CBS’s “60 Minutes” will devote its full broadcast Sunday to profiles of John McCain and Barack Obama, hoping to set the stage for the general election campaign’s first presidential debate Sept. 26.
Scott Pelley plans to interview McCain in Wisconsin today as Steve Kroft is talking to Obama in Nevada. Both candidates also talked with the CBS newsmen earlier for pieces that will be unusually long by “60 Minutes” standards.
Forty years ago, “60 Minutes” founding producer Don Hewitt gave the same treatment to candidates Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey, although they didn’t get the whole show.
“The beauty of being able to do this for ’60 Minutes’ is we don’t have to take that first answer,” Pelley said. “We’re going to follow up. And then we’re going to follow up again. You don’t have that opportunity in most other broadcast venues.” The Associated Press
