Over the last six decades, “60 Minutes” has stayed away from tabloid stories.
The much awarded news program has stuck to serious stories, and left things like domestic disputes and scandalous trials to shows like “Dateline,” “48 Hours,” and “20/20.”
But that’s going to change on Sunday, when new correspondent Ross Douthat gets a big scoop. He’s interviewing Patrick Clancy, the husband of Lindsay Clancy, the mother who killed their three children.
This is a new direction for “60 Minutes” under Bari Weiss and Nick Bilton. If they’re wasting their time with this kind of story, you know they’re going to stay away from investigating real stories about the country and the world, or Donald Trump.
This would have been the perfect week, for example, for a profile of Rep. Joyce Beatty, who’s leading the charge to save the Kennedy Center.
Will the audience want this kind of story? Last week, the show’s ratings dropped to a 25 year low. The main story from Norah O’Donnell — about the fighter pilot shot down in Iran — has been heavily criticized as a press release from the Department of Justice. It featured Pete Hegseth, as if he were knowledgeable or a hero. It looked ridiculous.
So far, according to the teaser, Clancy “talks to his children every day.” It’s a sad story for him, but maybe a sadder one for us.
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