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and that one did get into the piece, although in a much censored

form, where he lunges at a woman in a deserted place, pins her

against the wall and sticks his tongue in her mouth. There were

other incidents women told me about Hewitt, and, of course, (former)

Washington Post journalist Sally Quinn was already on the record in

her book "We're Going to Make You a Star" accusing Hewitt of making

an aggressive pass at her and sabotaging her work when she refused

him.

Was the sexual harassment at "60 Minutes" pervasive?

It sure seemed that way. There's a woman quoted in my story saying

that Mike would constantly have his hands on your thigh, or

whatnot. One producer said that basically Mike Wallace and Don

Hewitt felt this was their right. And that's how a lot of men in

television felt for many years. Women were basically hired for

their looks. You had to be competent too, but you damn well better

look good.

I understand that you had a difficult time getting the story

published in Rolling Stone.

The entire piece almost never ran because Don Hewitt tried to kill

it and (Rolling Stone editor and publisher) Jann Wenner almost went

along with him. They did emasculate the piece by taking out a lot

of the damaging material. You'll see in there that there is one

basic episode involving Don. There were four that I had reported.

[...]

So what did you think when you saw Hewitt taking a stand for

Kathleen Willey?

It was odd to me, seeing Don quoted in the New York Times on Friday

and Saturday as he was hyping Sunday's broadcast. He's talking

about what happened and I just thought of that old Dylan song:

"You've got a lot of nerve."

I hoped somebody would call him on it. In today's Times, Patricia

Ireland, head of NOW, is quoted as saying if these charges by Ms.

Willey are true, it has crossed a very important line from sexual

harassment to sexual assault. And if that's the case, we have to be

very serious about it. Well, the situation where Hewitt stuck his

tongue down that women's throat - that's assault. That is assault.

She certainly felt like she was assaulted. She freed herself by

kicking him in the balls - which they also cut out. She runs away

and then the next day, there was a fancy gala event where you have

to come in evening dress and she's there and Hewitt, this son of a

gun - he's like a randy old goat - he just could not take no for an

answer. She was wearing a backless gown and suddenly she feels

someone running his fingers up and down her bare back. She turns

around, obviously jumpy from what had happened the day before, and

sees the object of her horror - Hewitt - saying, "Don't be scared, I

just think you're a very attractive girl." They cut that out of the

article too.

There's a lot of huffing and puffing within the media about

Clinton's alleged behavior, with a lot of journalists complaining

about the public's so-called apathy on the subject. But in the case

of men like Hewitt, it seems pretty hypocritical.

It's absolutely unmistakable - and Hewitt is an extremely good

example - how most of the discourse about this issue involves people

who have no more moral standing than this ball-point pen in my

hand. And that goes not just for Hewitt, but for many of these

clowns both in the media here in Washington and in the Congress.

Anybody who has spent any time around Capitol Hill knows that a

large number of congressmen, both in the House and in the Senate,

fool around with either their young staffers or the young female

staffers of their colleagues. To any reporter who had their eyes

open, this is not news.

Carol Lloyd, A Feel For a Good Story, Mothers Who Think, 17Mar98.

With respect to Carol Lloyd's statement above, I wonder if I could have your answers

to just four questions:

(1) Is 60 Minutes infected with a slackness of integrity? What Carol Lloyd appears to be

describing in the upper echelons of the 60 Minutes administration - I am thinking

particularly of executive producer Don Hewitt and co-editor Mike Wallace - is a

deep-rooted slackness of integrity: the 60 Minutes environment has "more in common

with a drunken frat party than a professional newsroom," the top 60 Minutes staff are

"people who have no more moral standing than this ball-point pen in my hand," and

executive producer Don Hewitt comports himself "like a randy old goat." Might it be

the case, then, that the cause of your failing to satisfy minimal journalistic

standards in your 23Oct94 60 Minutes broadcast The Ugly Face of Freedom, and of your

failing also in the years since that broadcast to retract any of its many errors, is

that you yourself became infected by the same slackness of integrity that had already

gripped other of the 60 Minutes leadership?

(2) Does female hiring demonstrate a willingness to sacrifice program quality? If the

top 60 Minutes staff require their female employees to be physically attractive and

sexually accessible, then might the resulting inability of 60 Minutes to retain women

of high professional quality have resulted in a degradation in the average competence