Mike Hale Describes 'Kindler, Gentler, More Conservative' Bias of 60 Minutes

Mike Hale Describes 'Kindler, Gentler, More Conservative' Bias of 60 Minutes: "In a Thursday New York Times appreciation of CBS producer Don Hewitt, television writer Mike Hale avoided the whole concept of liberal bias in the work of Hewitt or his creation, 60 Minutes. Instead, Hale suggested that in threading the needle between an 'increasingly radicalized' audience and stuffy advertisers, CBS and Hewitt created a 'kinder, gentler, more conservative take' for 60 Minutes than controversy-stoking British and Canadian shows that inspired it. (Hewitt represented 'cautious CBS News values, the kind exemplified by that other recently deceased titan, Walter Cronkite.')

How hard was it for CBS to be 'more conservative' than the Canadians? Consider this brief explanation of the 'slyly subversive' film Mills of the Gods: Viet Nam, produced for the TV show that inspired CBS: 'Working without a script, [filmmaker Beryl] Fox went to Vietnam with portable equipment and shot two kinds of cinema verite footage: placid images of the ordinary life of the Vietnamese peasantry and shocking images of the war’s carnage and destruction as wrought by sometimes disturbingly cheerful American pilots and soldiers.' These were then edited together for propaganda impact."