Tuesday, April 8, 2003 | 8:28 a.m.
The accolades came pouring in on two giant video screens. Taped "thank yous" and "what would I have done withouts" from the likes of Mike Wallace, Walter Cronkite, Andy Rooney and Diane Sawyer.
These who's-who of broadcast journalists were either eulogizing a colleague or paying homage.
Fortunately for Don Hewitt, it was the latter.
"Much of what we see today in the evening news was pioneered by Don Hewitt," Cronkite said during the video presentation.
Hewitt was the recipient Monday of the Spirit of Broadcasting Award from the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) annual conference and exhibition.
More than 92,000 members of electronic media are expected to attend this year's conference, which began Monday and concludes Thursday at the Las Vegas Convention Center and Las Vegas Hilton.
"I feel like I died and went to heaven," Hewitt said of the video tribute, which was played for a packed house at the All-Industry Luncheon in the Barron Room of the Las Vegas Hilton. "I don't think my eulogy will be that good."
A veteran journalist in his own right, Hewitt was honored more for his work behind the camera -- specifically, his legacy as creator and executive producer of CBS's venerable "60 Minutes."
"One of the few things still around today that pre-dates me is showbiz, something so-called serious journalists used to avoid like the plague until '60 Minutes' came along and showed the world that with a little skill and a lot of artistry, you could marry 'showbiz' and 'newsbiz' and not shame yourself," he said. "And that if you did it right, you could be a big winner."
How big?
"How about putting a news broadcast in the top 10 for a record 22 years, and making it -- along with Bill Cosby and Archie Bunker -- one of only three broadcasts to ever become America's most-watched five separate times," Hewitt said, placing his show in the company of "The Cosby Show" and "All In the Family."
But the success of "60 Minutes" would not have been possible without the help of others along the way, he said.
"If there was anything broadcast's founding fathers -- Bill Paley, David Sarnoff and Leonard Goldenson, three guys I also knew -- wanted more than soul-searching public affairs programming, it was soul-searching public affairs programming that made money," the 80-year-old Hewitt said.
"How do you do that -- take care of your boss's soul and his pocketbook? You go out into the job market and find yourself: Mike Wallace, Harry Reasoner, Morley Safer, Ed Bradley, Steve Kroft, Leslie Stahl and Andy Rooney. And to work with them -- a team of producers like none other in the business.
"So it's their Spirit of Broadcasting that you're really honoring here today."
Noting his colleagues in and around Iraq, Hewitt opened his acceptance speech with a nod toward the ongoing war coverage, which he called "spectacular."
"Talk about 'above and beyond the call of duty,' I have never been as impressed with what guys like me who go by the fancy name of journalist do for a living as I am right now," he said. "Watching guys -- both male and female -- whom I work with and compete against dodging unfriendly incoming (and) friendly outgoing, and sandstorms that come at them from every direction.
"Broadcasting has had no finer example of what I'm talking about than David Bloom of NBC, who died this weekend in Iraq."
Also receiving an award was Michael Eisner, CEO of the Walt Disney Co., who accepted the NAB Hall of Fame Award on behalf of his company's long-running TV show, "The Wonderful World of Disney," which, he dryly noted, airs opposite "60 Minutes" on Sunday nights.
Eisner spent much of his acceptance speech discussing the future of the show even as he applauded its past.
"Part of the reason that 'Wonderful World of Disney' was -- and is -- so eagerly awaited each week by families across the country is because it has always offered the excitement of innovation," he said. "The show aired the first miniseries -- long before the term was invented -- 'Davy Crockett.' It pioneered the use of color. It offered the first stereophonic television broadcast. Its series on space exploration generated support for America's manned space program."
"We take this tradition very seriously ... and are now positioning ourselves to be on the leading edge of the next technological wave in entertainment."
Eisner pointed to digital technology.
"We have already implemented a number of initiatives to place our company in the forefront of the digital transformation of the entertainment industry," he said. "We realize everyone does not share our view, seeing the digital revolution as a threat to the established analog way of doing things ... and many are paralyzed by a fear of digital piracy. Indeed, we are a conflicted industry. Hollywood studios spend enormous sums of money encouraging people to see its films and TV shows and then spend more money devising ways to control and limit how people can see its films and TV shows.
"At Disney, we are mindful of the perils of piracy, but we will not let the fear of piracy prevent us from fueling the fundamental impulse to innovate and improve our products and how they are distributed. As Walt Disney demonstrated again and again, every time a new entertainment technology has emerged, it has revealed itself to be a source of great opportunity to those who embrace it."
As proof of Disney's commitment to the digital future, Eisner touted the first network broadcast of high-definition, the film "101 Dalmations," on "The Wonderful World of Disney," along with a new service called Movie Beam that Disney will test market later this year.
The service will use leftover broadcast "bits" to download recent theatrical movies into set-top boxes.
"This will make it possible for consumers to choose from 100 different films to view any time they wish, with all the functionality of a DVD," he said.
Both examples represent what Eisner called the "Digital Decade for us at Disney."
"As we all look to the digital future, we would be wise to take guidance from this industry's phenomenal past," he said. "This is what NAB's Hall of Fame is all about, as it tells the story of broadcasting's remarkable history. And now that story officially includes the program you honor today ... a program that has much to say about the possibilities before us."
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