Thursday, August 20, 2009

Extra Word Sudoku Puzzle for Thursday, 8/20/2009

The formula is simple…”

Another legendary figure in American journalism has passed on. Don Hewitt died yesterday. He was 86.

You didn’t see Hewitt on air. But for the past 50 years you’ve felt his presence in ways big and small—and you still will for many years to come. Hewitt directed the first network TV newscast, back in 1948. He originated the use of cue cards for news anchors (now done electronically using small cameras and mirrors!). He was the first to superimpose words on the TV screen for a news show, providing emphasis or names and titles of people being interviewed. Today those lower-third-screen text lines are collectively called a ‘super.’

But Don Hewitt is most well known for a TV News show he created, led for almost four decades, and which is still on the air and quite popular today. When I think of Hewitt, I think of a clock ticking: He created “60 Minutes.”

In the late 1960’s Hewitt pitched CBS a very novel idea for that time: He wanted to start a news show—literally a TV News magazine show modeled after LIFE Magazine—that would mix hard news and feature stories. Where stories exposing corruption and wrong-doing would play right next to celebrity interviews. Who woulda thought THAT would work? Today those production techniques are a staple in every TV newscast in America. In September, 1968, the network was taking a huge risk.

Hewitt and a cadre of the best reporters in the business produced the best TV news show in the world for many, many years. “60 Minutes” won nine Peabody awards, more than a dozen DuPont/Columbia University awards and more than six dozen Emmy awards while Hewitt ran it.

After Walter Cronkite died last month, Hewitt said, "How many news organizations get the chance to bask in the sunshine of a half-century of Edward R. Murrow followed by a half-century of Walter Cronkite?"

To which we can now add: “and a half-century of Don Hewitt.”

What was Hewitt’s secret? I began the quote from Hewitt’s 2001 memoir at the top of this blog entry. The Qudoku puzzle set below completes it.

CLOVER
6x6 Word Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column, 2x3 rectangle and set of circled cells contains the letters in the words exactly once

MY FUND
6x6 Word Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column, 2x3 rectangle and set of circled cells contains the letters in the word exactly once

SAW KIT
6x6 Word Sudoku Puzzle
Each row, column, 2x3 rectangle and set of circled cells contains the letters in the word exactly once
Copy circled letters to the corresponding numbered cells in the quote grid to spell out the quote

Solutions first thing in the morning.

Thanks,
--Dave

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