Steve Raible and Don Hewitt at The Rainier Club. Sue Frause photos.

I've never been a celebrity junkie, but I am somewhat of a newshound.

Seeing the news people up close has always been a thrill.

Years ago, I attended a newspaper conference in Orlando, Florida where the legendary White House reporter Helen Thomas was the featured speaker. I still have her autograph on a cocktail napkin.

During a Presidential visit in Seattle, I spotted Tom Brokaw in front of what was then the Olympic Hotel.

And I even had the gumption to contact Seattle newspaper columnist Emmett Watson and ask him if he'd like to get together for a chat at the oyster bar that bears his name in the Pike Place Market.

It was like reading his column.

So when I heard Don Hewitt was comin' to town, I was there.

Hewitt, who is the recipient of the 2008 Edward R. Murrow Award for Lifetime Achievement in Broadcast Journalism that he will receive tomorrow at Washington State University, packed the third floor dining room of Seattle's Rainier Club.

Along with my husband, there were a few other Whidbey Island names in the crowd: Scott Carty, an island-raised boy and now Creative Services Director at Fisher Broadcasting; Chuck Nordhoff, son of Nancy Nordhoff of Langley; Slade Gorton; and John Hamer and his wife Mariana Parks. John is executive director of the Washington News Council, one of the event's sponsors.

Coincidentally, I sat next to Marcia Garrett, Executive Director of Washington State University West. She said, "Didn't you used to write a column for The South Whidbey Record?" Yup, that's me, Nancy. She's had a cabin at Bush Point for years.

Hewitt looks good. The college dropout, who left NYU after his freshman year, impressed the crowd when he said he was 85 years old.

His resume is impressive, too. He created 60 Minutes and is executive producer of CBS News, where he's spent 60 years. He also directed legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow and produced the famous Kennedy-Nixon debate. He's the author of of Tell Me A Story: Fifty Years and 60 Minutes in Television.

Don Hewitt joined CBS News in 1948.

Here are some of Don Hewitt's thoughts during his 60-minute talk, moderated by KIRO-TV's Steve Raible:

On receiving the Edward R. Murrow Award: "I'm completely knocked out."

Success of 60 Minutes: "We're storytellers, we're like a repertory company."

TV news today: "The biggest and best thing to happen is women broadcasters -- they are so good. I don't know why we waited so long."

Competition: "The remote. The minute they say, 'Where's the remote?' you're dead."

Radio: "Without radio, who wants to drive a car? TV is radio with pictures."

Evening news: "It doesn't do much for anybody."

Stories he won't do: "I'm against doing stories that hurt people unnecessarily. I think there's a fairness doctrine that we should live up to."

Important stories not being told: "We went to war with a country that had nothing to do with 9/11. The much too-long campaign. I don't think it's much of an election campaign, it's all backlighting."

Advice for young broadcasters: "Make stories come together with words."

Iraq: "We're being had right now."

Presidential campaign: "Nobody talks about who is qualified to be President, it's who deserves to be president."

Dan Rather: "He (Rather) just didn't have his facts right--we're not in the business of 'Let's get'. Rather and I don't talk nowadays."

Blogs: "That's a new word. Is that the future? It probably is. What are newspapers going to do to compete with this new blog atmosphere?"