Counterpoi nl. the long-ru nning . acerbic debate between s moot h- talk in g conse r vative co lumni st James J. Kilpatric k and shrill liberal spokesman S hana Alexande r . The se minideba tes. often preempted by football overruns. range from defense spe nding to presid ential debates and are assigned by the "Six ty Minutes" staff. Eac h speaker has ninety seconds to challenge or respond to the ot her. and alternates wee ks of having the fi nal word. The segment is not without its problems . Kil patrick has always represe nted the conservative side fa irl y. but there has been some difficulty in fi ll ing the slot of the li be ral spokesman. Befo re Sha na Alexa nder joined the show in 1974, thi s role was take n by Nicholas von Hoffman , the con troversia l Was/lil/KIOII Post columnist. Says Willi ams. "One of the problems has always been thaI. while Kilpatric k s pea ks-.1nd speak s we ll- for the conse rvati ve side, there we re a lot ofl iberals who said . 路 Wel l. von Hoffman is not s peaking for m e . he is no t making my case: and you still ge t a numbe r o f people who say the same t hing about Shana." During Watergate, von Hoffman com pared the beleaguered pre sid ent with a dead mouse on the kitchen fl oor that nobod y knew what to do with . The analogy caused a stir: apologies were offered but von Hoffman's contract was not renewed at the end of the year. " I think o ne of von Hoffman's problem s was the tendency to ham-reac hing for the calc ulated sneer o r the outrageousbo" mot that wou ld sc i peo ple on their ear," says Williams. " We used to tell Nic k. 't here's nothing editorially wrong with what you 've done , but o n that tube you're coming through too strong: be a little cooler. a lillie morestate smanlike .路 " "S ixt y Minutes" is a prod ucer's show , Th ere arc fi ve producers assigned to eac h of t he three coedi tors. Eac h o f these prod ucers will s pe nd be tween fi ve and seve n weeks doi ng researc h a nd prel imi nary filmin g on a story befo re the corres po nden ts are brought in for the fi nal week o f shooting a nd sc ript ing and editing. It is an economical way 10 work and allows a corresponde m 10 covel <t number of stories in a give n year. Each correspon dent has hi s s pecialt y: Wall ace is the caustic interviewer and pocket muckra ker: Rath er is bes t o n domes tic politics and in vesligativejournalism : Safer is the essayist who covers domestic and world affairs in a high ly personal style. T he senior "Sixty MinUles" correspondent is Mike Wallace, who has been wi th t he show since the first broadcasl. whe n he shared the job with Harry Reasoner. Wallace came to the show with years o f experience as a C BS News reporter and anc horman. He had been assigned a tour of Viet nam in 1967 and covered the ixo n presidential campaign from e:w Hampshire to Miami in 1968. Morley Sa fer call s Wallace " the bes t interviewer in television." and produce r Don Hew itt add s . " Mike has a sixt h se nse for the question t hat wi ll evoke a man or woman's character." Over the ye ars he has
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conducted 'hard-hitting interv iews with , as we arc reminded by a glowing CBS press release. " Lt. Colo nel Anthony Herbert. Saigon 's PX king William Crum , lIT lobbyist Dita Beard . Joh n Erhlichman, the Shah of Iran . Alexander Haig, Donald Segretti . Charles Colson. Egil Krogh. H . R. Haldeman. Eldridge Cleaver. former Sec ret Service agent Cli nt Hill. Ronald and Nancy Reagan, and C IA di rector George Bush." Wallace is known for hi s willingness and abil ity to s peak wit h anybod y about anyt hing, no matter how unpleasant or pai nfu l. He comes to an interview well prepared, asks tough questions, and, if he senses equi vocation or untruth, goes for t he j ugular. He has t he reputation of being tactless and so metim es nasty, According to the Waif Slre('t } ollrIll/I, forme r White Ho use aide C harles Colson claims that "a post-Watergate int erview with Mr. Wallace was so probing that it pers uaded him to plead guilt y to an offense re lat ed to t he break-in of Daniel Ellsberg's psyc hiatrist'soffi ce."
Some ofth cse qu"l;t;cs",,,,bscnt from theM;ke Wallace who now presides as the se nior correspondent on "Six ty Minutes." He is gracious a nd frien dl y with the staff and with out siders. About the olTscreen Wallace. Dan Rat her remarks, " Mike ' s image is as the Original Tough Guy, but in personal terms he's a laugh- he's se nsiti ve toother people and a good friend ." T he first years Wallace worked on "S ixty Minutes" there were only twe nt y shows per year and th e pace was slower. Wall ace, who is fifty-eight. now fee ls the strain of bei ng on the air eve ry wee k of the year. " I have waves of being tired, " Wallace says while rubbi ng at eyes reddened by the hot light s o f that afternoon's taping sess ion. " It 's been eight years o f jet lag ... strange ho tel bed s ... iI variety of wa ters and die ts ... lhe pressure o f co ming back and forth . There was a time I enjoyed immensely tak ing a bag and walking down a n airport ram p. but after the fi rst five years it got a littl e old . Abou t a ye ar ago, I wanted to quit. except where do you go"! There isn ' t ajob in television asgood .'Wallace . who credits Hewitt with the concept of "S ixty Minutes," claims that it took the produ cer several years to persuade the CBS program people to give the show a chance. The format of the show was patterned aft er sim il ar shows that had appeared on British and Canadia n televisio n and on the homegrown Public Broadcasting Laborato ry. Harry Reasoner was originall y to have been the solo anchorman on the show, and Wallace believes that he was chose n to add some "bite and counterpoint" to the low-keyed, genial Reasone r st yle. "Those were heady days." Wallace recalls. "Suddenly yOll had enough time and money 10 prepare , a nd e nough time on the air to do t he kind of show you wa nted ." Wallace and Hewi1l were no t always in agree-