STATE OF TV MAGAZINES CALLED GRIM

As CBS’ veteran news magazine “60 Minutes” prepares to celebrate its 20th anniversary and its 800th broadcast on Sept. 21, the state of the news magazine is grim, says Don Hewitt, creator of CBS News’ Sunday night institution.

ABC’s cancellation of its critically acclaimed but poorly rated American history program “Our World” (now moving to PBS) is indicative of a negative trend, Hewitt said in Redondo Beach on Tuesday. “The death of ‘Our World’ is the story of television (today). There’s no room for it any more,” he said.

But Hewitt also criticized NBC for not coming up with a competitive news magazine, such as ABC’s “20/20.” “I don’t know how they could go to the well so many times and not come back with water,” he told the the opening session of CBS’ annual summer meetings with the nation’s television writers and editors at the Redondo Beach Sheraton Hotel.

Hewitt attributed the longevity and ratings power of “60 Minutes,” which has consistently made it into the Top 10 in the ratings, to its “personal journalism” style, which he believes has set a lasting trend in news-magazine programming.

“Before, it was always the voice of the corporation (rather than the individual),” he said. “I’m not a fan of advocacy journalism, but I’m a fan of personal journalism.

“We don’t need a news peg--the fact that we do a story is the news peg,” he said, citing the program’s discovery of controversial Chicago teacher Marva Collins. “Breaking news--that’s hand-out news. We don’t want to do that.”

In addition to its upcoming anniversary, the investigative program anchored by Diane Sawyer, Morley Safer, Harry Reasoner, Ed Bradley, and Mike Wallace, also celebrates--if that’s the appropriate word--being served with 37 lawsuits to date.

“We never lost one,” said a proud Hewitt.

(The program’s list of legal victories is not unsullied. It does include, Hewitt noted, one out-of-court settlement for $5,000 with the son of a Colombian minister implicated in a report on cocaine trafficking. The son, Hewitt said, has left the money unclaimed in a New York safe for the past 15 years.)

Although noted for his bluntness in recent years, Hewitt, 64, laughingly said he had mellowed since “I was a kid of 60.” He had nothing but praise for CBS management, despite a recent, much publicized $30-million slash of the network’s $300-million news budget.

The size of the cut “is not the story,” Hewitt said. “The real story is that we still have an operating budget of $270 million, which is three times that of the New York Times and five times the budget of the Washington Post. There is a positive aspect to all of this.”

(According to a 1986 article in The Times, the editorial budget that year of the New York Times was about $80 million, and the Washington Post’s was nearly $50 million.)

Hewitt did offer that “for his own public image, Larry (CBS Inc. Chief Executive Officer Laurence A. Tisch) could have found other places to cut (besides the news budget).” But he quickly caught himself and changed the subject: “You’ve got me in a thicket here . . . let’s get back to ’60 Minutes’ ” he told his questioners in the audience.

Hewitt also quickly dismissed questions about his unsuccessful 1985 effort to persuade the network to sell the news division to a group of CBS journalists.

“It was a dumb idea--it was meant to get some attention,” Hewitt said. “They were never going to sell it, I don’t know what we’d do with it if we had it.

“If they’d sold it to us, I wouldn’t be here today, I’d be in a board meeting. I’m glad Howard has it,” he added, referring to CBS News President Howard Stringer.

Hewitt also offered some strong opinions about broadcasting’s so-called fairness doctrine, which the Federal Communications Commission voted to abolish on Tuesday.

“I think it’s always bad when you get government into journalism, telling you what’s fair,” Hewitt said, adding that if broadcasters have a fairness doctrine, then so should newspapers. He said the argument that TV uses the public’s airwaves and newspapers don’t is “baloney.”

“Newspapers have the airwaves. They have satellites. . . . There should be a fairness doctrine for any newspaper that moves its news over satellites,” he said.

Hewitt expressed regrets that “60 Minutes” had occasionally crossed the line into advocacy, rather than objectivity, as in a report on the National Council of Churches. Still, he said the attitude that “it’s a terrible day when you find Mike Wallace in your office” is largely a thing of the past, and that newsworthy people seek out the show, rather than try to avoid its spotlight.

One such story to be offered to “60 Minutes” recently is about Jean Smith, the wife of former U.S. Attorney General William French Smith. Smith, named to a position on the presidentially appointed National Council on the Humanities--an advisory group to the National Endowment for the Humanities--was subjected to 30 government security checks, Hewitt said.

“What’s she going to do with the Endowment for the Humanities, blow up a country?” Hewitt asked derisively.

As for “60 Minutes,” Hewitt believes the show will remain as is for some time, despite rumors that Diane Sawyer is leaving the program for “The CBS Evening News With Dan Rather,” and that older members of the team might soon retire. Hewitt said that Harry Reasoner, recently in ill health, will return Monday.

Although Hewitt does not believe Sawyer will soon appear on the “Evening News,” if she does, she will not also appear on “60 Minutes.” “I don’t have anything to say about people going elsewhere, but I do have something to say about people riding two horses,” he said.