Image Source: CBS Photo Division, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
What Was the Accusation?
In June 1997, the CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes aired portions of The Connection, an award-winning British documentary that purported to expose a new heroin-smuggling route operated by Colombia’s Cali drug cartel between South America and London. Among the documentary’s most dramatic footage was a supposed drug courier swallowing fingers cut from latex gloves that were said to contain heroin before attempting to travel to Britain. 60 Minutes presented the footage to its American audience as factual reporting.
The documentary’s credibility later collapsed. After questions were raised about its authenticity, an investigation commissioned by Carlton Communications and a subsequent review by Britain’s Independent Television Commission found extensive problems with the program. The regulator concluded that evidence supporting the alleged new heroin route did not exist and that numerous scenes and representations were false. People shown as drug runners had acted the parts, material depicted as heroin was actually sweets, a supposed cartel-arranged airline ticket had been purchased by the documentary’s producer, and portions of what appeared to be a single smuggling journey had actually been filmed about six months apart. The supposed courier also did not successfully pass through immigration and customs at Heathrow as the documentary suggested.
60 Minutes had not produced The Connection itself. Before using the material, the CBS program interviewed the documentary’s producer and consulted the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration about the smuggling technique portrayed in the film. Nevertheless, the program had broadcast purported documentary evidence that was subsequently shown to be unreliable. Executive producer Don Hewitt acknowledged that the program had been deceived and took responsibility for presenting the material to viewers.
On December 13, 1998, Hewitt appeared on 60 Minutes to apologize. Contemporary reports described it as his first appearance on a regular edition of the program he had produced since 1968. Hewitt acknowledged that 60 Minutes, its viewers, and audiences in other countries had been taken in, and he explicitly asked viewers to accept the program’s apology. The controversy raised fundamental questions about verification and accountability when a major news organization republishes investigative work produced by another organization. Five days after Hewitt’s apology, Britain’s Independent Television Commission imposed a £2 million financial penalty on Central Independent Television for grave breaches of its Programme Code associated with The Connection.
Key Apologia Strategies:
Corrective Action, Defeasibility, Mortification
Video
N/A
Transcript
Don Hewitt’s 60 Minutes Apology (December 13, 1998) — Excerpt
“We — you — and television viewers in 14 other countries were taken in.”
“To make amends, we felt obligated to lay it all out in detail and ask you to please accept our apology.”
