Mike Wallace, a reporter best known for his work on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” returned to Brookline High School last Friday to talk to students at his alma mater.
“I can’t tell you what a kick it is to be back at Brookline High School,” Wallace said. “The feeling is still so fine here today. It’s wonderful.”
Voted the “Most Prominent Boy” of his class in 1935, Wallace told the students stories of Brookline from when he was a student.
“Either you were an O’Connor or a Goldberg,” he said. “I mean either you were Irish or Jewish. We were called the wealthy-towners back then.”
It was in high school that Wallace began his journalism career as sports editor of the school’s newspaper, The Sagamore. But in college at the University of Michigan, Wallace decided he wanted to be a radio announcer.
“I just fell in love with the kind of thing we can do in journalism,” he said. “You really are an eyewitness to history as it’s being made.”
Wallace currently works for “60 Minutes,” and after 34 years there he says he is cutting back on the number of stories he writes and trips he takes. “Traveling is a pain in the ass,” he said, causing grins and chuckles to erupt around the room.
Describing his high profile, Wallace said he believes “to some degree, attention is paid because I’m still around. I’m a survivor.” But despite his cutbacks in workload, Wallace said he has no intentions of retiring.
“They may retire me,” he said smiling.
Looking around the room of approximately 150 students, Wallace asked, “How many of you want to be journalists?” He smiled and nodded at the few students who raised their hands.
Justin Heifetz, 16, raised his hand and was clearly excited to see Wallace, whom he described as “the epitome of journalism.”
“Mr. Wallace has been my idol,” Heifetz said. “He typifies everything I want to be.”
“Journalism for me has been a voyage of discovery,” Wallace said. “I think that’s the way most journalists should feel. I would do this if I were not paid.
“We [“60 Minutes”] made our reputation in uncovering corruption,” he said. “We give people what we are told they want to see. It is personality driven and we’re after ratings.”
Wallace offered mixed reviews of the personalities of some Boston University alumni as well.
“I think that’s as bad as it gets,” he said of Howard Stern, a College of Communication alumnus. “It’s sleazy.”
But Wallace commended Bill O’Reilly, who was a graduate student in COM and now hosts FOX’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” calling him a “thoughtful person” and a “good reporter.” He also compared “The O’Reilly Factor” to his own show, “Nightbeat,” noting the similarities in style. “Interviewing prior to that [“Nightbeat”] had been a minuet,” Wallace said, endorsing a more straightforward interview style.
While Wallace was in the middle of answering one student’s question, a cell phone began to ring. The students looked around the room for the source of the interruption. After about six rings, Brookline High Headmaster Robert Weintraub politely asked, “Mike, is that your phone?”
“I don’t think so,” Wallace said, pulling his phone out of his pocket as the ringing got louder.
“It’s my phone,” he said after looking at the blinking, ringing phone. “It’s my wife.”
Amidst a room of laughter he opened the phone and began talking to his wife. After a quick description of his setting, he pulled the phone away from his ear.
“She hung up,” he said. “She’s embarrassed.” But Wallace, confident and outspoken, clearly was not.
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