screening room looking as if he’d just been shot and announced that
Hewitt had declared his piece the worst story he had seen in 25
years.

   “No, I didn’t,” said Hewitt, sitting next to his mentee at the
conference, in a voice that sounds like he could still drown out
Bill O’Reilly. “I said, `I’ve never seen a story I couldn’t fix,
and I just saw one.’ ”

   CBS News president Andrew Heyward said that Hewitt’s blustery,
blunt delivery probably wouldn’t work with today’s new breed of
managers.

   “It’s an older industry, a blander industry, and the colorful
people who made it have given way to a kind of different style,” he
said. “In the somewhat more politically correct workplace
atmosphere, shouting is something that would lead to criticism that
his or her people skills weren’t the greatest.”

   .

   First debate was `the worst night in American politics’

   Hewitt had something else working for him besides the bark: He
knew what he was talking about.

   It was Hewitt who brought multiple angles and cue cards to the
evening news, and invented the term “anchorman” for Walter
Cronkite. It was Hewitt who saw how Life magazine married
“low-brow” entertainment and “high-brow” issues, and brought the
concept to television, creating “60 Minutes” - the
great-great-granddaddy of all TV newsmagazines. It was Hewitt who
saw the logic of pairing the rumpled Harry Reasoner and the
firecracker Mike Wallace, and helped develop the careers of Ed
Bradley, Dan Rather and Lesley Stahl.

   It was Hewitt who ran the first televised presidential debate in
1960, between Richard Nixon and John Kennedy - and now has the
wisdom to regret it.

   “I think that’s the worst night in American politics,” he said.
“That’s the night politicians looked at us and said, `Those guys
are the only way we can run for office,’ and we looked at them and
said, `That’s a bottomless pit of advertising dollars.’ Every time
people congratulate me for that broadcast, I get a little uneasy.”

   That kind of unprecedented history gave Hewitt unprecedented
freedom. He said he’s never looked at Nielsen’s minute-by-minute
viewership numbers, never attended a focus group and never been
asked to give a back seat to good, solid journalism.

   That kind of power is hard to surrender. Hewitt resisted
retirement for years and even now says he plans to spend plenty of
time at CBS headquarters, taking up the office previously belonging
to Bryant Gumbel. He’ll serve as an adviser to Fager and Heyward,
and help with recruiting, as well.

   One can bet he’ll use that access often - and loudly.

   Hewitt recalled a story that former CBS chairman William Paley
used to tell about Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. As the feisty
leader lay on his death bed, he heard cows mooing outside his window.

   “What’s that?” he said to his doctor, who replied, “It’s your
cows. They’ve come to say goodbye.”

   The dictator’s response: “Where are they going?”

   .

   Neal Justin is at njustin@startribune.com.

   .

   DON‘S DEEDS

   A few of Hewitt’s contributions to TV journalism:

   - Helped create TV’s first nightly newscast in 1948.

   - Oversaw TV’s first presidential debate, between John Kennedy
and Richard Nixon - perhaps the turning point in the 1960 election.

   - Coined the term “anchorman.”

   - Invented the first TV newsmagazine, “60 Minutes,” which has
been TV’s highest-rated news program for more than 30 years.

   .

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