We have had 50 years of this and we still can not get enough. Almost all the original crew is gone, but the show keeps rolling in huge ratings. It is an amazing story and consider this show predates The Price Is Right by about 5 Years. In fact, this Video magazines copies by the other networks have never risen to the level of excellence this one has achieved.I bet that when Don Hewitt and CBS created this, none of them ever imagined it would be here, 50 years later, and long ago take away the crown for media excellence that the publication TIME Magazine used to represent. I remember the Mike Wallace era, fondly. In fact some cable outlets are running "Best of 60 Minutes" series quite successfully. This magazine is more often right than wrong, and never shy's away from controversy. It has covered conflicts across the globe in a way no one else ever did. I remember first hearing about the Shah of Iran on this series before he was overthrown. Without this show, I would not have.No news source is ever perfect, but this is the best format that does exist. They go out to the people, the locations, and the stories, and report the facts, giving those facts a face, and voice, and their real opinion. That is why this is so successful.The regular news still too often report the results of Opinion Polls as news. They rely on talking heads who very often do not really know what they are talking about. These 60 Minute Segments are truly reporting facts, not Pew Research. While they can be subject to the agenda of their subjects, their subjects are an expert on what the story is. Polls are simply slanted to get a response not based upon anything except numbers fed into a computer. Humans are the source so it is important to remember, "Garbage In, Garbage Out" when a poll is cited.I will take the names, faces, and their words over a media opinion or poll anytime. I always question and even ignore any news article or person who cites polls all the time. It might shock people who have not been exposed to this to realize that Pew Research Polls are the main source of material for Rush Limbaugh.

CBS's "60 Minutes" aired Scott Pelley's interview with Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich on March 18th, 2007 ("The Killings in Haditha"). Pelley's performance was a disgraceful failure. Instead of using the discussion as a platform to give the viewers information about Wuterich's experience and what happened in Haditha on November 19th, 2005 in a simple, straightforward fashion -- which is, or at least should be, the aim of such interviews -- Pelley spent far too much time moralizing about Wuterich's actions and endeavoring to make sure that everyone knew that he was making important, and importantly correct, judgments about what Wuterich had done. Everyone can agree that what happened that day in Haditha was tragic, like so much of what happens any in war. I'm not saying that what Wuterich did that day Haditha was legal, morally permissible, illegal or morally impermissible. But I'm certain that the way Scott Pelley conducted the interview was unacceptable. I might, after some thought, make a judgment about what I thought of Wuterich's actions, but only if I had enough facts about the incident to form such a judgment. And I would have gotten such information if Pelley had done a passable job in his discussion. His moralizing was counterproductive and irritating. Regardless of the moral or legal status of Wuterich's actions on November 19th, 2005, he did do a good job of handling Pelley's ham-fisted melodrama -- he didn't succumb to the pressure to show excessive, blathering emotion and didn't make an on-air entreaty for forgiveness, absolution and mercy. Shame on you "60 Minutes". And Shame on you, Scott Pelley, for such a cheap, manipulative charade of an interview. You could have provided us with information, but left us with only tawdry, highhanded sanctimony.

I watch "60 Minutes" every week, but it's probably better now that Mike Wallace has retired. He always seemed too self-righteous and biased (maybe even sort of creepy); Lesley Stahl wasn't much better. Morley Safer, Steve Kroft and Ed Bradley are OK, but Andy Rooney...he's truly the show's highlight (I really like that he recently called for a massive reduction in military spending).I wish to assert that some of their most important stories aired right after September 11, 2001. An example was an interview with Iraqi politician Tariq Aziz, who affirmed that Saddam Hussein's regime would never harbor Osama bin Laden (unfortunately, the Bush administration got many people to think otherwise). Another example was a look at Kuwait ten years after the Gulf War, and how the US was no longer very popular there. But also, their interviews with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert were really insightful.All in all, "60 Minutes" is a news magazine that I recommend. Just as long as you understand their occasional biases.

I began watching 60 Minutes around 1979. I was in high school and I have never stopped. As someone mentioned before me, it is definitely formula, but the formula definitely works. 20/20 and the multitude of other news shows that have attempted to imitate it have never come close. Watch this show and you will definitely learn something!