Kalb Examines ‘60 Minutes’ Success

News — By Heather Hodder on November 17, 2009 at 11:41 pm

What makes 60 Minutes tick?  That was the question of the evening on Monday at the National Press Club, where students, faculty, and long time fans of the award-winning CBS news broadcast, came together for a taping of The Kalb Report.

Marvin Kalb, GW James Clark Welling Presidential Fellow, picked the brains of Lesley Stahl, who has been a 60 Minutes correspondent for 18 years, and Jeffrey Fager, executive producer of the show since 2004 on the secrets of the show’s success, its biggest mistakes, and most memorable on-air moments.

Kalb opened his questions with the basics to understand how 60 Minutes is put together and how many reporters work on the show, because as Kalb jokingly put it, “There are not 70 Lesley Stahls.”

“There are probably about 70 reporters on and off the air. Lesley works with a team of people, who are always talking about the stories they are chasing on her behalf,” said Fager, adding that Stahl just got off her Blackberry in communication with her reporters about a current story right before the show.

On other questions, Fager was not as forthcoming.

When asked by Kalb about the budget of 60 Minutes, he responded, “I’m not going to be able to tell you that, I’ll tell you that it’s a high number.“  Kalb quipped, “What’s the budget of CBS news?” resulting in a roar of laughter from the studio audience.

Although Kalb pushed Fager throughout the show to reveal the 60 Minutes budget, Fager would not budge.

“I do know the budget, but I’m not going to tell you.  CBS commits an enormous amount of resources and it does cost a lot of money to do what we do. When you start talking about serious reporting it takes months and months… and that is a real source of pride for us that we have been able to maintain a story budget that really hasn’t changed much, and certainly hasn’t gone down,” explained Fager.

Stahl said that she believes the show’s success lies in the wide range of stories that all of the correspondents cover and each person’s commitment and devotion to the job of getting the whole story.

“Nobody does a story that they don’t want to do,” she said.  “I don’t know any other news outlet that is quite like that.  All my friends who work on shows like this… have been assigned their stories and they grumble about it.  But everybody who goes out on a story is going out because they are desperate to cover that thing.”  She continued to explain the variety of coverage that 60 Minutes offers, from investigative reporting to social news stories to interviews with big personalities.

Fager added that recent success can be attributed to coverage of current topics and “a deeper understanding of important issues that we are facing in this country,” which he believes the public is craving.

Kalb also asked if there was a special style in which all 60 Minutes news correspondents were trained.

“Is it the same for all of us?” Lesley Stahl asked, adding, ”I’m changing mine tomorrow!”

“It’s a bit of a performance,” Fager responded. “One of the great things about the broadcast is that stories don’t feel that long because it’s easier to watch, the conversation is easy to follow. “

Kalb posed challenging questions as he turned the tables on Stahl, the veteran interviewer known for her probing, personal inquisitions.  Kalb asked about the on-air times about which she was not so proud.

“I had an embarrassment prior to the invasion of Iraq, in that I interviewed a defector. He was a guy who told me - and we put it on 60 Minutes - that Saddam Hussein had these trucks driving around the country with biological weapons. He said he bought the trucks, and we bought his line, “ said Stahl of the incident that resulted in a broadcast including information that turned out to be false.

“I know I was personally responsible for the story that led the country perhaps in the wrong direction, “ she added.

Kalb noted however that to only have made this one mistake in her entire career, “was a pretty good record.”

Fager emphasized that transparency is a key component to the show, which is why it is so important for correspondents to be honest when they do not know all the facts.

When an audience member asked Stahl about her most memorable interview, Stahl responded that the time she was able to interview Margaret Thatcher, former U.K. Prime Minister, on the show Face the Nation, was an interview that will always be close to her heart.

On the show, Thatcher and Stahl got into a “tiff” as Stahl put it, when she pushed Thatcher to explain how she would ever trust the U.S. again after the country had lied to her following the Iran Contra incident.

“She turned me into a bloody pulp,” said Stahl, explaining that Thatcher turned to her and said “ Why my dear, do I seem to love your country more than you do?”

Stahl explained she wrote her a letter in apology, and received a letter back from Thatcher, which she has framed.

The worst interview, according to Stahl, was with Ross Perot. “ He had stormed out of the chair, but we eventually got him to come back, “ said Stahl.

After the event, audience members had a chance to mingle with Stahl, Fager, and Kalb.

Simone Perez ’10 approached Stahl afterwards to get an autograph. “I grew up watching the show every Sunday with my family,” said Perez, who was also able to ask a question during the Q&A portion.

Nick Morell ’10 also enjoyed the event. “I thought they really explained well why 60 Minutes has remained invincible to changes,” he said.

“I think that the Kalb report is an excellent example of how journalism and the best practices of reporting are relevant today, and especially to those journalism students that were in the audience, “ said Emily Jagger ’10.

“Also, to hear how they continue to keep 60 Minutes full of life all these years later serves as a strong example of, as Ms. Stahl and Mr.Fager mentioned, the importance of enthusiasm in any career,“ she added.

The Kalb Report is produced by the GW Global Media Institute in conjunction with Harvard University and the National Press Club.  The episode with Stahl and Fager will air on American Public Television, and a webcast can be found at kalb.gwu.edu.

Tags: 60 Minutes, Jeff Fager, Kalb Report, Lesley Stahl, Marvin Kalb