Here’s what some people who tuned in to watch the interview had to say about it on Twitter:

Let us know what you thought of the interview in the comments.

Despite the big IPO, 2011 was something of a problematic year for the company, plagued with a number of controversies. In fact, Groupon even had to apologize for its Super Bowl commercial early in the year, as some were offended by it. Mason answers questions about a number of the criticisms the company has endured.

By the way, Mason says he doesn’t know how much of a threat Google is. He thinks there is plenty of room for competition. Google is probably glad to hear them say that, as other competitors are pushing for antitrust regulation against the company.

CBS News has provided an embed of the full interview:

Interviewer Lesley Stahl talks about how Mason is different from other tech founders she’s interviewed (Such as Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg and Paul Allen) in this “overtime” segment. He’s a “prankster” she says.

Rooney was probably best known for his weekly broadcast “A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney”, a part of the CBS News program 60 Minutes from 1978 to 2011. His final regular appearance on 60 Minutes aired October 2, 2011. He died almost exactly one month later, on November 4, 2011, at age 92. To read more about the death of Rooney and to leave a kind word in his memorial guestbook, you can visit FamousDead.com

The news of Rooney’s death spread around the web fairly quickly, as I’m sure you can imagine. Below is some of the reaction from Twitter users:

Walter Isaacson, a former TIME magazine editor, sat down with Steve Kroft to talk about his new book, “Steve Jobs.” The book, the first authorized biography of the tech legend, was constructed through dozens of interviews with Jobs himself as well as the people around him that knew him the best.

Much of the biography was leaked before its actual publication, and the excerpts have confirmed that the new book attempts to show Jobs as human, if nothing else. At the beginning of Isaacson’s interview, 60 Minutes’ Steve Kroft says that he thinks “it’s a tough book.”

Isaacson responds that “it’s a book that’s fair, I mean, this is a real human being.”

During the interview, Isaacson portrays Jobs as an individualist, a genius that refused to “succumb to authority,” as well as man that could be “brittle” and “petulant.” It truly is a fascinating look into a notoriously private man.

Check out the interview below:

Rooney has held the time slot at the end of 60 Minutes since 1979. There, he has made a name for himself with his musings on life and the changing times. He is known by many for his sometimes strange delivery and odd choice of topics.

And while some of his rants have seemed ridiculous over the years, Rooney is a powerful figure in American journalism. He has been producing TV essays since 1964 and has written 16 books in his career. He has also won four Emmy awards and various Writers Guild awards.

But to most, he will always be remembered as the Andy Rooney of the last two minutes of 60 Minutes. And while occupying that time slot, Rooney has given us some real masterpiece rants.

I’ve decided to compile a Greatest Hits playlist with the help of YouTube – in no particular order.

Andy Rooney doesn’t know who Lady Gaga is –

Andy Rooney hates Bill Gates and Windows –

Andy Rooney can sleep everywhere –

Andy Rooney is a “know-nothing boob” who hates modern art -

Andy Rooney on Christmas catalogs (one of my favorites) –

Andy Rooney Hates Numbers –

Andy Rooney Talks Tools (staple removers are better than staples) –

Andy Rooney talks fashion magazines –

Andy Rooney on the months of the year –

The channel-related development is straightforward (though important).  Certain 60 Minutes segments will simply be uploaded to youtube.com/60minutes after they air so that people who miss the show on Sunday night can catch up later.

It’s the request for feedback that’s a little more interesting.  A post on the YouTube Blog explained, "[W]e’re partnering in a new program called, ‘Ask 60 Minutes,’ where you can engage directly with their correspondents.  This week, we’re featuring correspondent Lara Logan’s story from the Afghanistan/Pakistan border, where she spent weeks with the 101st Airborne undergoing relentless attacks."

Later, the post continued, "Go to the 60 Minutes YouTube channel to upload a 60-second video with your thoughts, as well as vote on others responses.  If you don’t want to use video, you can submit your feedback in text.  60 Minutes producers may broadcast some of the top-voted responses on TV (that’s a weekly audience of 13 million!) or respond to them directly on their website, 60minutes.com."

This seems likely to drum up interest in 60 Minutes, given that lots of people love to give their opinions on current events and many others are eager to get their face on TV.

The move also acts as a compliment to YouTube, since the show’s ratings are quite good and it doesn’t need to make a desperate grab for new viewers.

There was really no need to when I knew that it would be dissected and digested by the blogosphere today. Still, I decided to go back and take a look when I saw TechCrunch highlight this Zuckerberg statement:

The ripping the scab off the wound moment of the night came with Beacon, and if I’d been sitting on a chair I would have fallen off it, and not due to jet lag. Asked about Beacon and as to whether users who signed up to connect with friends now felt that they were “snooped upon” Zuckerberg responded that “Beacon makes Facebook less commercial.” WTF? You can draw your own conclusions on that.

Yeah, I probably would have fallen off my chair too, if that had been the context in which Zuckerberg made his statement. Here’s how it really went:

“People signed up for Facebook thinking that it was a way to just stay in touch with their friends. And now some of them feel that there’s some snooping going on,” Stahl says. “Is there any concern you’re turning Facebook into something much more commercial?”

“I actually think that this makes it less commercial. I mean, what would you rather see? A banner ad from Bloomingdale’s or that one of your friends bought a scarf?” Zuckerberg asks.

It’s not quite the self-delusional statement that I thought I was going to see. Zuckerberg isn’t saying that Beacon makes Facebook less commercial than before. He’s really saying that Beacon is a “less commercial” option than displaying banner ads–I would agree with that.

So, before you read the dozens of blog posts–including this one–that will no doubt breakdown and analyze every thing Zuckerberg had to say why not try something old fashioned. Watch the interview yourself and then form your own opinions.

PS. TC’s Duncan Riley is an excellent journalist, so this is not a shot at him, rather at myself and others that rely too heavily on others’ interpretation of news.

Comments

Lesley Stahl interviewed Zuckerberg, Forrester’s Charlene Li, and All Things D’s Kara Swisher for the 60 Minutes piece.

For anyone who has followed Facebook’s growth and history over the past year, including the kerfuffle over the Beacon advertising program, Stahl doesn’t break any new ground. Other than Stahl and Swisher dinging Zuckerberg a little about Beacon, a few minutes spent searching the Web about Facebook’s CEO would provide the same details the once-mighty 60 Minutes did.

Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard? Who knew? Besides everyone, I mean.

>>> Watch 60 Minutes segment…

Mark answered a question by Lesley Stahl on the subject of Facebook having low revenue by saying that he doesn’t have to reveal financials because they are not public. That was but one of many awkward non answers. Unfortunately, Mark seemed unable to engage with Stahl and surprisingly uninteresting.

Also, by the way, I sense a fast one by 60 Minutes producers when Lesley Stahl supposedly got a friend request from a long lost friend within minutes of joining Facebook with Mark Zuckerberg’s typing assistance. Way too convenient!

As to what was said, most of it had already been reported last week due to the CBS publicity machine, but here are the highlights:

- In response to Stahl’s suggestion that Facebook is huge, Mark stated, "It’s not that big."

- Mark has not let the money change him. He works out of a desk in a room at Facebook headquarters with other computer programmers. He wears worn out shoes with no socks. He lives in a one bedroom apartment alone with a mattress on the floor for a bed. This is a guy worth a reported $3 billion!

- Lesley pointed out to Mark that he labels himself incorrectly as a Harvard alum on his Facebook page. Mark responded with, "That’s true. We don’t have a setting for dropout." Funny, but it also represents one of the major problems with Facebook, people pad their bios extensively.

- Mark says he is ‘not concerned’ about the lawsuit from some of his old Harvard classmates who say he stole their idea when he founded Facebook.

- Mark stated that Facebook is "pretty effective for them (politicians) in campaigning".

- In response to question about ads on Facebook and the controversial Beacon project Mark said, "I actually think that this makes it less commercial. I mean, what would you rather see? A banner ad from Bloomingdale’s or that one of your friends bought a scarf?"

It looks to me like Facebook is still struggling to find revenue magic like Google did with Adwords and believes that matching user recommendations up with ads may still be the answer.

Out with the old, in with the new, perhaps. Not long after Wallace’s retirement, CBS and Yahoo announced a deal that will increase the breadth and depth of coverage of issues brought up on 60 Minutes.

The agreement, worked out by CBS News & Sports president Sean McManus and the head of Yahoo’s Media Group, Lloyd Braun, takes effect this fall when 60 Minutes begins its 39th season on the air. They do plan to make some content available earlier, their statement noted:

In the statement, both Braun and McManus praised the initiative. CBS has been very aggressive in embracing the Internet, in many ways as the first place for news coverage and reporting.

About 14 million viewers tune in to 60 Minutes each week. Yahoo’s userbase of 126 million monthly US users (per comScore Media Metrix, Jan. ’06) offers a lot of potential viewership. 60 Minutes does tend to have an older audience, and the expanded content on Yahoo may be of more appeal to that older demographic.

Yahoo may want to tweak its advertising for that audience. Not everyone over the age of 30 wants to see mortgage refinance and insurance ads over and over again.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.