Syl 60 Minutes does something that the other shows like Primetime Live and Dateline try to capture. 60 Minutes is the top show if you're a serious journalist. If you're not, go elsewhere. On this show, ratings are always high and it was higher during the years before it led to Murder, She Wrote on Sunday nights. 60 Minutes has the best journalists around. They take their jobs seriously and treat every story as if it was the most important around. Some stories like Iraq, Afghanistan, Washington D.C., etc. deserve the attention and most of them do the best job around with research and they get the job done. They also do lighter stories like real estate, celebrity profiles, and other light-hearted stories like Netflix and Starbucks. Of course, you can't forget Andy Rooney who always gives us what he's thinking as it is. They don't talk down to the audience but they treat us with respect and intellect. They enlighten, inform, and educate us about certain issues. Lesley Stahl, the late Ed Bradley, Morley Safer, Peter Simon, and others are top notch journalists at the top of their peak. Don't forget the occasional story by Anderson Cooper, Katie Couric, and Christiane Amanpour. Once you made 60 Minutes as a journalist, you're on top of the world.

lambiepie-2 60 Minutes seemed to be created in a time when America needed answers --in depth, hard hitting, guerrilla journalism about the inner dealings in Washington, Corporations, the Heart of America - the pulse of the world politic. The gold standard with many imitators, 60 Minutes could run as long as there is a need for finding the REAL truth in what effects us beyond the "evening news".60 Minutes reporters asked the hard questions and KEPT asking the hard questions - many times revealing things publicly that we already suspected. It gave us facts, so that we could to draw our own conclusions and DO something about what we were presented.60 Minutes was a public service. A place to go to to find out what corruption is occurring and what happens while we sleep. It was also a place to see the best interviews with heads of countries we knew nothing about.Now in 2006, 60 Minutes is still around. A little bruised and battered for a younger generation who feels that news has to have a punch line like a variety show, and that there is no reason to care about what a corporation is doing beyond what Tina Fey jokes about on Saturday Night Live.60 Minutes is reality programming. Reality journalism and to be honest -as a young person, I had no reason to sit and watch. Reality news journalism is frightening. It was my "parent's" show.Now that I am older and look back, I was dead wrong and wished I had the sense I have now to pay more attention to 60 Minutes than I did.The 60 Minutes Producers, Reporters and Researchers over the years put their lives and careers on the line many, many times - even against their own employer - CBS, CBS Corporate, etc, to try to bring us as straight of scoop as allowed - and break as much as they could - so we could all be informed and DO something about it. Bless them all.And then there is Andy Rooney. Everyone's 'cantancerous' grand-dad. You may not agree with EVERYTHING he says, but when you do, it's time to do something about it.Now 60 Minutes has reached a turning point, they are at a time when they need to introduce new VETERAN journalists that would have the same heart, drive and ambition as the ones before them - and I hope they do. And there in lies the tale of 60 Minutes. Journalist who are vets in their field, and not high priced entertainment fluff who can read a teleprompter and cry on cue.I hope that I am wrong that Network Journalism is about the money and not about the story - the dirty, non-glamorous America and World news that lets us know that major corporations are dirt and will bowl over anyone for a buck, that American Farmers need help, that Presidents can't give a good interview and lie, that dictators need to be taken down before their ego gets any larger, that War is Hell, that regular food products can be dangerous, that addition occurs with additives that are secretly placed in places we wouldn't ave thought of, that Small Business is just as Bad as Corporations these days, that racism and sexism still exist, that one little person writing to Congress does not go unnoticed and that Congress and the Senate can abuse kids just like the guy down the street, etc. etc.The World has NOT stopped turning -- and neither has 60 Minutes. As long as it is around, it keeps folks in check. And keeps other networks scrambling for competition. It's all good, for us.There was a joke that went around the corporate community for many years. It went something like this: "I know our company is doing okay because I don't see Mike Wallace or Ed Bradley coming into the building with a camera crew." Exactly.

Brian Washington "60 Minutes" is definitely the originator of all the great television news magazines. Every Sunday night for several years I have either watched the show or listened to it on the local CBS radio affiliate here in Los Angeles. To me "60 Minutes" works in two different ways. The first is as an investigative program that looks hard at very controversial issues that the public should be made aware of. The show also is great at doing wonderful celebrity profiles. It really allows the general public to look at the lives of various celebrities and show what they are like once the spotlight is off. Of course, the show has its detractors who say that it has become very self important, but this will always be to me one of the most influential shows in the history of television.

Daniel Crean With the explosion of news magazine shows on the prime-time airwaves, it is useful to remember the long-running program that producers are trying to emulate: 60 Minutes.This show combines investigative journalism, celebrity profiles, and features about interesting organizations and events. When it's a serious subject, you feel like they have fairly and objectively reported the story. Even with lighter topics you get the impression 60 Minutes has captured the essence of the story.Each segment is about 15 minutes long; we get three in every one-hour show. When the subject is something serious, the viewer has the option of following up in detail on other sources.Sure, it's a formula, but the 60 Minutes people perfected the formula. No one else on commercial television does such good journalism.Why has this show consistently placed near the top of the ratings for three decades? Because it's damn good. Why do people tune into 60 Minutes every week, despite the fact that during football season it is often delayed due to long-running games? Because they know that 60 Minutes will deliver.Jack and Shana's debates in the 70s were a little much to take, and I can't stand Andy Rooney's musings, but the core of the show has remained solid.