Mike Wallace Is Here is a 2019 biographical documentary film directed by Avi Belkin. It was produced by Rafael Marmor, Peggy Drexler, John Battsek, Avi Belkin, and Chris Leggett, under the banner of Drexler Films, Delirio Films and Rock Paper Scissors Entertainment. The film follows the life and career of American journalist Mike Wallace, using never-before-seen archival footage of the journalist preparing for and speaking about his work.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00:00You
00:00:30You
00:00:55We're going
00:00:57What is the Fox Network?
00:01:00Increasingly popular
00:01:01People in America are desperate for straight talk and they're not getting it from the networks. The networks are too stodgy
00:01:10Too traditional you got to cut through it now when I tell people I'm gonna do a profile of O'Reilly. Oh, what?
00:01:17Wonderful. Don't let him off the hook go get him bring him down. You're the guy who can do it
00:01:23What is it about me that offends them? Take a look at you
00:01:27I'm asking you to shut up about come on. You coward say the truth. I'm more angry about it than you
00:01:40That's not an interview
00:01:42That's a lecture. You say you're a journalist, correct? I
00:01:46Say that you're an op-ed columnist
00:01:49Which is different. No, it's not you're a dinosaur. You have to engage now you have to challenge
00:01:56You have to be so
00:01:59Provocative
00:02:00This is gonna embarrass you Wallace. So you ready to be embarrassed?
00:02:03Playboy magazine wrote that Bill O'Reilly is the most feared interviewer since Mike Wallace
00:02:10You were the driving force behind my career and I always tell everybody you got a problem with me. He's responsible
00:02:17So if you don't like me
00:02:20You go to Wallace
00:02:26The
00:02:35Dimension of my first guest name has been known to strike fear into the hearts of brave men and women. I'm Mike
00:02:41Well, I'm Mike Wallace. I'm like welcome Mike Wallace
00:02:47Your image
00:02:49interviewer
00:02:50Journalist kill it. All right, this man is gonna get somebody and we're gonna watch it right here on television
00:02:58Do you enjoy gotcha?
00:03:09You are the master of nailing you might have even invented
00:03:12Nailing somebody on camera with that last question. How many people did you kill five?
00:03:17But I don't think I could kill an innocent person, what do you mean by an innocent person?
00:03:21Well, you're an innocent person. It may just have been that you were difficult Betty. No, no, no, not difficult impossible
00:03:29You're probably unpleasant to hear
00:03:34You are a son of a bitch
00:03:39Sink you go in a cover story. It's your camera. It's your microphone
00:03:45How would you like it done to you how long do you think we'll talk how would you like somebody point a camera you
00:03:51Confront you with embarrassing material perhaps about a life you once led or something you once did
00:03:56It's a lousy question
00:03:58You're rolling on both. It doesn't ever occur to you that what you're doing is somehow it's a little bit brutalized
00:04:08How would you like it done to you I wouldn't like it
00:04:15I
00:04:19Was the last time we had lunch together
00:04:22lunch
00:04:24Here we are having ostensibly. This is the first time I think Mike
00:04:30It's been a long time it has been a long time
00:04:33Shall we gentlemen are we rolling?
00:04:35Okay, this is a Wallace question
00:04:39Why are you sometimes such a prick?
00:04:42Not
00:04:45Why am I sometimes such a prick example
00:04:50Example example your life Mike is an example. Come on. I want to go back to the beginning
00:04:59Good evening. I'm Mike Wallace a
00:05:02Nation's press is a good yardstick of a nation's health
00:05:05take a look at the history of any nation which has lost its freedoms and
00:05:09You'll find that the men who grabbed the power
00:05:12Also had to crush the free press
00:05:14Tonight we'll discuss some of the problems of our own for the state
00:05:20The first kinescope that I can remember saying now that's Mike Wallace is night because
00:05:26How did night be start and how did you become Mike Wallace?
00:05:33Growing up in Brookline, Massachusetts
00:05:36My mother was humorless
00:05:38Strict my father was honest very straightforward. I
00:05:43Developed a case of acne as an adolescent, which I think marked my personality
00:05:48back in those days, I yearned for
00:05:52Not sunny day gray day so that it wouldn't show the pockmarks
00:05:59The Sun were there. I suddenly was exposed all of my painful ugliness
00:06:05It seems like you've always felt you had something to prove as a young man
00:06:10You said you had acne you felt like had a face for radio. That's right
00:06:13That was something you had to prove that you were better than but you had already started developing this tougher persona. I
00:06:22Discovered my voice and that's what saved me. I
00:06:27Thought to myself I'd be a radio announcer. There were no pictures I could hide behind microphones
00:06:33But I obviously wanted to perform right now, here's Mike
00:06:52You were the Green Hornet you see back in those days
00:06:56You did the news you announced dramatic shows like Green Hornet and Lone Ranger
00:07:02And you swept up the studio before you went home. You did a lot of things in other words
00:07:11Drive the rails with Neb Jordan secret agent. I
00:07:18Think that at some point in Mike's life, he invented a guy called Mike Wallace
00:07:22It was gonna be tough as nails
00:07:25No nonsense, no holds barred
00:07:29Never took orders from anybody
00:07:32All right
00:07:34Well, you see my feet
00:07:36Do I have to put shoes on leave the shoes off all okay and start the interview, please
00:07:42They say I'm difficult
00:07:45What are you frightened of?
00:07:47You know, I was brought up
00:07:49Being scared of everything. You don't go in the water. You'll drown. You don't stand on your toes as a ballet dancer
00:07:54You break your toes. That's who I am today
00:07:55In other words, I'm frightened to death of directing and producing a movie and yet I was always testing the fear
00:08:02Meaning I don't let the fear stop me. Yeah, but I doesn't mean I'm not frightened every inch of the way
00:08:07I turned on the TV the other day and it went boom and
00:08:10There is a man who had written a book and he's saying fear is the energy
00:08:16behind doing your best work
00:08:20You remember the first time you saw a television camera, yes, I was scared to death
00:08:26I
00:08:29First looked up at the lights and the heat I figured I'm never gonna be able to make it who's gonna want to look at
00:08:35this man
00:08:39How did you get over it
00:08:44Back in the early days television was a kind of
00:08:47experiment
00:08:49As a result of which I was willing to take any job in television to begin with
00:08:56Oh
00:08:58You must let your imagination soar
00:09:00It didn't do it. There's only one way I can help you. I've got to know the truth
00:09:04Parliament with its famous high by a recess filter is continually tested for uniformity about a unit
00:09:09Is that embarrass you the cigarette commercials?
00:09:11For example, you mean the fact that I the fact that I did commercials the acting the acting actor pitch, man
00:09:19You yourself have a show business background. Did you ever take acting lessons?
00:09:23No, this baloney about a show business background. What's what is a show business?
00:09:28You were a celebrity yourself and you came into the news business
00:09:32Later, no, I'm not from the journalistic side of things from the showbiz side of things
00:09:38Hi, I'm Mike Wallace with a sensational shortening discovery for better baking and frying. Oh, man, that's some
00:09:46golden
00:09:48I'm asking you about the acting. I know you are I
00:09:52Was a little sensitive about being a jack-of-all-trades, but I was searching for something different
00:10:02Little did I know that everything was about to change with my life
00:10:13Good evening. I'm Mike Wallace. The show is night beats
00:10:17What you're about to witness is strictly personal a direct
00:10:20Undiluted unrehearsed uncensored interview. My role is that of a reporter
00:10:26Up to then interviews had been vapid
00:10:30Who was the most interesting person you ever painted senator?
00:10:34I understand that you had a lot of tea parties during your campaign. Can you still drink tea rod?
00:10:39I've watched your show many times and I want to tell you it's wonderful
00:10:42And then I wrote him that I sang and so forth and no one ever confronted anybody
00:10:47With anything beyond that kind of talk and we said let's do some research about these people and ask
00:10:55questions that have never been asked before I
00:10:59Think that you will agree that you have a rather remarkable record for being called names. That's right
00:11:04President Roosevelt once called you a chronic liar
00:11:07President Truman called you an SOB at one time and a vicious liar at another time
00:11:12The late Tennessee senator Kenneth McKellar called you an ignorant liar a pusillanimous liar a peewee liar a liar in the daytime and a
00:11:19Liar in the nighttime end quote. What is there about Drew Pearson that inspires such bitterness? Well, Mike, I
00:11:27Can't give an objective answer on that. Could it be that you're a liar?
00:11:32People didn't ask tough questions back then. I mean you invented that genre
00:11:36You're not answering the specific question that I put now
00:11:40Might be it was news it was journalism, but it was also
00:11:44Television. Yeah, it was also
00:11:46Dramatic tight close-ups every little tick and and almost like a police investigation
00:11:52Well, you're talking about economic equality center what I'm talking about is social equality. I'm getting to that
00:12:00We're in the same profession that's your sweet ass
00:12:03Nervous no, not at all. People say you're a patsy. All right, that's that's the rap
00:12:10Yeah, I know. I don't think you're a patsy you get information your way
00:12:14I get information my way, but the rap on King is that he's a patsy. He will never ask a hard question
00:12:19I'm Larry. I'm Larry of the corner. And when we were on the corner
00:12:23I was the kind of kid who used to say why do you want to drive the bus?
00:12:26But wait a second. Why do you want to drive the bus?
00:12:28Why do you put your hand in the coin box and take out one out of every three quarters now?
00:12:33You would ask you that right and I would say aren't there temptations and he would say
00:12:38Temptations. No, what I would not do because it's not my style is say you've taken quarters now
00:12:44Okay, there's no perfect end of you don't confuse anger and hostility with an
00:12:49insistence on getting to the bottom line to the fact
00:12:53There will be some I'm sure who will feel it is a mistake to give network exposure to Elvin Edwards the imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan
00:13:01Do you who feel that way? I respect your views
00:13:04Although I do not share them
00:13:06This will be an unrehearsed interview with Elvin Edwards. I don't know what he will say
00:13:11Mr. Edwards you say that the Klan rejects violence. It does your own grand dragon. I don't know what you're talking about
00:13:18Mr. Edwards you say that the Klan rejects violence. It does your own grand dragon is quoted having said not once but many times
00:13:26Negroes who try to force their way into our white schools are not looking for an education. They're looking for a funeral
00:13:33Well, I didn't hear him say that then how do you account for a report like this?
00:13:37Armed robed and masked men pulled crippled from home near Negro area character assassination boycotts open warnings
00:13:45Anonymous telephone calls threatening letters. Do you employ those?
00:13:49techniques to get your beliefs across
00:13:51Well, I don't care to even answer
00:13:56I've never seen an interview that you did not
00:13:59Dominate why do so many Hollywood stars fear to stand up and speak their mind? Well, Mike
00:14:05I've heard quite a bit about you. You're supposed to be a pretty rough boy when I am sitting here now being myself
00:14:12That's the most difficult thing in the world for any actor and certainly for me because then you do feel naked
00:14:17You don't have a script. This is Roosevelt. I think that you will agree that a good many people hated your husband
00:14:25They even hated you
00:14:28Great many do still why?
00:14:31Is it hard to ask those questions? No, not at all. How do you do it?
00:14:36I'm nosy and in and insistent and not to be pushed aside
00:14:41And confident confident that when I ask a question, there's a reason for it's being asked
00:14:47It's not a question picked out of the air
00:14:49You see him behind me you ask tough questions that get behind the facade to try to understand what's really going on
00:14:57behind the scenes
00:14:59Salvador Dali is a self-confessed genius with an ingenious flair for publicity who sees the world through surrealist eyes
00:15:07You said I adore three things
00:15:10weakness
00:15:11old age
00:15:12and luxury
00:15:14Why do you adore old age?
00:15:16because uh
00:15:18Believe clearly young people is completely stupid, you know, young people are stupid exactly
00:15:29I'm sitting in mike wallace's office. Normally he interviews people and i'm turning the tables on him
00:15:36The fact is i'm a little nervous why I don't know but I am well then let me ask what makes a good interview
00:15:44I understand that. Uh, yeah
00:15:48When you prepare for a broadcast
00:15:51You don't really prepare you don't that is you don't have a script you don't have questions you don't have
00:15:57What do you do wing it?
00:15:58Yeah, basically I do why because I find that um, I think that i'm a surrogate viewer and I feel
00:16:06so
00:16:07I feel really connected to the women who are out there watching me
00:16:10I know but having said that still if you're going to be proxy you got to ask the questions that they want the answers to
00:16:17So that's what I do I ask the questions and I want the answers to
00:16:21Now that you're a film star. Is it all that it's cracked up to be no
00:16:26When you have been in the business
00:16:28for a certain length of time
00:16:29You first of all come to realize that nobody gets there in the first place without a lot of hard work
00:16:34disappointments and heartbreaks
00:16:36compromises
00:16:38Yes compromises with your own honesty
00:16:41Yes
00:16:42It is a form of learning about others and ourselves through others
00:16:47Almost like a love affair in a strange way. Yeah, well you do that a lot
00:16:51Do what a lot?
00:16:52Those love affairs on camera and all that
00:16:57One final question sure
00:16:59I'm beginning to like this
00:17:01Nightly defined me for myself. I suddenly had found my bliss you'd become mike waltz. Yeah, exactly
00:17:11and suddenly
00:17:12we were discovered
00:17:14and we were
00:17:15Overnight a hit this you immediately knew was the way for mike wallace to go. Absolutely. Yeah
00:17:23And that's when I became a prick
00:17:28On the air
00:17:32Nightly changed the face of television
00:17:36It was a sensation
00:17:38And then abc wanted so they made it the mike wallace interview and put it on the network
00:17:41My name is mike wallace. The cigarette is parliament
00:17:46A mike wallace interview a new type of interview show springing up all over the country
00:17:52The kind of show that really digs into the heart of things and suddenly that kind of interview became quite a big hit
00:18:00Across the country. I wouldn't go on mike wallace's show if I had the time
00:18:05That guy can cut you to ribbons
00:18:08in television drama few names
00:18:10Have the prestige of that of our guests ron serling
00:18:13Will learn what he means by the price tag that hangs on success
00:18:18The twilight zone is your own creation. You're doing it for money
00:18:22How many hours a day do you work right now 12 to 14 hours a day how many days a week seven
00:18:29And because those become so large
00:18:32What becomes small?
00:18:33I think probably the really valuable things you suddenly find yourself having to compromise along the line giving so many hours to work
00:18:40And a disproportionate number of fewer hours to family
00:18:52You
00:18:54How many times you've been married mike
00:18:57How many times have I been married?
00:19:00What in the world do you want to ask a question like that for?
00:19:03What what what relevance does that have?
00:19:07Well, that's the kind of a question that that you might hear on on a hard copy or current affair or
00:19:14four times
00:19:16women and larry king
00:19:18What a saga
00:19:21Why are you looking so serious?
00:19:23Because it's an area of my life. I uh
00:19:28Haven't done well with with i've done you've been married how many times five so your wife or your love is an intruder
00:19:35Is an aside
00:19:37You know, I used to say if I came home, I had two messages
00:19:40Your wife called urgent
00:19:42cnn called urgent
00:19:44I'd call cnn no contest no contest
00:19:48What the hell is that smug smile about
00:19:51What do you regret most about the decisions of your life
00:19:56Oh that that's hard
00:19:58Probably the first bad decision I made was to get married at the age of 22
00:20:03Which had damn foolish
00:20:06I had married a college chum who was peter's mother and chris wallace's mother
00:20:14But we went to school together
00:20:16And it became quite apparent we were married when we were too young
00:20:20And that was not quite a word
00:20:23What kind of a father were you
00:20:26Absent a lot of the time not very good
00:20:28Not very good
00:20:35One of the most colorful and notorious gangsters in the united states in the late 1940s was mickey cohen
00:20:42Mickey you've killed at least one man or how many more I have killed no men
00:20:46That
00:20:50In the first place didn't deserve killing did you have any fear of mickey cohen
00:20:55No
00:20:56But he succeeded to offend all manner of people. Uh, a police chief who happens to be a sadistic degenerate
00:21:04He gave such ammunition with which to sue us for libel and everybody did everybody did
00:21:11What about this statement that you made in your own paper? You have no right to sit in judgment on me
00:21:16I'm not sitting in judgment. I'm simply asking a question. We were doing things that were for the time
00:21:21Revolutionary, I mean asking serious questions asking abrasive questions. I'm ready anytime you want to repeat the stupid question
00:21:29We got into a flock of lawsuits and it just became too controversial
00:21:34This has been the last program as tonight's guest
00:21:37Arthur larsen has said before we can tell the world who we are
00:21:41And before we can act for the future
00:21:44We ourselves must know who we are what we stand for
00:21:48And what we mean by freedom
00:21:51Mike wallace, good night
00:21:57And just like that the mike wallace interview was off the air
00:22:05Hello, i'm mike wallace with real news news about revlon's new lanolite lipstick the first non-smear lipstick
00:22:13That actually beauty treats your lips as you wear it. How did you feel about moving on without that show?
00:22:19I was lost
00:22:20I used to say I have to do all these things because I have all these kids to support and so forth and I knew
00:22:25That that was that was less than the truth
00:22:29I was beginning to pay a price for some of the television work that I had done
00:22:35I hated it after a while
00:22:37You're right within us there seems to be a frightening void we are forever trying to fill but never quite do
00:22:44of losses
00:22:45What do you mean?
00:22:48You've never felt that feeling
00:22:57All right now I need to do some hard stuff here about the death of peter
00:23:04I need you to tell me how you felt this summer
00:23:21This is mike wallace currently going around the world in 40 days and reporting to wbz's program p.m
00:23:27I had been on a trip around the world for westinghouse broadcasting that summer with my portable tape recorder
00:23:33I'll bring you an actual word picture of new delhi cairo
00:23:36Nairobi other newsmaking cities. My son peter had taken the summer off from yale and had gone to greece
00:23:45And his mother told me that they hadn't heard from him, you know a couple of three weeks
00:23:51We didn't hear from him
00:23:53And didn't hear from him
00:23:54So finally I said something's got to be wrong. I'm going to go over and see what's going on
00:24:04So
00:24:06We didn't know if he'd gone off with a crowd someplace or met a girl or something of that sort
00:24:12And I went to zalakistan to this youth hostel and there was I saw his bag
00:24:17With his clothes and then somebody close by said they thought that he had gone up this mountain about three or four miles away
00:24:27I got on a donkey and we went up the mountain and finally came to a ledge
00:24:34Very high looking out over the gulf current and I looked down
00:24:41I uh
00:24:44I saw my son
00:24:46So
00:25:03Nothing nothing nothing like that had ever happened to me before it was just shattering
00:25:17So
00:25:32I cannot think of anything worse than losing a child. I mean we are programmed so that they will outlive us
00:25:39Is that something that still haunts you?
00:25:42I was married all that time to my job
00:25:47I had kids
00:25:50I was self-absorbed
00:25:53And i'm ashamed to say
00:25:55My job was more important than my family
00:25:59And I became a casualty of that
00:26:03Are you never lonely honest, I mean there are the two of you and that's it that's nice never
00:26:10You had a son
00:26:13And he died at the age of 40 some odd
00:26:16year
00:26:24Still not over that
00:26:30I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that
00:26:40Okay
00:26:42You
00:26:45I'm tough
00:26:47You mean I am tough. Oh, yeah, I can see you're tough of the difference
00:26:52It seems you're only vulnerable
00:26:57Don't be silly
00:26:59They're people are vulnerable, of course you're vulnerable
00:27:06Your son died in 1962
00:27:09Do you ever get over that
00:27:15I mean, there's always that the memory of this. I mean peter was a
00:27:22It changed your life, didn't it
00:27:25some people
00:27:27When they go through a loss like that it hardens their heart
00:27:31It sounds like it focused your mind focused my mind
00:27:35How did it?
00:27:37How did it affect your becoming who you are
00:27:43I've been unwilling to give up doing certain things that I was doing in television
00:27:52And after peter died I said to myself what is it that you want to do with your life
00:28:01I don't want to read everybody else's words anymore. I don't want to do commercials anymore
00:28:08I would like to be a serious reporter
00:28:17From cbs news this special report
00:28:21How did 60 minutes start? How did you end up there? What was the state of cbs news?
00:28:27So
00:28:32We got 30 seconds 30 seconds
00:28:35Good evening tonight
00:28:36See it now devotes its entire half hour to a report on senator joseph r mccarthy
00:28:40The other big missile site is in montanza's province close to havana
00:28:45When I first got there
00:28:47Everybody wanted to go to work at cbs
00:28:52Because it was cronkite
00:28:54Severide
00:28:55Morrow, that was the essence of news back then in many ways. That was the voice of authority
00:28:59That was the voice of the establishment giving us the news and that's the way it is monday september the second the world's news
00:29:06Concisely summarized and clearly expressed. Mr. Porter cronkite. Good night
00:29:12I remember when the word swept through the newsroom. Mike wallace is going to be a cbs correspondent
00:29:18And people thought oh my god the buttoned down world of cbs wait till this cat gets in there
00:29:24You'll really open it up. What is the treatment that you get when you're frozen out hazed?
00:29:29Yeah, they were less than cordial
00:29:31Are you gone?
00:29:34They said who needs this pitchman for philip marra cigarettes
00:29:37So here we are pennsylvania station five minutes after seven the lights have been on
00:29:42Lights have been out for about an hour and a half mike wallace at pennsylvania station
00:29:50I was tainted and they were pure and so I was not greeted by everybody with great enthusiasm
00:29:57And then I met don hewitt the newsroom never sleeps
00:30:00The search for stories has the attention of cronkite's executive producer don hewitt on camera, which will illustrate tomorrow
00:30:08sound roll three
00:30:0960 minutes interview with don hewitt. Nothing like interviewing your boss makes you real comfortable, you know
00:30:16There's some descriptions of it. You ready?
00:30:21Manic brash genius cocky competitive perfectionist
00:30:28I accept everything but genius. Call me tuesday when you get back. Call me. I'm not a brain
00:30:34not an intellect
00:30:36In the early days when there were that bunch of intellectuals at cbs news
00:30:41I think they looked at me as some sort of upstart
00:30:44We're in the seventh grade of the junior high school. Mike and I sort of allied as two roughneck kids
00:30:50Who didn't come out of oxford revolution called new math is all about
00:30:56You said that they were skeptical of you. Why were they skeptical?
00:30:59You know, I had done all manner of things that had nothing to do with the news
00:31:04Mr. Wallace
00:31:07Mr. Wallace, I uh, I give up
00:31:13I had to prove myself
00:31:15It was apparent to me early on that the only way that I was going to get people to watch
00:31:20Wasn't because I was a kind of reassuring avuncular
00:31:23Walter cronkite type mike wallace who's been traveling the country. What about civil rights? Let's touch on that a second
00:31:31It was because I was going to research thoroughly and ask tough questions
00:31:35Do you want the lights down a little bit do you think for phil?
00:31:39Speed
00:31:41Dr. King
00:31:42You said that you saw white man's hatred for the negro more bitter than anything that you had seen in mississippi
00:31:48What lies at the root of that hatred? I think it is basically a hatred
00:31:52born of fear
00:31:54they feared each other because they don't know each other they don't know each other because
00:31:59They fail to communicate with each other and they fail to communicate because they're separated from each other
00:32:06Minister malcolm, I believe that you have called for self-defense units
00:32:10Rifle clubs ready to execute on the spot
00:32:14Those who threaten the negro in a country that spends I think 50 billion dollars a year for defense alone
00:32:19I'm shocked that there's apprehension over negros trying to do something to defend themselves
00:32:24Are you the least bit afraid of what might happen to you?
00:32:27Oh, yes, I probably am a dead man already
00:32:32Controversial leader of malcolm x was gunned down while giving a speech
00:32:41Mike wallace is on the convention floor with the mississippi delegate
00:32:44Let me tell you about the first time that I worked with you
00:32:47Republican conventional whenever you were going to be on the air
00:32:50I would stop what I was doing and leave my quadrant to go watch you work as you can see
00:32:56It's bedlam here roger bob
00:32:59I remember you climbing up the steps. Everybody else was going up the aisles
00:33:04You were the first one to get to that. I mean it was amazing thing to watch
00:33:08So what's the point the point is I was just struck by that that there are all of these veteran reporters out there
00:33:14No one else thought of that. Listen, I would go after a story
00:33:18You
00:33:24It was such ferment in the country generally
00:33:34Suddenly 75 millimeter recoilless rifle round began dropping in here
00:33:40You went to vietnam for the first time what did you see what did you smell what did you hear I was a hawk
00:33:47When I went there
00:33:49And it wasn't long before I began to understand it wrong war wrong time wrong place
00:33:55Escalation is no shortcut to peace in vietnam. What is the enemy doing? Are these major attacks or?
00:34:03Television's presence of that war is what turned the american public against it
00:34:09There was virtually no censorship whatsoever
00:34:13So
00:34:17You call the vietnamese gooks dukes
00:34:21What had you been briefed to do when you got to pinkville?
00:34:24Searching up the village and and gathering up the people what kind of people men women?
00:34:29Children men women children babies babies made them squat down
00:34:34And uh lieutenant cali came over and said, you know what to do with him, don't you?
00:34:38So he stepped back about 10 15 feet and he started shooting
00:34:42And he told me to start shooting so I started shooting my father about four clicks into it to the group
00:34:48How many do you imagine you killed?
00:34:51I might have killed about 10 or 15 of them
00:34:55Men women and children men women and children and babies and babies
00:35:03Obviously the question comes to my mind, how do you shoot babies?
00:35:07I
00:35:09Don't know I just want in things
00:35:13The question is
00:35:15What kind of country is the united states?
00:35:18That in just the last few years has killed a president president. Kennedy has killed martin luther king
00:35:24And now attempts to kill robert kennedy
00:35:27malcolm x the black militant leader what kind of
00:35:31Curious strain of violence is there in the american people?
00:35:381968
00:35:41The most pivotal year since the end of world war ii for the country for politics
00:35:46And also in the news business the long dark night for america is about to end
00:35:55As soon as he gets toward the car rolling
00:35:58This is new hampshire's last hurrah to richard nixon
00:36:01There is only one name on the republican ballot next tuesday richard nixon. I was covering richard nixon at the time
00:36:08We were getting along so well that nixon wanted me to join his campaign as press secretary
00:36:15And at that time don hewitt was a man that everybody had decided had had it. He wasn't he wasn't up to the cbs news standard
00:36:23So the folks at cbs news put hewitt in a room and said come up with an idea. Perhaps we'll put it on the air
00:36:30I
00:36:31stole
00:36:32The idea of 60 minutes
00:36:34Lock stock and barrel from life magazine the nixon campaign in new hampshire has been smooth and he came to me
00:36:41And he said tell you what i'm going to give you a chance to do the kind of interviews
00:36:44You used to do back at channel five with night beat
00:36:48And so I cast my lot with don hewitt
00:36:5560 minutes volume one number one new opening take one
00:37:03Well done for us fellas out here in the fringes
00:37:13Good evening. This is 60 minutes. It's a kind of a magazine for television
00:37:20Nixon acknowledges now that he withdrew from the press that he was afraid of them and their questions
00:37:25There's been so much talk in recent years of style and of charisma. No one suggests that you have a good deal of it
00:37:32Have you given no thought to this aspect of campaigning and of leading?
00:37:38Uh, let me make this one point some some public men are destined to be loved
00:37:44and other public men are
00:37:46Destined to be disliked the most important thing is not whether he's loved or disliked but whether he's respected
00:37:52And I hope to restore respect to the presidency
00:37:57Did you know mike that night that you had a winner
00:38:00We didn't know what we were up to
00:38:03a fan at the university of tennessee wrote
00:38:0660 minutes is wonderful. Does this mean that it will be dropped in a few weeks? We do think this is sort of a new approach
00:38:13We realize of course that new approaches are not always instantly accepted
00:38:17We'd finish regularly 85th out of 100 shows in the ratings tonight on 60 minutes
00:38:23Nobody was paying any attention. We were on the air. We were off the air. We were preempted
00:38:28From cbs news in washington, nobody thought it was going to last nobody thought it was going to last
00:38:36I think we first met when irie announced he was leaving to go to abc and that was right. I got the call
00:38:43How did you feel about me coming?
00:38:45Intruder, uh, somebody could push around. Oh, no, no, no on the contrary. I was so far ahead of you
00:38:51I mean everybody knew me who the dickens was morely safer
00:38:55You know big deal
00:38:57I'm, mike wallace. I'm morely safer those stories and more tonight on 60 minutes
00:39:04We were trying to do anything we could at that time really we were experimenting we were trying to find out what worked and what?
00:39:09Didn't work
00:39:12And then suddenly what happened
00:39:15Watergate came along
00:39:17In the early days the post was all alone on watergate and the white house was denying it and the rest of the press corps
00:39:24ignoring it
00:39:26There were no other broadcasts that had the time to devote to some of the cast of characters of watergate
00:39:33except
00:39:3460 minutes of all the characters in the watergate drama gordon liddy remains the most mysterious
00:39:39They called him the dirty trick and because I had a relationship with all of the people in the nexen administration
00:39:45John, erlichman was closer to the oval office as a result. I began to do interviews with the entire top cast of characters
00:39:52Did you see senator weicker enumerate a list?
00:39:54Of the illegal or unethical acts of the white house. No, I didn't let me read them
00:40:01breaking and entering
00:40:03wiretapping
00:40:05conspiracy to foster prostitution
00:40:08conspiracy to commit kidnapping
00:40:11Destruction of government documents did the president ever tell you to get rid of the taping equipment forgery of state department documents and campaign letters?
00:40:20Secret slush funds. Well, wait a second. You mean silbert knew about what kalmbach was doing for you paying you at that time perjury
00:40:28Plans to audit tax returns for political retaliation. Have you done more than pray?
00:40:32Have you tried to make it up to those you've hurt theft of psychiatric records?
00:40:37Plans to fire a bomb a building you offered to have yourself shot
00:40:41assassinated
00:40:43To reassure everybody that you weren't going to talk all of this
00:40:46By the law and order administration of richard nixon
00:40:56Is there a question in there somewhere
00:41:01I mean these things hit front pages all across america
00:41:04We got a raft of mail last week following our story and gave a certain what is this 60 minutes?
00:41:10Whenever and however, mr
00:41:12Nixon's case is disposed of
00:41:14The press's turn will come next. What do you mean?
00:41:17The press is going to be blamed for it. And what can the press do about it? If anything hunker down
00:41:23hunker down and and go about our business, which is not to be loved but to
00:41:29Go after the truth
00:41:33That's when we began to do the real investigative stuff
00:41:37The kind of stuff you hadn't seen at all
00:41:39In television standing in the back room I could hear what was going on in the front office
00:41:44A pretty frank discussion about kickbacks so I could get 500 a week
00:41:49Pardon me just a second fellas. And you know that what you're offering to do is to break the law
00:41:55Why
00:41:56Tonight a story about the big business in mail order degrees land fraud and swindle kiddie porn child pornography
00:42:03I've seen them as young as six years old in here six years old six years old at that point. I came in
00:42:09This time our camera was no longer hidden. We have pictures of you
00:42:14Selling films. No to my colony. No, where did these come from? I don't know he put over there. This is my face
00:42:22Of course you're paying income tax on this
00:42:25What are you laughing about?
00:42:26They called on the miami police to get us off their property. You have no right to be here. I ask you to leave you're
00:42:31Interrupting a business
00:42:33Come on in fellas
00:42:36Hey, wait a minute 60 minutes in here
00:42:39Can you believe it? How are you 60 minutes in a hold of phone?
00:42:42No, this is my favorite guys. What's your what's your last name? Wallace. Mike wallace. Mike wallace
00:42:53One day somebody came to me and said, you know, you're in the top 10 and I said the top 10 what he will talk to
00:42:58Arafat again today
00:43:00I didn't know what a rating point was how much time do you think mike has for that thing following the mail?
00:43:05This thing took off for reasons I still do not understand
00:43:10We're not telling the critics I think
00:43:13We heard that more people watch your show than walter cronkite and people watch you more than they watch him
00:43:22You know something walter's down the hall and you don't want to get walter angry at me do you
00:43:28It's patented blend of hero reporters and sweating villains has redefined tv news for better or for worse
00:43:35Is a question for debate, but you can't argue with ratings 60 minutes is the most watched news program ever
00:43:43Okay, we're very excited about our first guest tonight his dogged interviewing style singular
00:43:49Brand of brow beating charm who is highly respected among his peers. It's my pleasure to welcome. Mike wallace
00:43:56Mike wallace
00:44:06Why are you doing this now doing what this
00:44:09You walked out on us once before didn't walk out on us. I understood that you're paying me a large amount of money for this
00:44:15You're wrong
00:44:17You why are you doing this now? I'm not running a boiler room operation. I have no phony real estate scam
00:44:22I'm not taking any kickbacks. Well, there's a stereotype
00:44:26Of course and you know, there is what it is. What is it ice water in his veins?
00:44:30I had that taken out years ago, which I went to denmark and had that done. It's all over now shy
00:44:36defensive
00:44:38Sometimes in a social situation or with people I feel a little uncomfortable
00:44:42See what i'm in front of an audience is it's a different thing. Why?
00:44:46I'm in control
00:44:47I can handle the audience and I can set the timing and I can set the pacing and I can play with that
00:44:51There's cars from the performer and there's cars in the private individual when the camera goes on
00:44:57Yeah, they are your family. That's right
00:45:01People started to tune in to us in big numbers to see what mike wallace was going to be up to next
00:45:08Okay, you're never going to live it down. Mike. I guarantee it. I'll use it to show just what the press is
00:45:14You're contemptible. I mean that's not for the camera. I'd like you to get out of here
00:45:18immediately
00:45:20I hope you got it and I hope you had the guts to use it
00:45:25There is a new billionaire in town trump's the name donald trump is a major deal maker a swashbuckler donald
00:45:32You're in your late 30s
00:45:35You got 40 years to live minimum
00:45:38Well, I hope you're right about that. What are you gonna do?
00:45:41Uh, there are a lot of things to do, you know a fertile imagination and a good fertile mind mike
00:45:45It's an amazing. It's really amazing. What can be thought of there are so many things to do politics so many
00:45:50No, not politics
00:45:51You've said that you could do a better job at negotiating an arms control agreement with the soviets
00:45:56Than some of these professionals who've been trying to do it for years. I didn't say me mike
00:45:59I said somebody has to do it if it were me, that'd be fine. I could do it
00:46:02You somebody has to help this country and if they don't the country and the world are in big trouble
00:46:09Because within a short period of time as sure as we're sitting here
00:46:12There's not going to be a country and there's not going to be a world
00:46:15He could get with a question to the very core of the story. How much do you make?
00:46:23What's your salary
00:46:32Hard question
00:46:34simple question
00:46:35There was no off switch
00:46:38If it was in his head that came out of his mouth
00:46:41You really believe that you lived lives before and yes, ma'am, I don't there's no doubt in my mind about it
00:46:49And you really believe in extraterrestrial?
00:46:51Do they come visit you on the porch?
00:46:55Now you're being unpleasant wallace is what you're saying, yes, this is what I was a little afraid of
00:47:00You don't have to be that unpleasant. It doesn't become you, you know, but mike would steal stories
00:47:07There is that schoolboy competitor
00:47:12Tell me something competitive beyond belief here we are
00:47:16And at the same time unsure of himself, mr
00:47:19Wright that he had not paid his dues as a journalist that that uncertainty or that even perhaps shame
00:47:28Haunted him. What is a racist? He was gonna go out and prove i'm as good as anybody in this racket
00:47:3560 000 jobs have gone down the drain. You've laid out and I once said to him. I said mike
00:47:39You don't have to prove yourself for god's sake. Everybody knows you're good. You're terrific. You're a big star
00:47:46You had a reputation as a very difficult guy for years
00:47:50Why where did that all come from kirk?
00:47:54It shows you what a good actor I am because I really am the sweetest come on
00:47:58Everybody says that in the old days you were an exceedingly even your own kids said that you were very difficult
00:48:04Oh, there's no doubt about that
00:48:06But I think most of the things that I did wrong comes out of an insecurity what the dickens are you insecure about?
00:48:11Michael, I think that no one is ever free of insecurities
00:48:15Whether it may be in their relationship with their kids in their relationship with their wife and in their relationship with their work
00:48:2220 or 30 years of psychoanalysis
00:48:24I say to myself
00:48:25What is it that she's trying to find out that takes 20 to 30 years?
00:48:28I'm a slow learner for some reason. I I feel like your father or your uncle or something good
00:48:34At least you're feeling
00:48:36That's good. Oh, I gotta tell you my feelings are as close to the surface as your so so that you put on this facade
00:48:42In other words you put on this facade
00:48:44of toughness
00:48:47Row one take one
00:48:49Look, there's a lot of temperament in mike gonna be dull as hell. Please
00:48:53No, no, no, you're going much too fast. Take five
00:48:57What the fuck you're doing? This is supposed to be here. Are you reading?
00:49:00Yes
00:49:01Here we go. This is the one god damn. Can you give me a slightly shot slightly different shot?
00:49:06But show me someone with no temperament and i'll show you someone with no talent
00:49:11Sweet shit. Shall we start from the beginning again?
00:49:15The journalist as a household word oriana falacci. She is an italian journalist resourceful ambitious
00:49:22arrogant
00:49:23Her revealing interviews are merely conversations to begin with she says
00:49:27Then she transcribes them herself and turns them into morality dramas
00:49:31She plays the role of judge the interviewees on trial
00:49:35And few are found innocent
00:49:38I hate objectivity, you know, I have told it many times. I do not believe in objectivity
00:49:43I believe in what I see what I hear and what I feel
00:49:47Power you have power. Oh, no, I have not power
00:49:51You're not one of those who think that we journalists have power
00:49:55No, ah, we are like the dogs
00:50:00Nobody listens to us. You're an entertainer
00:50:05I'm an historian
00:50:07You're not an historian. Yes. I am. You're a journalist. No, sir. A journalist is an historian. No, no, wait, listen
00:50:13A journalist is a person who writes history in the same moment that history happens
00:50:20And it is the damn best way to write history
00:50:25Foreign
00:50:37Good evening in tehran tonight
00:50:39The american embassy is in the hands of several hundred iranian students who took control after a three-hour skirmish with u.s
00:50:46Marines, they're holding hostages one report says as many as a hundred muslim students in iran spurred on by ayatollah
00:50:53Khomeini today escalated their war against what he calls the great satan america. I'm really infuriated because
00:51:01This is not islam
00:51:03Islam doesn't teach at all
00:51:05What this man such a lunatic like this man?
00:51:12I was standing in a toxic waste dump in stockton california when all of a sudden the word came khomeini will see you
00:51:24Foreign
00:51:29Did you have any concern about going over there at that time what are they going to do take you hostage yourself
00:51:34Maybe they took the other americans hostage
00:51:38You never thought it never crossed your mind honest if you got a hell of a story on your hands, no
00:51:54What was the atmosphere in the room like I was immediately told
00:51:58You have to give us the questions ahead. Was there a lot of tension in the room when you went in there?
00:52:03He had his own cameras there
00:52:05Everybody had to be satisfied with the questions
00:52:23Foreign
00:52:26Well, let's let us begin
00:52:29Do you still say imam?
00:52:31That if the shah is not returned to iran
00:52:35That those american hostages in the american embassy compound will not be freed
00:52:41Foreign
00:52:52But that is not an answer to whether the hostages
00:52:56Will be freed
00:52:57Prefers that you put up the rest of the questions and then later on i'll translate for you so that his eminence can be
00:53:03Faster, I unless I know what he is saying
00:53:06It will not make sense. I must understand as we go. Otherwise, it is not an interview and I will have no way of understanding
00:53:22Imam president sadat of egypt
00:53:26a devoutly religious man
00:53:28a muslim
00:53:30Says that what you are doing now is
00:53:33quote
00:53:34a disgrace to islam
00:53:37And he calls you imam
00:53:39Forgive me his words. Not mine
00:53:42a lunatic
00:53:44I know that you have heard that comment
00:53:46Well, i'm not sure if I can get the answer because this was not in the question, please ask him
00:53:50I'm sure it's a very simple straightforward question. I heard that the imam is a disgrace to islam
00:53:56Yes, he used the word a lunatic
00:54:05Sadat
00:54:17Then he is a traitor to islam sadat
00:54:20Foreign
00:54:32He calls upon the egyptian people he overthrows sadat exactly
00:54:50Foreign
00:54:55It's the first time I remember you asking a question in that way forgive me it's a very artful way to ask the question
00:55:04In effect he called for the overthrow of anwar sadat
00:55:09That was interpreted as calling for the assassination
00:55:15And of course that's exactly what happened
00:55:18The celebration turned to terror president sadat and others on the reviewing stand with him raked with gunfire
00:55:29President sadat 62 years old is dead
00:55:45Mr. Wallace
00:55:48Are you aware that what you're doing is seriously endangering people?
00:55:53That's the way you're going to educate the public through your questions through the questions and the answers. Yes
00:55:58Are you tempted during those interviews to usurp?
00:56:02The powers of our secretary of state and go right for a while
00:56:06Mike wallace will settle this
00:56:09Television journalism has been coming under recent criticism. Some polls have shown that public confidence is eroding
00:56:16We have heard uh increasingly talk about news glut information is becoming a
00:56:22Certainly a bigger business. Is it bad? It's hard to cope with I guess
00:56:27You use the word business and let's face it
00:56:29It is a business the business of network news has become one of the highest stakes games in television
00:56:3516 minutes has spawned really seven magazine shows on the network. What do you think about that?
00:56:41I think there are too many news magazines on the networks now. Sure. Good evening
00:56:45I'm, hugh downs and this is 2020 on the abc news magazine date line monday one. This is nightline
00:56:53I think the reason that they're there is because there has been a thirst in the audience how to turn news
00:56:59Into a prime time ratings hit I think the magazine programs outside of the network purview have helped journalism
00:57:05Tremendously like bonnie and clive they crossed the country on a crime rampage pitbull terriers kids pets or killer dogs
00:57:12I'm, ari popich tonight on a current affair
00:57:15Take two. All right. Here we go
00:57:19Strolling you're gonna be back buddy. You gotta be out of the shot
00:57:23So kai gulvey who himself stood to profit handsomely when his clients expanded you reach people very well that way
00:57:30In a very i'm not ashamed to use the word in a very dramatic way to say
00:57:34Wait a minute. Mr. Taylor is what mr. Wallace does good journalism
00:57:45I think it's marvelous drama
00:57:49And has very little to do with journalism
00:57:53I can't believe that i'm hearing this from you. I really cannot believe it. Mr
00:57:58Wallace, do you think that the way he reports on business is good journalism? Yes
00:58:04Why won't you say the same for him? I mean that's because I don't I don't think it's journalism. I think it's show business
00:58:11Bring it back down. Let's do it again
00:58:13We were the number one broadcast in america
00:58:17But I don't care who you are
00:58:19how lucky
00:58:20you realize that
00:58:23Life is gonna even up somehow perfect. Let's go home
00:58:29Life is going to turn around and bite you in the back
00:58:35So
00:58:39When 60 minutes was at the peak of its power in the early 80s
00:58:43cbs news and you personally are sued by
00:58:48General william westmoreland the commander of american forces in the lost american war in vietnam
00:58:56I have been subjected to a vicious scurrilous and premeditated attack on my character and personal integrity
00:59:03The sham was perpetrated by the unscrupulous
00:59:08And arrogant
00:59:10Mike wallace with distorted false and specious information
00:59:15And attempt to execute me on the guillotine
00:59:19of public opinion
00:59:21Retired us army general william westmoreland today filed suit against cbs incorporated
00:59:25He charged in federal court that he was liable in a cbs news documentary
00:59:30About enemy troop strength reports during the vietnam war
00:59:33You couldn't ask for more troops
00:59:36Therefore you couldn't let the enemy be perceived as larger
00:59:40Well, that is absolutely fallacious. It has no validity whatsoever
00:59:45I'm, absolutely amazed that you would come out with a statement like that. It's not a statement. It's a question. It has no basis whatsoever
00:59:52Didn't you make this clear on your august 20th cable? Yeah. No, I have a copy of your august 20th. Sure. Okay
00:59:58Okay spelling out the command position on the self-defense controversy as you put it in the cable
01:00:02You say the principal reason why the self-defense militia must go quote was press reaction. I made the decision
01:00:09It was my responsibility. I don't regret making it. I stand by it and the facts prove that I was right now
01:00:16Let's stop it. All right
01:00:20It was all there
01:00:22The arrogance the color the drama the contrived plot the close shots
01:00:28Everything but the truth
01:00:33Mike wallace and his boy george creel in my view are a disgrace to american journalism
01:00:43Opening arguments began today in the 120 million dollar libel case by william s morland against cbs
01:00:49Many journalists worry that the immediate accusations could damage public trust in all the media
01:00:55There have also been accusations that wallace only played the part of a reporter
01:01:00TV guide called it a smear and that triggered a top-level internal investigation
01:01:05I want to talk about the westmoreland case the tv guide article that originally caused so many questions about the whole westmoreland case
01:01:12Says george creil the producer of the westmoreland hour
01:01:16Wrote virtually all of your questions
01:01:19True he wrote a lot of questions
01:01:23Don powan says mike wallace america's most feared investigative reporter had merely been a puppet on george creil's knee
01:01:32Do you think so?
01:01:34What do you think? Oh, of course not. Is that the way you usually work with two-thirds of your questions written by someone else?
01:01:40I was at that same time trying to do a good many
01:01:43Pieces on 60 minutes and so why do they need you?
01:01:46I mean if somebody else is well, that's a perfectly good question not to have something to do with its so-called
01:01:52Uh star system or the or the you don't want to be thought of as an actor who comes in and reads questions
01:01:56And and I think that you're not
01:01:59And you're not that's right. Okay. So what's the question doesn't it?
01:02:03Trouble you to be called a puppet
01:02:09Winston churchill called it the black dog abe lincoln was so anguished by it. He cried
01:02:15I am now the most miserable man living if what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family
01:02:21There would be not one cheerful face on earth
01:02:24It is mental depression
01:02:27Fear is something that I i've never known. I've never been afraid of anything
01:02:31but here was this damnable kind of annoying fear that
01:02:35Maybe I was losing my grip or now. Wait a minute former assistant secretary of defense head of a successful company a millionaire and
01:02:44Then all of a sudden
01:02:45That's right. These things started to happen not now. You must understand
01:02:49This is a gradual onset. It's an insidious thing
01:02:53I got to the point where this thing prayed in my mind so and I was filled with such agonizing fear that I couldn't
01:03:00Hardly bring myself to answer the phone for fear to be somebody i'd have to talk to
01:03:04total continuing
01:03:06Unrelenting unremitting depression 24 hours a day
01:03:09A
01:03:11lot of people who suffer from depression
01:03:15say they
01:03:16Really had it a long time before it was actually diagnosed. Is that true?
01:03:24I had no idea what it was
01:03:27When it hit me the battle goes on in federal court over cbs's documentary on enemy troop strength during the vietnam war
01:03:35I have been asking nasty questions of all kinds of people for some years
01:03:40And now you are afraid that they're going to start asking those questions of you
01:03:47And day after day after day you were called every dirty name imaginable
01:03:53You begin to wonder if you haven't done something dishonest
01:03:59You don't want to eat you find it difficult to sleep
01:04:03It's never out of your mind
01:04:07The trial has already produced more than 6 000 pages of testimony went on for years and years
01:04:15But you worked through it
01:04:18I had no idea what I was doing
01:04:20I would ask a question couldn't hear or understand the answer didn't know what question was supposed to come next
01:04:27I was ashamed of having a depression. That's one of the things that's so awful about it. But there's some there's some blot
01:04:36It is such a dirty word, that's correct, that's correct you whispered
01:04:43All you focus on is yourself and how bad you feel
01:04:49You're wrapped up in here
01:04:51in your own petty
01:04:54monumental
01:04:55Selfishness self-absorption
01:05:00Pains and spaciness
01:05:03and feelings of fraud and feelings of that I was a fake and and
01:05:09Self-esteem that just plummeted
01:05:16Did you ever contemplate suicide mr. Pike, uh, I I felt like a dead man and I wished I were dead
01:05:23Yeah
01:05:25You went pretty low you hit bottom didn't you? Oh I hit bottom. Yeah
01:05:30Think of killing yourself. Yes
01:05:33Try to kill yourself. No
01:05:36Some say you took too many pills I know that um, um
01:05:42Articles have been written about that but and I I really don't want to particularly discuss it
01:05:48You
01:05:50When you don't sleep hour after hour night after night day after day
01:05:56And you are obsessed
01:05:59With what a fourth-rate individual you are you contemplate anything to get out of it
01:06:08But thank god there was enough common sense so that I didn't really try anything
01:06:17I'm not trying to get you to say that. Yeah, I mean it's really for other people too to get to that line
01:06:26Did you think about killing yourself, well, of course, of course you do to get out of it
01:06:34Damn right, that'll be a shock to people. I mean mike wallace man on top of the world
01:06:42All of the
01:06:43Fame and the glory and the accolades and everything really kind of didn't mean anything to you anymore
01:06:50It's just dust like everything else
01:06:59Mike
01:07:01Did you try to commit suicide at one point I thought very seriously about it
01:07:08I've never
01:07:11I promise you anybody who's in a deep depression
01:07:16Thinks about suicide
01:07:20Uh, i've never said this before no, I tried and mary found me
01:07:34I wrote a note
01:07:37And mary found it
01:07:39And she found the pills that I was taking on the floor
01:07:44I was asleep
01:07:47You got lucky yes, I did get lucky
01:07:52I don't know why the hell you asked me that question because other people have and i've it's the first time i've answered it
01:07:58honestly
01:08:01I
01:08:09I
01:08:13Good evening. This is the cbs evening news dan rather reporting one of the new york newspaper headlines reads
01:08:19Westy raises white flag this after william westmoreland suddenly dropped his 120 million dollar libel suit against cbs
01:08:26Westmoreland will get no money from cbs the documentary about which he complained will remain intact without apology and without any retraction
01:08:34Cbs agrees to sign a statement saying cbs respects general westmoreland's long and faithful service to his country
01:08:41Uh, I consider that uh that i've won
01:08:44By virtue of that statement when a plaintiff wants to drop a lawsuit without any money and without any apology
01:08:49I think we ought to let him
01:08:51The war between the general and the network officially ended today
01:08:56But there are serious questions that remain
01:08:58I think the greatest risk we have
01:09:01Is that these suits will intimidate many news organizations?
01:09:06Because the cost of doing aggressive journalism is going to be exorbitant
01:09:12What it comes down to if you listen to the media is a question of how tough journalism will be
01:09:18It's what journalists call the chilling effect
01:09:21Tell me what you think of investigative journalism these days
01:09:25It's lousy, isn't it?
01:09:27No, oh, come on
01:09:28They go after the guy who runs the pizza place in the corner because he charges too much for pepperoni
01:09:32But they won't go after the pentagon because things like the westmoreland suit has scared corporations to death
01:09:41Last year americans smoked 582 billion cigarettes a day
01:09:46Last year americans smoked
01:09:49582 billion cigarettes the surgeon general of the united states says that cigarettes cause lung cancer more deaths
01:09:55Than the combined total of americans killed each year by auto fire and other accidents
01:09:59By alcohol murder and suicide by aids cocaine and heroin. Do you consider tobacco a health hazard?
01:10:06No, I think that when the secret to cancer is finally discovered that we're going to find that it's brought on by a virus
01:10:13So
01:10:15Are we ready
01:10:17You have chronicled the demise of cigarette and unfortunately one of the biggest scandals to hit 60 minutes was the case of jeffrey. Why again?
01:10:30We had been trying for years to talk to the ceos of the tobacco companies
01:10:36And all of a sudden we heard that we were set to learn what this insider had to offer
01:10:40The head of research and development for a major tobacco company who wants to lay it on the line
01:10:48Dr. Weigand, you're the first
01:10:52Tobacco executive as far as I know to come forward the element in cigarettes that make them attractive is the nicotine, right?
01:10:59Most certainly and that's what cigarettes are for. It's a delivery device for nicotine put it in your mouth light it up
01:11:05And you're going to get your fix you're going to fix
01:11:08Are you worried about going public this way?
01:11:11somewhat
01:11:12I had life threats on my kids. What?
01:11:15Says leave tobacco alone or else
01:11:17You'll find your kids hurt. They're pretty girls now
01:11:22Then why are you doing it?
01:11:26Because I believe it's right
01:11:30Okay, we got it
01:11:33I just want to make sure that till I get a lot of things in order
01:11:36Oh, don't worry about that. We're not going to go forward with any kind of broadcasting. Absolutely
01:11:43We had the story cold
01:11:45We know that it's true and all of a sudden we were told by our lawyers that we had induced the breaking of a
01:11:53Confidentiality agreement between jeff weigand and the brown and williamson tobacco company
01:11:58We've got a gun pointed our head of 15 billion dollars
01:12:01We may opt to get out of the line of fire
01:12:07Put it on the air let them sue
01:12:10I cannot believe that any court would have come down
01:12:14Against us in your office or phil. Now. I'm sure that this was your argument to cbs to don
01:12:20They did not want to hear that argument
01:12:22The management didn't want to hear that argument
01:12:25Uh
01:12:27Even between you and don don didn't want to hear it. Yes. We did. No, I just disagree with you totally
01:12:35He was on the company side and I and a couple of others
01:12:38were not
01:12:40the sense is that you
01:12:43Lost your dedication to getting the truth out that happened at one point for a period of about 12 to 15 hours
01:12:51And
01:12:54That was all of it. We at 60 minutes are proud of working here and at cbs news
01:12:59And so we were dismayed that the management at cbs had seen fit
01:13:03To give in to perceived threats of legal action against us by a tobacco industry giant
01:13:08I can't believe that there wasn't something else that you could have done. Is there not no
01:13:13No, mike went as far as you might went further than I did mike makes hell about it
01:13:1860 minutes has been to court or has been sued
01:13:21Not infrequently over the years and we've never lost one because we've been willing to go to court. This is the first time
01:13:28That they said no today
01:13:29It was revealed that cbs's 60 minutes had decided to back off a tough investigative report on the powerful tobacco industry
01:13:35Raising new questions tonight about corporate power
01:13:38And what's acceptable and journalism what's not this is part of what's so sad because mike wallace and don hewitt
01:13:45Are pioneers of aggressive investigative television journalism and the fact that they are
01:13:51Intimidated is very disturbing
01:13:56Why don't you stand up and say i'm mike wallace i've got a reputation either this piece goes on air or i'm walking
01:14:03If i'm outside that piece would never would never have gotten on the air period
01:14:09Cbs management wouldn't let us broadcast our original story and our interview with jeffrey weigand
01:14:15But now things have changed
01:14:19Last week the wall street journal got hold off and published a confidential deposition weigand gave in a mississippi case
01:14:26And while a lawsuit is still a possibility not putting jeffrey weigand story on 60 minutes no longer is
01:14:34The hope would be
01:14:36That no matter who owns the network or who owns the paper
01:14:42They all have the courage and the sense of obligation
01:14:46To let the truth be told you very carefully said the hope the confidence
01:14:55The hope
01:14:59People ask why I didn't quit
01:15:01I I really do believe that I would have walked away
01:15:04And they would have said well, it's a pity
01:15:07Honey was getting old anyway
01:15:10They were sent fine so long
01:15:14Take ten
01:15:16Son goes by
01:15:19It was my first i'll ask the question, please. I thank you father
01:15:23Tell me this you really said it has been my experience that one cannot in any shape or form
01:15:29Depend on human relations for any lasting reward. It is only work
01:15:34that truly satisfies
01:15:36Yes
01:15:36That stands by you. It isn't that many people don't
01:15:41Uh add a great deal to your life
01:15:43And i'm talking about as a permanent thing
01:15:48That's the least disappointing relationship you can have is work
01:15:54And really that's the way you've lived your life unfortunately, yes
01:15:58Thank you
01:16:01Contract is running down. Everybody wants to know if you're going down contract will be up a year from now
01:16:07Well, that's running down in my book. Are you going to quit or you're going to keep going?
01:16:11Mike wallace the stories keep appearing that you're cutting back
01:16:14How much so and how much longer with the program? I don't think it's any of your business larry
01:16:18the uh
01:16:19Mike could slow down mike could stop mike can do anything he wants to do and yet he continues to work just as hard
01:16:27Why?
01:16:28Why still the same need and push and drive?
01:16:32Why what what what does he think he hasn't accomplished?
01:16:37Tell me your dreams mike
01:16:40If I were your psychiatrist and I said, uh, did you dream last night or what's the last dream you remember?
01:16:46Where am I?
01:16:48Where am I?
01:16:50Mike
01:16:52Mike wallace
01:16:53What are you doing here? Well, i'm interviewing you we're on television
01:16:58I'm giving you a chance to defend yourself before all my viewers
01:17:04And myself
01:17:06I mean what what did I do? What are you trying to prove?
01:17:11Prove nothing
01:17:14Then why don't you quit?
01:17:17You
01:17:20Father kirsch
01:17:22I want to read you what susan sandoval says about you
01:17:26She was 15 years old when she woke up with father robert kirsch's tongue in her mouth
01:17:33In a small new mexico town she lost her virginity that day now, why would she say that about you father kirsch?
01:17:40If it were not so
01:17:43You
01:17:45Why would she say that
01:17:47Why don't you slow down?
01:17:50Do you worry about death? Do I worry about death? I'm getting closer
01:17:54I think about it every now and then I confess look when you're 75 and you see people around you dropping
01:18:00sure
01:18:02How much in the retirement packages of the people who have voted okay on this how much are they getting answer the question?
01:18:10It's a very simple question, mr. So why are you so reluctant? Why are you so reluctant to get over here mike?
01:18:17You want to just get right over here?
01:18:20You're kind of the last man standing in this line of work of your generation
01:18:28You have some tough questions left sure haven't run out
01:18:40Of course you're in good shape. Yes
01:18:44What's remarkable you do
01:18:47you too, yeah, really well for
01:18:5187 could somebody please tell me what's going on with the
01:18:57What's that
01:18:59I can barely hear i'm deaf. I can't see very well
01:19:05Oh
01:19:06There we go
01:19:08Corruption is every place in russia to get anything done
01:19:16Money is russia a democracy
01:19:21In order to be a journalist today in russia
01:19:25Do you have to in effect
01:19:29Bow the head and bend the knee to putin
01:19:38Is
01:19:45Your people run these news channels one channel even begins each newscast with
01:19:52What did putin do today? Who did he see?
01:19:57What does and so forth and so forth?
01:20:09Where
01:20:10Your english is really very very good, isn't it?
01:20:14You understand every word that i'm saying
01:20:17You don't need the the translation what would you like to say to the american people
01:20:24All the best to every family in america
01:20:33Good luck
01:20:39Do you feel
01:20:41it's time to
01:20:44Maybe pack it in and reflect or reflect about what?
01:20:48Give me a break
01:20:50What am I going to reflect about?
01:20:52About the fact that i'm not working
01:20:56Do you hate getting old no, I feel good
01:21:01I feel fine. I don't hate getting old
01:21:04You still work I don't even hate to die I don't give a damn what do you mean I don't care
01:21:11You mean when your toes turn up that's it that don't ever bother me
01:21:18And I want you to give if you will the answer to just one more question go ahead
01:21:23Do you believe in your personal immortality?
01:21:26Yes
01:21:27To me young has no meaning. It's something you can do nothing about
01:21:32Nothing at all
01:21:34But youth is a quality and if you have it
01:21:37You never lose it
01:21:39And when they put you into the box, that's your immortality
01:21:43If I die tomorrow
01:21:46I've accomplished far more than I ever thought I was going to accomplish and far more than anyone else ever thought I was going to accomplish
01:21:53So i'm proud of myself
01:21:56for hanging in there persevering working
01:21:59Unbelievably hard and winning
01:22:03Winning the game of broadcast journalism. I've won it
01:22:07Do you understand why some people feel?
01:22:11Such disaffection from the mainstream media. Oh, yeah. No, I think we're
01:22:17wild-eyed
01:22:19commies
01:22:20liberals
01:22:22Yes
01:22:23That's what they think
01:22:24We're in a fairly cynical almost hostile public environment
01:22:29Nobody believes anything anymore to generalize
01:22:33And it's very important that they believe us if they don't believe us. We're useless
01:22:37Is this nation getting better or getting worse? Oh, I think this nation is getting worse
01:22:47We're not as straightforward
01:22:50Of people as it used to be do you think the public is less interested in news than it used to be less trusting?
01:22:57in what they hear
01:22:59I think they're probably less trusting. Yeah, because there are so many voices
01:23:03That is not fair so many voices so many
01:23:07Who do you trust?
01:23:08Whether it's too much or made up all of the strikes at the heart of the most important product journalists have to offer
01:23:15Their credibility our job is to ask those questions and you know something this is not new
01:23:21This is the relationship we have with all levels of power a narrow and distorted picture of america often emerges from the televised
01:23:29news
01:23:30The views do not represent the views of america
01:23:34Everybody back there the fake news media. Look at all of them
01:23:39The government at its highest level with its powers over us criticizes us so strongly so emotionally and with such
01:23:46self-serving purposes
01:23:48The temptation is for television news to go easy to duck controversy stay out of trouble
01:23:54Please the government
01:23:56But that would be fatal
01:23:58For as walter said we're not defending a precious right of our own of freedom of speech and press
01:24:04What we're defending is the people's right to know
01:24:18You ever think about an epitaph epitaph
01:24:24Never gave it a moment's thought give it a moment
01:24:28You
01:24:33I've had a fine various not so fine life
01:24:38and
01:24:39There comes a time when you say what's left?
01:24:42It's time to go
01:24:46What do you think people will remember mike wallace s
01:24:53The fella who the fella who did
01:24:55Dude
01:24:57the fella who investigated who muck raped who asked some tough questions and who uh
01:25:03bullshit
01:25:05Come on. I don't I don't
01:25:07You have to ask these kind of things. Well, fine, but I don't have to answer them. I think it's a lousy question
01:25:12Well, you're a legend. I think it's a lousy question. I think people will remember you as the black hat reporter
01:25:19That went in and got people. Yeah tough but fair
01:25:21Fair
01:25:25The guy who enjoyed immensely what he did did it honestly straightforwardly
01:25:30Perhaps moved the dialogue ahead that much in certain areas
01:25:36Used his life sensibly
01:25:41Basically a decent guy that's that would be fine
01:25:49Epitaph
01:25:51Uh, the the first thought that occurs to me is he worked awful hard
01:25:56And you're still working. Oh, yeah
01:25:59Life without work to me would be incredible unbelievable. I couldn't imagine
01:26:06Like breathing and what did he work for?
01:26:12Oh some little moment of truth
01:26:21So
01:26:30All right, if that's it the hold on the mic, oh, yeah, you can hear it ready
01:26:44We going cut a second
01:26:51All right, one last roll and that is it
01:26:57If I put this on the air i'm gonna look like a damn fool you deserve to look like a damn fool at least once
01:27:14What do you make a week i'd be ashamed to tell you you better learn to sing and dance
01:27:21You got it perfect. All right good
01:27:41You smile why do you smile I feel something is coming up that i'm going to get angry
01:27:51So
01:28:07Sound take
01:28:21So
01:28:23When I see people saying purposely negative things they have problems not me they have problems he just ran out of phone
01:28:51So
01:29:02Oh, we forgot to turn off the phone
01:29:04Yes
01:29:06You know something I like you a lot better than I
01:29:10Remembered feeling about you. I hate you with a venomous passion right now. That's a good place to start
01:29:21So
01:29:51So
01:30:21So
01:30:51So