We Do Stories

Don Hewitt, creator of “60 Minutes,” on his special talent as a journalist:

My philosophy is simple. It’s what little kids say to their parents: “Tell me a story.” Even the people who wrote the Bible knew that when you deal with issues, you tell stories. The issue was evil; the story was Noah.

I’ve had producers say, “We’ve got to do something on acid rain.” I say, “Hold it. Acid rain is not a story. Acid rain is a topic. We don’t do topics. Find me someone who has to deal with the problem of acid rain. Now you have a story.”

Terry Ann Knopf in Boston Globe Magazine, in Reader’s Digest