Newsmagazine of the Air

Nothing preoccupies thoughtful electronic journalists quite so much as the problem of giving depth to TV news coverage. For all their frequent excellence and immediacy, nightly newscasts are usually too pressed for time to give more than perfunctory treatment to significant events. On the other hand, longer public-affairs programs are rarely able to deal with more than one subject. In pursuit of a solution, CBS last week presented its own television version of a newsmagazine, a biweekly program called 60 Minutes (Tuesday, 10-11 p.m.).

Introducing the show on the air, the able and affable Harry Reasoner explained that it was an attempt to bring to television the flexibility and diversity of the printed page. The show in fact used blow-ups of printed pages as backdrops, and it employed at least one familiar example of magazine terminology: the "cover story." On the whole, the opening show amounted to a good cub reporter's try. Sound cameras caught some revealing glimpses and comments of Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey as they sat self-consciously before their TV screens during the G.O.P. and Democratic Convention balloting. Reasoner's partner, Mike Wallace, interviewed Attorney General Ramsey Clark for the cover story, "Cops." An overseas segment picked up some pointed remarks on U.S. politics from, among others, British Satirist Malcolm Muggeridge. And Columnist Art Buchwald contributed a miniessay on how journalists size up public opinion (they read each other's copy).

60 Minutes' best moments came neither out of the printed page nor the TV workshop. For its back-of-the-book finale, it showed portions of the Saul Bass documentary Why Man Creates. To probe the provocative title theme, Bass, a master of the film short, stunningly mixed cartoons, bouncing ping-pong balls and interviews with scientists. Produced for Kaiser Aluminum, the film hardly needed a magazine format for its television premiere.

Coming in January: NBC's own TV magazine. This version, called First Tuesday, will run for two hours once a month.

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