60 Minutes - 06/08/2025: The Pager Plot, A Psychedelic Journey, Mr. Clooney Goes to Broadway

Episode Date: June 9, 2025

For the first time, ex-Mossad agents who led the exploding pager and walkie-talkie plot against Hezbollah, which garnered worldwide attention in September, detail their 10-year undercover op in an interview with correspondent Lesley Stahl. Meeting in Israel, the agents, who recently retired from service, share never-before-known details that caught Hezbollah fighters by surprise and ultimately spurred change across the region from Lebanon to Syria to Iran. Last year, the Veterans Administration announced it would begin funding clinical trials to explore the use of psychedelic drugs for treating post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and addiction. However, these trials are small, and even if successful, it will likely be years before veterans can access psychedelics at the VA. Many U.S. veterans struggling with PTSD aren’t waiting. Thousands of them are traveling overseas seeking relief at psychedelic retreats where these substances are legal to use, mostly in indigenous ceremonies. Correspondent Anderson Cooper follows nine veterans on a psychedelic journey to the west coast of Mexico, where they hope to find healing. Correspondent Jon Wertheim goes behind the scenes as George Clooney makes his Broadway debut, starring in an adaptation of the 2005 Oscar-nominated movie “Good Night, and Good Luck.” Clooney co-wrote both the original screenplay and this play, which tell the story of pioneering journalist Edward R. Murrow, who took on Senator Joseph McCarthy. Clooney calls it a fight for the ages and says the plot, which revolves around themes of truth, intimidation and courage in corporate media, resonates today. Now 64, the actor tells Wertheim why he finally feels ready to take on the role of Murrow himself. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Conditions apply. Details online. are on the line. Coulter, please find my daughter. He's the man for the job. I'm gonna do everything I can. Don't miss a moment. Coulter's in trouble. I can feel it. Of TV's number one show. These people are dangerous. I'm doing this alone.

Not at all. Every Batman gotta have their router. Coulter! Justin Hartley stars. I made a promise. I would never stop looking. In Tracker, all episodes now streaming on Paramount Plus and returning CBS fall.

episodes now streaming on Paramount+, and returning CBS Fall. On September 17th, the Israeli spy agency Mossad launched one of the most daring and sophisticated deceptions in the history of counterintelligence, the pager plot. People with this pager got a message that said, you have an encrypted message. In order to access it, you have to push the two buttons, meaning that it would explode in their hands. That was the whole point. The vets drank psilocybin, a psychoactive compound found in some mushrooms, put on blindfolds

to shut out distractions and lay down. The retreat was organized and paid for by the Heroic Hearts Project, a nonprofit that's helped more than a thousand U.S. veterans with combat-related PTSD access psychedelics. Them seeking this type of unauthorized therapy is just another indication on why we need to study this further and get it to a safe and effective medical environment. When the other three estates fail, when the judiciary and the executive and the legislative branches fail us, the Fourth Estate has to succeed. Has to succeed.

As 60 Minutes is here right now on our first day. George Clooney's turn on Broadway in Good Night and Good Luck features a history lesson that resonates today. Governments don't like the freedom of the press. They never have. And that goes for whether you are a conservative or a liberal or whatever side you're on they don't like the press. I'm Leslie Stahl. I'm Bill Whitaker. I'm Anderson Cooper. I'm Sharon Alfonzi. I'm John Wertheim. I'm Cecilia Vega. I'm Scott Pelley. Those stories tonight on 60

minutes. The story's tonight on 60 Minutes. Culture's in trouble. I can feel it. Of TV's number one show. These people are dangerous. I'm doing this alone. Not at all. Every Batman gotta have their router. Culture! Justin Hartley stars. I made a promise. I would never stop looking. In Tracker, all episodes now streaming on Paramount Plus and returning CBS Fall. On September 17th, after Israel and the terrorist organization Hezbollah had been in an escalating war for nearly a year, the Israeli spy agency Mossad launched one of the most daring and

sophisticated deceptions in the history of counterintelligence, the Pager plot, a modern take on the Trojan horse. Mossad created a bomb in a pocket and tricked Hezbollah fighters into unwittingly wearing these devices on their bodies. The repercussions of the plot have been dramatic, including aiding in the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, the weakening of Iran,

and the decimating of the target of the plot, Hezbollah. As we first reported in December, less than four months after the operation, we spoke with two recently retired senior Mossad agents who were among those who ran it. To hide their identities, we agreed they could wear a mask and have their voices altered. We started with Michael, not his real name. You were something called a case officer. What exactly is a case officer? A case officer spearheads the operation. He is the commander of the operation. The operation started 10 years ago, not with pagers, but with weaponizing walkie-talkies.

A walkie-talkie was a weapon, just like a bullet or a missile or a mortar. So a walkie-talkie bomb. A walkie-talkie bomb. Inside the battery, there is an explosive device. And that was the invention, to put an explosive device that couldn't be detected into the battery. Correct. Made in Israel. At Massad? Yes.

As I understand it, these walkie-talkies went into a tactical vest that a soldier would put on and then this would go in the pocket. Correct. Near the heart. Yes. So Israel sold this device to Hezbollah. Hezbollah paid for this weapon that was to be used against them. They got a good price. A good price that couldn't be too low or they'd be suspicious. In the end, Hezbollah bought over 16,000 of these exploding walkie-talkies that Israel didn't activate for 10 years until

the September operation. How did you convince Hezbollah to buy this? Well, obviously, they didn't know that they were buying it from Israel. Who did they buy it from? Or think they were buying it from? We have an incredible array of possibilities of creating foreign companies that have no way being traced back to Israel. Shell companies over shell companies who affect the supply chain to our favor. We create a pretend world. We are a global production company. We write the screenplay

where the directors, where the producers, where the main actors, the're the directors, we're the producers, we're the main actors, the world is our stage. This is Mossad's old office. Its motto from Proverbs 24.6 says in so many words, wage war through deception and trickery, kind of like the CIA's smoke and mirrors, which is what this operation was all about, starting with those walkie talkies.

But walkie talkies are only worn in battle. So Mossad began developing a new device that Hezbollah fighters would have in their pockets all the time, a pager. A pager is almost obsolete around the world, but Hezbollah is still using it. This is Gabriel, not his real name or voice. In 2022, he and his team started developing the second phase of the operation, the booby-trapped pagers. He found out that Hezbollah was buying pagers from this company in Taiwan called Gold Apollo.

This is the pager that Hezbollah was using. So it's very sleek, it's very shiny, and it certainly can fit in a pocket. So what did you do to change this to make it into a bomb? So to make it into a bomb, we have to enlarge it a little bit. In order to put explosives inside, but not too much. Using dummies, Mossad conducted tests with the pager in a padded glove to calibrate the grams of explosives needed to be just enough to hurt the fighter, but not the person next to him.

If we push the button, the only one that will get injured is the terrorist himself. Even if his wife or his daughter will be just next to him, he's the only one that's going to be harmed. Did you test for that? Yes. We test everything triple, double, multiple times in order to make sure there's minimum damage. Could you use it as a tracking device? Did it have intelligence capability?

Oh, no. This is a very stupid device by nature. This is the reason they're using it. There's almost no way how to tap it. It's only receiving messages and several grams of explosives. Losad also tested these ringtones to find a sound urgent enough to compel someone to take it out of their pocket.

And they tested how long it takes a person to answer a pager, on average, seven seconds. But how to convince Hezbollah to switch to this bulkier pager? I remember the day that I came to our director, put it on the table, and he was furious. He was telling us, there is no chance that anyone would buy such a big device. It's not comfortable in their pockets. It's heavy.

Very heavy. Very heavy. It's no good. Yeah. Go back and bring me something else. It took me two weeks to convince him that although it's ugly, it has character. Character meaning added features, It took me two weeks to convince him that although it's ugly, it has character. Character meaning added features which they touted in fake ads on YouTube.

Robust, dustproof, waterproof, long battery life. We make advertising movies and brochures and we put it on the internet and it became the best product in the BIPER area in the world. Did people other than Hezbollah want to buy this based on what was being said about it online? Yes. We received several requests from regular potential customers. Obviously, we didn't send to anyone. We just bought them with an expensive price.

Mossad wanted to use the name Gold Apollo on its pager. So it set up shell companies, including one in this building in Hungary, to dupe the Taiwanese into partnering with them. So the company in Taiwan, Gold Apollo, did they know that they were working with people from Mossad? Gold Apollo had zero clue that they are working with the Mossad. And neither did Hezbollah. When they are buying from us, they have zero clue

that they are buying from the Mossad. We make like Truman Show. Everything is controlled by us behind the scene. In their experience, everything is normal. Everything was 100% kosher, including businessmen, marketing, engineers, showroom, everything. To further the plot, Mossad hired the Gold Apollo saleswoman Hezbollah was used to working with before. She offered them the first batch of pagers as an upgrade free of charge. By

September 2024, Hezbollah had 5,000 pagers in their pockets. The question for Israel, when to activate the sleeping bombs? There were hints Hezbollah might be getting suspicious of the devices. So Mossad head Dady Barnea gave the go-ahead, triggering the attack and shocking people around the world as it seemed more like a spy movie than reality. On September 17th, at 3.30 p.m., pagers started beeping all over Lebanon. As I understand it, people with this pager got a message that said, you have an encrypted

message in order to access it, you have to push the two buttons, meaning that it would explode in their hands. That was the whole point. So if someone did not push the two buttons, what happened? It's the same effect. It's gonna explode anyway. The explosive was triggered in Israel. Yes.

What ensued was mayhem. People with pagers blowing up on the street, on motorcycles, hospitals filling up with the wounded, limbs, fingers torn off, bloodied, blinded, holes in stomachs. For the most part, the explosions worked as planned, they say. Watch the man on the left. Those right next to him were unscathed. The very next day, Mossad finally activated the walkie-talkies that had been dormant for 10 years, some going

off at the funerals of those killed by the pagers. All in all, about 30 people died, including two children. Around 3,000 were injured. The aim, it wasn't killing Hezbollah terrorists. If he's just dead, so he's dead. But if he's wounded, you have to take him to the hospital, take care of him. You need to invest money in efforts. And those people without hands and eyes are leaving proof, walking in Lebanon, of don't mess with us. They are walking proof of our superiority all around the Middle East. Two days after the Pager attack, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah,

known for his fiery oratory, gave a subdued speech. If you look at his eyes, he was defeated. He already lost the war. And his soldiers looked at him during that speech, and they saw a broken leader. And this was the tipping point of the war. I don't know if you know that Nasrallah, when we operate the BIPER operation, just next to him in the bunker, several people

at the BIPER receiving the message. And in his own eyes, he saw them collapsing. How do you know that? It's a strong rumor. In the ensuing days, the Israeli Air Force hit targets all across Lebanon, killing over a thousand, many of them civilians. On September 27th, it dropped massive bombs on Nasrallah's bunker, assassinating him. Two months later, after more Israeli strikes over Lebanon and more civilian deaths, the war between Israel and Hezbollah ended with a ceasefire.

Did you completely destroy and crush Hezbollah? I think it's a big question. And I think the honest answer would be no. But I think after this tipping point of the beeper operation and the walkie talkie and then IDF attack, put Hezbollah in a very, very difficult situation. No chain of command, no spirit in their soldiers asking, begging for a ceasefire. So you restore your sense of superiority.

But what about your moral reputation? Don't you think Israel has to worry about its reputation? Definitely. But there is a prioritization. First, you have to defend your people not being killed by the thousands. And then, the reputation. The Pagers have had a profound rippling effect, severely weakening Iran by leaving its proxy empire in ruins with Hezbollah shattered in Lebanon,

Assad toppled in Syria. We asked Agent Michael about the effect on Gaza. How does that affect the situation with Hamas? The wind was taken out of Hezbollah's fight after the pager operation, and I'm hoping that it will have an effect also on the Hamas and Hasidic situation because they're looking at their sides and they're seeing no one next to them. They're completely isolated now. In terms of the kind of warfare that was conducted with the walkie-talkies and the pagers, would

you call it a psychological war? The day after the pagers exploded, people were afraid to turn on the air conditioners in Lebanon because they were afraid that they would explode. So there is real fear. Was that an intention? We want them to feel vulnerable, which they are. We can't use the pagers again because we already did that.

We've already moved on to the next thing. And they'll have to keep on trying to guess what the next thing is. Are you crushing your bills? Defeating your monthly payments. Sounds like you're at the top of your financial game. Rise to it with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card, the credit card that rewards your good financial habits.

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Thousands of veterans who are suffering aren't waiting. Desperate for help, they're attending psychedelic retreats in countries where the drugs are legal to use, mostly in indigenous ceremonies. In March 2024, we were invited to join nine veterans who traveled to the west coast of Mexico for a psychedelic journey they hoped would finally help ease their pain. They came to Mexico from all over the United States,

a group of nine veterans with invisible wounds that are hard to heal. Their destination, a remote village near Puerto Vallarta for a week-long psychedelic retreat. It was a voyage into the unknown, but a risk worth taking for TJ Duff, a former Navy sailor. Are you optimistic? Being optimistic is hard for me because I've been through a lot of therapy,

a lot of different treatments and not a lot of success. Duff was 18 when he joined the Navy. Months into his first deployment aboard the USS Cole, he says he narrowly escaped death when two suicide bombers attacked the ship in Yemen, killing 17 sailors. Everyone around me was killed. There's bodies alive and dead being piled up in the midships.

And I think that's really where I just started holding everything in. I don't have it where I'm jumping in ditches when I hear loud noises. My PTSD is kind of a self-destructive form. Randy Weaver is a police officer in New York. A former staff sergeant in the Army, he was diagnosed with PTSD in 2007 after returning home from tours in Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. It's the constant, you know, what if I had done this? What if we did that? You know?

Are those things you want to revisit while you're taking the psilocybin? Yeah, if I could revisit them and see them, maybe from a different perspective, like not before I failed somebody. Is there a particular incident that you feel you failed somebody? Yeah, so March 18th, 20 years ago.

In 2004, Weaver's platoon was caught in a firefight in an Afghan village. Two soldiers were killed, one of them his friend, Staff Sergeant Anthony Lagman. Weaver's worn this bracelet with Lagman's name on it since coming home. You've been wearing that for 20 years? Yeah, every day. Weaver says he's tried nearly every treatment for PTSD the VA offers, including talk therapy, exposure therapy, meditation and antidepressants. You get to a point where you're so mentally exhausted and you've created so much destruction that your demons tell yourself that your family

will be better off without you. And when those demons tell you those things every day, it's something hard to ignore. Will this help with that? I hope so. The retreat was organized and paid for by the Heroic Hearts Project, a nonprofit that's helped more than a thousand U.S. veterans with combat-related PTSD access psychedelics. I came home super angry, super anxious, hypervigilant. That led to a pretty nasty divorce.

Ed Glover was in Afghanistan with the Marines. He's been a firefighter for 22 years. I feel like one or two traumatic events you may be able to recover from, but kind of seeing it day in, day out, really takes its toll. As the vets talked, it became clear some of their struggles began long before they joined the military. My family life was just always this constant conflict. Navy vet Michael Giardina had an emotionally abusive father who killed himself 16 years ago. His sister died by suicide five months before he came here.

My daughter asked my ex-wife if I was going to kill myself. And I'm not. I just want to get better. To qualify for this retreat, they had to work with their doctors to wean off any antidepressant or anxiety medication they might be taking because of how it could interact with the psychedelics. They also had to have a medical screening and no family history of psychosis or schizophrenia. When we were there, a local doctor was on site, but no mental health professionals. I appreciate you guys for putting the faith in me, the faith in us coming here.

Jesse Gould, a former Army Ranger, founded the Heroic Hearts Project in 2017 after he tried another psychedelic, ayahuasca, at a retreat in Peru. Gould says psychedelics can help veterans revisit traumatic moments in ways they may be unable to with other therapies. The value what we're finding with psychedelics is it's a very individualistic journey. You know, it comes at you, it brings up the emotions, it heightens your senses, and so you're having to face it. And so that's why you see such big revelations, because it's giving you the tools to actually get there. Do you worry that some who see this as sort of

the last hope may end up disappointed? I worry that we're at the situation where people are having to go to other countries for their last hope. That indicates a major flaw in the system. The orange one? Okay. Heroic Hearts hired traditional healers to conduct three psychedelic ceremonies. The first two with psilocybin, a psychoactive compound found in some mushrooms. It's been used as medicine by indigenous communities in Mexico and elsewhere for centuries.

You don't need to be strong. All we need for this experience and to receive the healing is humbleness. The healers stirred ground-up mushrooms into a tea. The vets drank it, put on blindfolds to shut out distractions, and lay down. At first it seemed like the group might have traveled thousands of miles for a midday nap. But then, about an hour in, we saw Michael Giardina raise his hand for help. His foot soon started to shake, followed by his whole body. By hour three it was clear the psilocybin had kicked in. Randy Weaver and TJ Duff barely seemed to move, while firefighter Ed Glover appeared caught between rapture and deep sorrow.

When you let go of fear, the truth will appear so simple and clear. Five hours later, when the psilocybin began to wear off, the vets removed their eye masks and found the heat of the afternoon sun. The next day, the group gathered to discuss what they'd gone through. It literally felt like an exorcism. My foot was going crazy.

I could kind of feel like my body was convulsing. I felt like I was taking every last breath of any victim, patient, or friend that I had lost. So I really struggled to breathe yesterday. I've never done anything like that before. Randy Weaver appeared to find some of what he traveled all this way for. One thing that I remember very vividly was flying back with the guys that we lost.

Like being on that medevac, even though I wasn't there in the real world, I was there spiritually with them. TJ Duff, however, found it unsettling and at times scary. I've heard a lot of your guys' stories and I did not get as immersive as you guys did. I'm kind of glad I didn't, honestly, because I was kind of afraid of that. That night, Duff took part in another psilocybin ceremony, but the next day he left. He later told us the whole experience caused a dangerous decline in his mental health. He's now back on antidepressant medication.

The last ceremony of the retreat was with five MEO DMT, a powerful and fast-acting psychedelic secreted from a toad. After returning home, the vets had several virtual meetings with a heroic hearts project counselor. I think my biggest takeaway was making sure I make the time to take care of myself. The Veterans Administration warns against self-medicating with psychedelics or using them as part of a self-treatment program. But in December, when we spoke to its top doctor, Sharif Elmahal, he was enthusiastic about their potential. Do these retreats concern you? They can concern me because there's no way to monitor,

certify, make sure that they're actually safe environments. They're seeking these therapies because they do not see our current options for them to be effective enough, and they're in a state of desperation. And that in and of itself, them seeking this type of unauthorized therapy, is just another indication on why we need to study this further and get it to a safe and effective medical environment.

Last August, the FDA rejected a pharmaceutical company's application to use the psychedelic MDMA in combination with therapy as a treatment for PTSD. After an FDA advisory panel said there wasn't enough evidence it was safe or effective. The VA is now conducting 11 clinical trials using MDMA and psilocybin to treat PTSD, depression and addiction. Dr. Elnohal told us a small Phase II trial by the VA using MDMA and therapy to treat PTSD completed last year showed real promise. 45% have gone into complete remission, which is essentially a normal emotional state that is unheard of with prolonged exposure,

cognitive processing, and certainly SSRIs, the current standard of care options. Almost half of the people who came in with PTSD and did MDMA therapy at the VA were cured? Yes. So you have no doubt that this works? We need to do larger, phase three clinical trials. That's the best way, scientifically, to understand what the true adverse events are and whether

we can reproduce these results in larger populations of veterans. I'm very optimistic we will be able to demonstrate that. How long do you think it will be before veterans can go to the VA and get this therapy? It could be another couple of years. The incoming administration is going to take a pretty bold stance on this. When makes you optimistic that the new administration is going to be a believer in this? We've heard the nominee for HHS, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., talk about what he thinks the potential breakthrough therapy is.

We'll see what the stance is of other health officials. That's really promising. Nearly a year after that retreat in Mexico, we checked in with the nine veterans who attended. Eight of them told us their symptoms had improved and called their experience with psychedelics life-changing. Ed Glover said he felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

How are you doing? Very well. Shortly after coming home from the retreat, he decided to retire as a firefighter. Prior to the retreat, I thought about taking my life just about every day. I had a very close call. You know, the note, the gun, that thought about taking my life just about every day. I had a very close call. You know, the note, the gun, that is no longer the case. You haven't had thoughts of killing yourself since then? Not one.

And Randy Weaver says his suicidal ideations have stopped as well. I don't have any of those thoughts since going through this journey. That's remarkable. I would say, yeah. You had told the group afterward that you had visualized people on a medevac helicopter that you had served with. Yeah.

What was the impact of that? In combat, things happen quickly. One minute you're talking to your friend, and the next minute you're putting him in a body bag. That causes a gap in your psyche. So to be able to revisit those incidences, seeing those helicopters come back with friends, it brings a little peace to you. Since our report aired in February, former firefighter Ed Glover suffered a setback in his decades-long battle with PTSD and his sins sought conventional mental health care.

The new head of the Veterans Administration, Secretary Doug Collins, says he supports more research for psychedelic therapies. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, Without paint, it's almost as if they can read your mind. I sense. You need a two-inch angle brush for the trim in your family room, regal-selected and eggshell finish, and directions to the post office. Benjamin Moore Paint is only sold at locally owned stores. Benjamin Moore. See the love. Whether it's a family member, friend, or furry companion joining your summer road trip, enjoy the peace of mind that comes with Volvo's legendary safety.

During Volvo Discover Days, enjoy limited time savings as you make plans to cruise through Muskoka or down Toronto's bustling streets. From now until June 30th, lease a 2025 Volvo XC60 from 1.74% and save up to $4,000. Conditions apply. Visit your GTA Volvo retailer or go to volvocars.ca for full details. Yes in film, but even more so in theater, a sense of timing is essential. At age 63, George Clooney made his Broadway debut this spring, starring in an adaptation

of the 2005 Oscar-nominated movie, Good Night and Good Luck. The play broke box office records, and it's up for five awards at the Tonys later tonight. Clooney co-wrote both the original screenplay and this play, telling the story of pioneering journalist Edward R. Murrow, who took on strong-arming Senator Joseph McCarthy all while withstanding pressure not to make waves at his own news network, this network, CBS. The plot revolves around themes of truth, intimidation, and courage in the face of corporate media.

It is set in the 1950s. As we first told you in March, Clooney always meant for the story to echo today. He just didn't realize how loudly it would. Woo, it's cold. Oh, wow, it's cold. Deep February, Winter Garden Theater in the heart of Broadway, the set still under construction. George Clooney arrives in character. This is how they treat the two-time sexiest man alive.

You see that? Oh, there he is. Hey, John. How are you, man? How are you? Ever the everyman, he doesn't stand on ceremony. He hurtles over it. They don't care.

They don't care. But now it can be told. Hollywood's famously cool leading man has the jitters. I mean, look at this place. This is proper old Broadway, and it's exciting to be here. You know, I'm, look, let's not kid ourselves. It's nerve wracking, and there's a million reasons why it's dumb to do.

What do you mean? Well, it's dumb to do because you're coming out and saying, well, let's try to get an audience to take this ride with you back to 1954. One minute! We need a live mic on the floor. It's front loaded. How much?

By about five seconds. Five seconds? That's too much! The play brings to life the humming CBS newsroom of the 1950s, all typewriters and smoldering cigarettes. Having dyed his hair, upsetting that familiar salt and pepper ratio, Clooney plays the protagonist, Edward R. Murrow, host of the weekly television news program, See It Now. Good evening.

A few weeks ago, there occurred a few obscure notices in the newspapers about a Lieutenant Milo Rudulovic. We propose to examine insofar as we can. You wrote the script to the film more than 20 years ago. You played Fred Friendly. Yeah. Murrow's producer. You didn't play Murrow.

No. Why did you not want to play him? Murrow had a gravitas to him that at 42 years old, I wasn't able to pull off. Murrow earned his gravitas during World War II. Just overhead now, the burst of the Antigua fire. With eyewitness radio dispatches from London amid the blitz.

Good night and good luck. His trademark sign-off doubles as the play's title. Clooney wrote the story with his longtime friend and creative partner, Grant Hesloff. We have the same suit on. It's the same color? How does this partnership work? Who's at the keyboard? Oh, you're at the keyboard.

He doesn't know how to use a computer. He can barely... No, I'm like this. I'm the Luddite. We're the first writers meeting... They met in LA in the early 80s, when both were struggling actors. Now they run a production company together.

Full disclosure, the three of us collaborated on an unrelated sports documentary out this month. Cluney and Hesloff conceived of the story of Good Night and Good Luck nearly 2000s, when the U.S. went to war in Iraq. You know, I just thought it was a good time to talk about when the press held government to account. Because a report on Senator McCarthy is by definition controversial, we want to say exactly what we mean. A show within a show, the play recreates the

historic television face-off between Murrow and Joseph McCarthy, with McCarthy essentially playing himself through archival footage. Mr. Edward R. Murrow, as far back as 20 years ago, was engaged in propaganda for communist causes. At the height of the Red Scare, the Wisconsin senator led a crusade to weed out supposed communist infiltration of the U.S. government. We're going to go with the story because the terror is right here in this room.

Murrow and his team overcame the climate of fear and intimidation to expose and help take down McCarthy with measured fact-based editorials. His proposition is a very simple one. Anyone who opposes or criticizes McCarthy's methods must be a communist. Are you guys using McCarthyism as a parable for today? Originally it wasn't for today today, but it's a, this is a story that stands the test of time. I think it's a story that stands the test of time.

I think it's a story that you can keep telling over and over. I don't think it will ever thematically get old. Hey, guys. Hey, Torrance. Good to see you. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so happy you're here. At the table read in a downtown Manhattan studio...

I'm a little nervous. Yeah, I'm a little nervous, too. Clooney met the cast and wasted no time addressing what he sees as the parallels to today. When the other three estates fail, when the judiciary and the executive and the legislative branches fail us, the fourth estate has to succeed.

Has to succeed. As 60 Minutes is here right now on our first day. Kidding aside, Cluney made the point, these are chilling times for the news media. ABC has just settled a lawsuit with the Trump administration and CBS News is in the process. The process he's talking about? President Trump lodged a $20 billion lawsuit against CBS, making the unfounded allegation that 60 Minutes engaged in election interference.

CBS filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit and the parties have discussed settlement. All this as the network's parent company Paramount is trying to close a merger deal which requires approval from the Trump appointed chair of the Federal Communications Commission. We're seeing this idea of using government to scare or fine or use corporations to make journalists smaller. Governments don't like the freedom of the press. They never have. And that goes for whether you are a conservative or a liberal or whatever side you're on, they don't like the press.

What does this play tell us about the media's ability or willingness to withstand this kind of pressure. It's a fight that is for the ages. It will continue. You see it happening at the LA Times. You see it happening at the Washington Post, I'd say. You guarantee the corporate would have no influence over news content. Journalism and telling truth to power has to be waged, like war is waged. It doesn't just happen accidentally. You know, it takes people saying,

we're going to do these stories, and you're going to have to come after us. And that's the way it is. Places for top of scene two, please. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. When we dropped in on rehearsals, the mood was as light as the material was heavy. You're insured, right? Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. When we dropped in on rehearsals, the mood was as light as the material was heavy.

You're insured, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Comedian and producer Alana Glazer plays CBS News writer Shirley Warshpa. How is George Clooney doing leading a troupe of stage actors? It's shaky. It's shaky, John. It's tough.

No, I'm just kidding. This is doing live. This is doing live. We're all, like, so focused on this material, and it's serious, and I'm trying to make it as honest as possible. So George really, like, will let the tension release and break the tension with a joke at the right time. Wait, let me just jump in a second. One of Broadway's most in-demand directors, David Cromer, is the man in charge.

This has to do with the pressure on you. Your Murrow character is being portrayed by someone with considerable star wattage. What challenge does that present to you? It doesn't present a challenge. It helps. Edward R. Murrow was a star. He was the most trusted man in America. He had this very serious news

show, but he also had this incredibly popular entertainment show, which was on Friday night. It was called Person to Person. And he went into Liberace's house, and he went into all these people's houses. Thanks a lot. Thanks so much. Good night, Lee. Good night, Ed. If he were playing Willie Lohman, that would be different. You know what I mean?

A smaller figure than Murrah. If he were playing a little man. If he were playing a little man, he's playing a great man. He's a great man. He's playing a great man. Next week, we'll take you to Beverly Hills, California... As for the play setting, Clooney knows his way around the newsroom. His father, Nick Clooney, was a longtime journalist in Anchorman. When I was 12 years old, my dad was working at WKRC in Cincinnati,

I would run the teleprompter. In those days, a teleprompter was sheets of paper taped end to end with a camera pointed down, and you'd feed them like this underneath the camera, and my dad would be able to read it on the teleprompter. And then at the commercial, they'd say, okay, cut three minutes out of that story. And you had, at the end of it a paper cutter and you

just go, shh, chh, chh. You really are old. I'm old, man. It's like I'm running for something. Clooney says he's running for nothing. You're set! So, yeah, exactly. But he makes no secret of his politics.

A lifelong Democrat, he made news last summer when he wrote a pointed essay calling on Joe Biden not to seek reelection on account of his age. Looking back on that, happy you did it? Yeah, I'll make it kind of easy. I was raised to tell the truth. I had seen the president up close for this fundraiser

and I was surprised. And so I feel as if there was a lot of profiles and cowardice in my party through all of that. And I was not proud of that. And I also believed I had to tell the truth." Truth, an increasingly elusive concept. Clooney says that for all the parallels between the play and these convulsive times we live in today, disinformation is one critical distinction.

Here's where I would tell you where we differ from what Murrow was doing. Although McCarthy would try to pose things that he'd show up a blank piece of paper and say I've got a list of names. Okay. So that was his version of fake news. We now are at a place where we've found that it's harder and harder and harder to discern the truth. Facts are now negotiated.

You and I can agree or disagree, but if we can't reach a consensus that this chair is brown, we're in trouble. That's right. Can we turn the camera on and look at the opening shot? By March, rehearsals had moved into the theater. A big production issue on this day, the prop cigarettes. Any trouble with cigarettes, lighters, ashtrays, anything like that?

We'll have to talk about ashtrays. The hardest part for me is smoking. What do you mean? We smokes a lot. And we smoke a lot in the play. Everybody smokes in the play, so the place is covered in smoke. And smoking in our family is a big problem.

Groven Kentucky, a lot of tobacco farmers. And almost all of my family a lot of tobacco farmers. Almost all of my family members died of lung cancer. My father's sister, Rosemary, died of it. She was a wonderful singer, died of it. And my dad's 91 because he didn't smoke. So smoking has always been a, it's a hard thing to do. Stand up now, uterine nebulizer.

Let's get a pulse ox right away. It's easy to forget, George Clooney has been an A-lister for 30 years now. Usually he sleeps on the foot of my bed, but he's gotten so fat. In 2003, he was a bachelor living with a pet pig when 60 Minutes profiled him. George! George! You were in the sexiest man of the year phase? Sure, that was a big time for me. Not that you're not sexy now.

It's okay, I'm not hurt now. He's married now. His wife and their two kids left the home they keep in Europe to spend this spring run with him in New York. Clooney is also in a different phase of his life professionally. Look, I'm 63 years old. I'm not trying to compete with 25-year-old leading men. That's not my job. I'm not doing romantic films anymore. Soyear-olds leading men. That's not my job.

I'm not doing romantic films anymore. So we just put the catwalk in up here. Clooney's turn on Broadway earned him a Tony nomination for best actor just as it put him a few feet from the audience. They can see you. You can see them, too. I'm not looking at them. I'm putting my wife in the very, very, very back. You wish you had done this earlier in your career?

I don't know that I could have. I didn't do the work required to get there. But I saw the smile when you came out here. Oh, yeah, it's cool. Looked out here. Anybody who would deny that would just be a liar. I mean, there isn't a single actor alive that wouldn't have loved to have been on Broadway.

So that's the fun of it. It's tricky the older you get, but why not? And so the question is a very simple one. Not what power unchecked will do. We've seen that answer. The question is, what are you prepared to do? Good night and good luck. I'm Anderson Cooper. We'll be back next week with another edition of 60 Minutes.

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