I’ll readily confess to disliking 60 Minutes. My personal antipathy towards them stems from how they went about reporting on issues within the Central Asia Institute in 2011: While there were legitimate questions among those that particular broadcast raised, I felt (and feel) the 60 Minutes approach was more sensationalist and “gotcha” than was necessary or professional. This bias was cemented seven or eight years later when I read Tattoos on the Heart, in one section of which Fr. Greg Boyle, of Homeboy Industries, described his own experience with the show. This is admittedly a small basis off of which to form an opinion, and I’d like to objectively evaluate their work.
But they make that rather hard.
If you haven’t heard, we’re in the midst of a pushback cycle against some allegations the show made regarding Florida’s vaccine rollout. We’ll see where it all lands. Maybe 60 Minutes was right. Maybe 60 Minutes was wrong. But either way, the show should probably be viewed with some skepticism.
You can form your own opinions of the show. As I said, mine aren’t the most objective. But if you’re looking for a place to start, Wikipedia has a handy list of fourteen controversies related to the program. Look into them as you wish. Not all of them are about sensationalism and misleading claims. But many are. And the others are bad in their own ways.
