CBS News Exec Robert Chandler Dies
Key 60 Minutes Figure
CBS News Exec Robert Chandler Dies
Key 60 Minutes Figure
Robert Chandler, a former CBS executive who played a key role in creating the acclaimed weekly newsmagazine 60 Minutes, died December 11, 2008, at his home in Pittsfield, Mass. He was 80. The reported cause of death was heart failure.
A native of Brooklyn, New York, Chandler was a producer and director of documentaries and election coverage in 1966 when his colleague Don Hewitt proposed a new format: a newsmagazine with several segments rather than the standard hour-long documentary.
Chandler embraced the concept and prodded the network to adopt it despite internal opposition.
The first 60 Minutes broadcast aired September 24, 1968.
By 1973, Chandler was vice president for public affairs broadcasting. In 1975, he was promoted to vice president for administration and assistant to the president of CBS News. He retired from the network in 1985, but later worked at NBC and, in 1990, was executive producer of a PBS documentary, Learning in America: Schools That Work.
As director of the network’s election unit in the late 1960s, Chandler created and operated the CBS News Poll. In that capacity, he negotiated the 1976 partnership that established The New York Times/CBS News Poll. He also supervised the network’s coverage of elections and conventions from 1968 through 1974.
During his more than 20 years at CBS, Chandler produced, co-produced or wrote several documentaries, including Under Surveillance and The People of South Vietnam: How They Feel About the War.
He is survived by his wife, two sons, a brother and a grandchild.