Byron Pitts' 10-year wait for '60 Mins.'
BY RICHARD HUFF
DAILY NEWS TV EDITOR
Byron Pitts joined CBS News a decade ago as a general news correspondent, but the goal was to always get to “60 Minutes.”
Well, he's arrived.
Pitts has been named a contributing correspondent to the venerable broadcast, producing a minimum of six pieces a year.
“I wanted to be a part of '60 Minutes' since I was in high school,” Pitts, 48, told the Daily News Monday. “For me, '60 Minutes' is to broadcast journalism what the Yankees are to baseball: It's the gold standard.”
Pitts said he mentioned being part of “60 Minutes” during his first interview at CBS News and in every conversation he's had with senior management since.
“He is not at all shy about saying, 'I should be on this broadcast, how come it hasn't happened yet?'” said Jeff Fager, executive producer of “60 Minutes.” “He doesn't hold back. It is a dream of his to be on '60 Minutes.' There's a real excitement about that, and I share it.”
Pitts joined the network in May 1998 after a stint working for a CBS-affiliated stations' news service, and was initially based in Miami. He then worked in Atlanta and moved to New York in 2001.
“I think he's earned it,” said CBS News President Sean McManus, noting Pitts' work in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo, as well as at Ground Zero and in hurricanes. “He's developed into an outstanding journalist with an incredible humanity.”
To get on “60 Minutes,” a correspondent has to have a “certain distinctiveness,” McManus said, and “Byron has that quality.”
A piece Pitts did for “CBS Evening News” a year ago, about a Marine who died after military doctors misdiagnosed a melanoma, is often cited as an example of the emotion of his work. Pitts was at the house when the man died, then sat with the family to talk about what happened.
“There are things that I have been blessed with the capacity to do well, a complicated story told simply and told well,” Pitts said of the Marine story. “A story about the human condition. … We treated the military, the Marine's family and we treated his legacy with respect.”
Pitts will be the first African-American correspondent on “60 Minutes” since Ed Bradley died in 2006.
Bradley was a legend on the show, having earned his reporting stripes, like Pitts, around the world and then producing emotional, in-depth pieces for “60 Minutes.”
Fager and McManus said yesterday that while diversity on the show is always important, Pitts' skin color had nothing to do with him getting the job.
“He's the right guy for the right job at the right time,” McManus said.
“I'm mindful as a person of color what that means,” Pitts said of the Bradley legacy.
Many of his colleagues got into the business, he said, because they saw Bradley on TV.
So could Pitts be a role model to the next generation?
“That's an awfully nice thought,” he said after a long pause. “I spend the bulk of my time just trying to do the best I can do.”
