Friendly producer - Fred W. Friendly

As soon as he became the president of CBS News, Fred W. Friendly (1915-1998) decided to get rid of his main opponent, journalist Don Hewitt (1922-2009) who was an executive producer of the CBS Evening News.

Fred invited Don into his office and told him:

„Buddy, the Evening News are no longer for a man of your caliber. I am removing you from the position of executive producer but I intend to form a special unit with a camera crew, tape editors and whenever there’s a big story in the world, you will be able you to go on the scene and do a report.”

Hewitt was so exited with this decision and he immediately went to visit his friend CBS Vice President Bill Leonard to share with him the “good” news. When he told him about it, Bill Leonard said:

“Why are you so happy Don? You just got fired!”

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Literary compliment – Mark Twain and Edgar Allan Poe

Works of American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) were not very well received at the time when Poe was alive. Poe's stories and poems were especially despised by writer and journalist Mark Twain (1835-1910) who once in a letter to his friend wrote:

“To me his prose is unreadable—like Jane Austin’s. No, there is a difference. I could read his prose on salary, but not Jane’s. Jane is entirely impossible. It seems a great pity that they allowed her to die a natural death.

Another thing: you grant that God and circumstances sinned against Poe, but you also grant that he sinned against himself—a thing which he couldn’t do and didn’t do.”

 

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