Review
Author: Ira Rosen
Reviewed by: SHA
Issue: March 2021
Television news producer Ira Rosen retired in 2019 after spending 40 years in this capacity, 15 years at ABC and 25 years at CBS. During those 25 years doing 60 Minutes at CBS, he produced many memorable and important stories for this program of high-quality mini-documentaries. He won every major award in broadcast journalism, including 24 National Emmys. His co-produced report with The Washington Post on the opioid epidemic won more awards for 60 Minutes than any series in the show's 52-year history. During his 15 years at ABC, he was a senior producer/creator of Primetime Live, a show hosted by Diane Sawyer and Sam Donaldson. Rosen was hired in 1980 by Don Hewitt, executive producer of 60 Minutes. He was 26-years-old and had come to Hewitt's attention when he did a story for local TV about how easy it was to obtain military secrets. Awed by the line-up of CBS correspondents - Mike Wallace, Morley Safer, Harry Reasoner, Dan Rather - Rosen was hired to be a producer for Wallace. While in Hewitt's office to talk about the job, Harry Reasoner walked in and Hewitt told him that "He may be Mike's new producer," to which Reasoner said "Poor kid. Did they tell you about him?" Phil Scheffeler piped in with "Don't listen to Harry. Mike is terrific (pause) every other month." A core theme of the book chronicles his work with Wallace, a self-centered SOB who was every bit as nasty as advertised. Readers will thoroughly enjoy reading about his work at 60 Minutes and his comments about the correspondents and his stories about working with them. The book is full of interesting anecdotes. About Diane Sawyer, he says "Though I loved her intelligence and commitment to the work I hated her two-faced qualities." Steve Kroft "seemed fueled by a deadly mix of narcissism and self-destruction," and Katie Couric "was lazy and disengaged and thought she was smarter than all of us who worked on the show. She wasn't." In an interview with gangster Joe Bonanno, Rosen asked why Meyer Lansky was so readily accepted into the Italian mafia. Bonanno answered, "His value to us was that he had the picture." When he asked "What picture?" Bonanno said, "The picture of (FBI Director) Hoover and his deputy Clyde Tolson having sex." When working on a story about Edward Teller (father of the H-bomb), Wallace tried to sabotage it to put Rosen in a bad light with Hewitt, after which Rosen did it his own way. It was a roaring success for everyone but Mike Wallace, and when it won the National Emmy for best interview, Rosen called Mike and told him we won. "F*** you," he said and hung up the phone.