Scott Pelley On ‘Truth Worth Telling’, Walter Cronkite, & Bruce Springsteen

(CBS Local)– Scott Pelley’s life is a page turner.

Pelley’s work as an anchor and correspondent for CBS News & 60 Minutes has taken him around the world and he tells stories from his incredible journey in his new book “Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter’s Search For Meaning In The Stories Of Our Time.”

“The one thing I wanted to do is that I wanted to write a memoir that wasn’t about me,” said Pelley in an interview with CBS Local’s DJ Sixsmith. “I wrote a memoir about some of the amazing people I’ve met in my life who really discovered the meaning of their lives in some of the really historic events of our time.”

Pelley recounts stories from his work reporting on 9/11, in Afghanistan, and at the Sandy Hook school shooting. The 60 Minutes correspondent got a crash course in how to cover these events and people from one of the greats in Walter Cronkite.

“Walter taught me three things about writing a news story. Is it right, is it fair, is it honest,” said Pelley. “I told all of my people at the Evening News the same thing every day when we were putting the broadcast together. Take the newscast down the middle of the road politically and tell everybody’s side of the story that we were working on. Walter set that standard for us and it is the standard for us today. I learned a great deal from him.”

While Pelley has interviewed many interesting people during his career that spans over four decades, few have been as interesting and authentic as Bruce Springsteen.

“One of my questions to Bruce Springsteen for our 60 Minutes story was why don’t you retire,” said Pelley. “He looked at me like I lost my mind. What occurred to me in that time and the time I spent with Bruce was that he does what he does because he can’t stop himself. It’s not about the money and it’s not about the fame. He tells me in the interview that he can live without the star thing, but he can’t live without the music.”

“Truth Worth Telling: A Reporter’s Search For Meaning In The Stories Of Our Time” is available now.

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