[AUDIENCE MEMBER] Hi, I am
a retired schoolteacher.
And I love your program,
watch you all the time.
And I know you're a
brilliant journalist.
But what comes to my
mind when I hear you,
and watch your segment is that
I called you in my
mind the examiner.
Because you don't just ask
a question and get a reply.
You always go a little
bit more in depth.
And I always appreciate that.
So my question to you is,
what teacher in your life
made the most impact?
[SCOTT PELLEY] Marjorie Wilson.
Marjorie Wilson. [EVAN
SMITH] Talk about Ms. Wilson.
[PELLEY] She's in the book.
My journalism teacher
at Coronado High School
in Lubbock Texas.
She was on fire to teach.
If she had been teaching
accounting, I'd be a CPA today.
(audience laughing)
It didn't matter what
she was teaching.
She was on fire to teach, and
she was teaching journalism,
so she made journalism
seem like the most noble,
most exciting profession
you could possibly be in.
And, we have all had
teachers like that.
They are unfortunately a
little rare in the universe.
But Marjorie Wilson
was the reason
I went into journalism.
She's the reason I'm sitting
here speaking with you today.
[SMITH] Yeah, we don't talk
about those teachers enough.
I'm glad you had a
chance to do that.
[PELLEY] Thank you for
your service to our country,
by the way.
[PELLEY] Thank you
for your service
to our country.
(applauding)
Teachers are national heroes.
[SMITH] Hi.
[AUDIENCE MEMBER] Hi.
Well, boy, she really teed
up my question to you, too.
Because I also was a
student of Marjorie Wilson,
and worked with
her husband Bill!
[SMITH] Look at that! [AUDIENCE
MEMBER] And the last time
I was in the room
with Scott Pelley
I think he was
just past puberty.
(audience laughing)
[PELLEY] Probably.
[AUDIENCE MEMBER] This
young kid in the newsroom
at the Lubbock
Avalanche-Journal--
[PELLEY] Yes! [AUDIENCE
MEMBER] We were wondering,
who is this?
And then my husband comes home
who works for KEND
Radio, The Living End.
And he said, yeah, Scott's
spotted there, too.
I guess I'd just say,
a lotta your fans here
would probably like to
know, other than Ms. Wilson,
how did you get the
gumption, at the age you did,
to just go and hang
out at newsrooms?
And how did that inspire
the rest of your career?
[PELLEY] You know
gumption just seemed
to be part of the DNA
of the Pelley family.
(laughing)
I don't know where
it comes from!
But, I was in Marjorie Wilson's
journalism class during the day.
And through that,
I learned that the
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
hired copy boys, gender
insensitive today,
but that's what they called us,
to work the three
to midnight shift,
which was perfect for
somebody in high school.
But I had a temporal problem,
they only hired kids who were
16 and above, and I was 15.
So I did what anyone would do.
I went in and lied about my age.
[SMITH] Lied about your age.
(laughing)
Perhaps a proud
American tradition.
[PELLEY] And they hired me.
And my mother, my
co-conspirator,
would drop me off
a couple of blocks
from the paper
so nobody could see that I
didn't have a drivers license.
(audience laughing)
And I worked the three
to midnight shift
there as a copy boy.
About a year went by,
and the executive
editor of the paper,
a guy named Dave Knapp,
always wore a white shirt,
had a silver crew cut,
kinda Marine Corps bearing.
He walks into the wire
room where I worked,
and I'm working on my
high school homework.
And he sits down, and he says,
"Do you want to be a reporter?"
And I said "Well, I don't know,
"I haven't given
it any thought."
He said "Well, do
you or don't you?"
(audience laughing)
And I said.
"Well sure, I guess."
And he walked me out in
front of this machine
which some of you will remember,
it was called a typewriter.
(laughing)
I had no idea how to
operate this machine,
but I've been a
reporter ever since.
And that's how it
all got launched,
but thanks to Marjorie
Wilson...and a lie.
[AUDIENCE MEMBER]
Thanks for being here.
[PELLEY] My search for
the truth began with a lie.
[SMITH] Began right there.
(laughing)
I want to set expectations,
how long do we have?
[FLOOR MANAGER]
About four minutes.
[SMITH] Can I take these three?
[FLOOR MANAGER] We'll see.
[SMITH] Will you permit?
OK, very well. [PELLEY]
Depends on how windy I am.
(audience laughing)
[PELLEY] Go ahead. [AUDIENCE
MEMBER] Another fellow Texan
who has a book out called
"Becoming the News,"
it was her dissertation
where she interviewed people
who had been
interviewed by the press
to get their feedback
on how they felt
that process treated them.
[PELLEY] Really interesting.
[AUDIENCE MEMBER]
I'm just wondering
if you've ever had a chance
to reflect back
on how interviews
that you've conducted have gone
from the perspective of the
person being interviewed.
I'm sure you've
gotten some feedback,
plus or minus over the years.
[PELLEY] What is the
name of that book?
[AUDIENCE MEMBER]
"Becoming the News."
[PELLEY] "Becoming the News."
[PELLEY] "Becoming the News,"
[AUDIENCE MEMBER]
By Ruth Palmer.
[PELLEY] I'm gonna get
ahold of this today,
that's a fascinating idea.
[SMITH] It's an
interesting question.
I always think that for those
of us who do interviews,
the most useful thing
is to be interviewed.
To be on the other side of the
table and see how that goes.
[PELLEY] Yes.
[SMITH] Do you reflect
on whether you
come on too strong
or was I fair to this person?
[PELLEY] Oh, absolutely.
[SMITH] Self-reflective.
[PELLEY] Very, very much so.
Every interview I do.
You know,
I have discovered
over these many years
that what people consider
to be bias in the media
is really bias in the viewing.
If I do an interview with
the president, any president,
we will get tons
of emails and mail
coming in to "60 Minutes."
This one will say,
you dirty Democrat.
You tried to get him,
and you couldn't.
And then the next one
is, you dirty Republican,
you let him walk, and you didn't
ask him any hard questions.
And then the mail
kinda piles up, 50/50.
[SMITH] That's right.
[PELLEY] It's very interesting
to see how people
view the interviews.
In terms of the interviewees,
I can't think of a time,
this is a fault,
I can't think of a time
that I ever circled back
to somebody and said
so what do you think
about how that went?
[SMITH] How'd this go?
[PELLEY] But I'm
gonna get that book.
[AUDIENCE MEMBER] Yeah.
[PELLEY] Thank you for that.
[AUDIENCE MEMBER]
It's worth reading.
[PELLEY] Yeah, fascinating.
[SMITH] Has there been any time,
without going into
too much detail,
has there been any time
when you did an interview
and walked away and thought,
I wasn't fair to that person?
Or I blew that, I
missed that in some way?
I've certainly had that.
[PELLEY] Every once in a while
you're brushing your
teeth the next morning
and you think of the question
that you should've asked, right?
[SMITH] Right.
[PELLEY] That
does happen, yeah.
[SMITH] Yeah, it does, great.
Sir!
[AUDIENCE MEMBER] As a
teacher for 34 years,
I was glad to hear your
comment on your teacher.
What did you want to be
before she changed your mind?
[PELLEY] Astronaut.
[SMITH] Astronaut.
[PELLEY] Yeah.
I was a boy growing
up in the 1960s.
I mean, what boy
growing up in the '60s
didn't want to be
an astronaut, right?
[SMITH] And in Texas, right?
[PELLEY] And in
Texas, absolutely.
We were going to the moon!
We, the whole country, we
were all going to the moon.
And so I really wanted
to be part of that.
And I was in the,
I was a finalist
in NASA's Journalist
in Space program.
After Christa McAuliffe,
the high school teacher--
[SMITH] '87, '86.
[PELLEY] --the next passenger
was gonna be a journalist.
But, of course,
after the disaster
they canceled the program.
[SMITH] That's too bad.
Well, maybe you could embed
with the Space Force, actually?
[PELLEY] Well maybe I can.
I'd love to! (laughing)
[SMITH] Yeah, yeah.
[AUDIENCE MEMBER]
I've been a great fan
of "CBS Morning News"
and "Evening News" and there's
been a lot of upheaval lately
that I haven't been
real happy with.
What I just wonder is,
where is John Dickerson?
[PELLEY] Oh, I'm
so glad you asked!
Because he's with me.
[AUDIENCE MEMBER] Oh!
[PELLEY] He has just
moved in to his bright,
shiny, new office
at "60 Minutes."
And you're gonna be
seeing him on "60 Minutes"
several times this season.
But he's now a full time
"60 Minutes" correspondent.
And we are thrilled
to have him--
[SMITH] He's a great guy.
[PELLEY] --especially going in
to an election year,
because of his deep contacts
and great understanding of the
American electorate, as well.
[AUDIENCE MEMBER] Thank you.
[SMITH] Good question.
[PELLEY] Yeah. [SMITH] OK,
we've landed the plane safely,
isn't that great?
(audience laughing)
Please give Scott
Pelley a big hand.
Thank him for being here.
[PELLEY] Oh, thank you.
(applauding)
Thank you very much.
[SMITH] Thanks to all of
you, and we'll see you!
(applauding)
[PELLEY] Thanks everyone,
thank you! (applauding)