On April 7, 2012, Mike Wallace of CBS News and 60 Minutes<\/em> passed away. It\u2019s hard to imagine any other journalist\/entertainer who received a more respectful and <\/a>lavish funeral and send-off than Mr. Wallace. Most of his colleagues from 60 Minutes<\/em>, along with celebrities whom he had interviewed, either spoke on his behalf or were in the audience. Barbra Streisand was a key figure at his funeral. Perhaps, but the journalist would probably not want to be considered one of her best friends, unless it was important to him to be in the company of the rich and famous.<\/p>\n Not too long after Wallace\u2019s death, Dan Rather, his former colleague at CBS News, published his new book, Rather Outspoken: My Life in the News<\/em><\/a>. There is a world of difference between the words of Dan Rather and those of Mike Wallace, as well as those spoken about each of them.<\/p>\n It is neither my job nor my intention to criticize Mike Wallace. On the other hand, it is fair game to compare the life of Dan Rather with the legacy of Mike Wallace.<\/p>\n Wallace had remarkable accomplishments. He initiated high quality \u201cambush investigative journalism,\u201d in which he trapped criminals and others who were clearly taking advantage of innocent individuals and groups. He did it enough times that he created a band of journalists who tried to emulate him. He also had the good judgment to know when to stop these kinds of stories, because they were defining and stereotyping him to the extent that he could do little else.<\/p>\n He had remarkable interviews with the likes of Yasser Arafat, Nelson Mandela, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and numerous other international and domestic leaders. He once interviewed Ali Khamenei, the \u201csupreme leader\u201d of Iran and told him that many people have called him \u201ccrazy.\u201d Wallace asked him if he agreed with that statement. It was a shocking experience and obviously befuddled Khamenei.<\/p>\n Wallace also did stories on remarkable artists; his favorite being with pianist Vladimir Horowitz.<\/p>\n One of the big differences between Rather and Wallace was how they dealt with adversity, \u201cwhen the heat was turned up.\u201d In 1995, Wallace was caught in the middle of a 60 Minutes<\/em> story with Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company on whether cigarettes were essentially delivery systems for nicotine. They had the help of a remarkable whistle blower by the name of Jeffrey Wigand. The story was so big that it inspired the movie \u201cThe Insider,\u201d with Russell Crowe playing Wigand.<\/p>\n Even though the charges of the story were clearly and obviously true, Brown & Williamson threatened to sue CBS for $15 billion<\/a>. Wallace and 60 Minute<\/em>s producer Don Hewett chose to \u201cpunt\u201d and scale down the story, so as to not accuse Brown & Williamson of intentionally delivering toxic chemicals to smokers.<\/p>\n In contrast, in 2003-04, Rather learned of the atrocities at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Along with outstanding investigative work with producer Mary Mapes, he tracked down sources and eventually photos of the torture and humiliation that American prison guards were inflicting on Iraqi prisoners, many of whom had not committed crimes, but instead were jailed because of their political beliefs.<\/p>\n Rather and Mapes thought that it would be a \u201cslam dunk\u201d to convince their superiors at 60 Minutes<\/em> to run the story. Much to their surprise and chagrin, the story was delayed for months as more and more Iraqis were tortured, and American soldiers committed horrendous acts. It finally occurred to Rather and Mapes that the reason was that CBS was now owned by a corporate entity name Viacom1<\/sup><\/strong>. Viacom was very close to the George W. Bush Administration and did not want to embarrass them. They did not want to undermine the war, no matter how irrelevant it was to either al Qaeda or weapons of mass destruction. Executive after executive, including Don Hewett at CBS, refused to unequivocally support Rather and Mapes. In the meantime, other news organizations were getting hold of the story. Eventually, Mary Mapes, with the backing of Rather, gave the basic information to one of America\u2019s greatest investigative reporters, Seymour Hersh<\/a>. Hersh ran with the story, embarrassing CBS and forcing them to run another scaled down story. Rather and Mapes saw this story through in a way that Wallace never would have.<\/p>\n Later in 2004, prior to the November presidential election between incumbent George Bush and Democrat John Kerry, Rather discovered\u00a0 that, while Bush was in the Texas National Guard during Vietnam, he violated a plethora of military regulations. He used his father\u2019s influence to get into a \u201csweetheart\u201d unit. He refused to take a required physical exam. He crashed two planes in simple training exercises. And most egregiously, he went AWOL for almost a year.<\/p>\n