NEW YORK, (Reuters) – Don Hewitt, creator of CBS News’ groundbreaking “60 Minutes” programme and one of the most influential behind-the-scenes figures in U.S. television journalism, died of pancreatic cancer yesterday, CBS News said.
He was 86.
Hewitt worked as producer or director for CBS legends Edward R. Murrow, Douglas Edwards and Walter Cronkite, but his greatest legacy was the television news magazine format on “60 Minutes” starting in 1968.
He died about a month after Cronkite, the towering news anchor who was known as the “most trusted man in America” in opinion polls. Cronkite was 92.