Over the weekend, CBS’ 60 Minutes offered an in-depth profile on Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, a man who is, very likely, best known for his role as CIA Director — a role that saw him presiding over the covert operations that resulted in the discovery and death of Osama bin Laden. As Secretary of Defense, Panetta is the person who would be responsible for launching a nuclear missile from the so-called “Doomsday Plane” should the President give the order.

The folks from Big Government scored a phone interview with Alexandra Pelosi, the documentarian daughter of Nancy Pelosi, and she told the site that her mother wanted to be done with her position as House Minority Leader. According to the younger Pelosi, at this point, the job is just an “obligation.”

President Barack Obama recently sat down with 60 Minutes reporter Steve Kroft for what was a significant and full-throated defense of what his administration has accomplished in the almost three years he has lived in the White House. Obama pushed back on detractor’s suggestions that he has somehow both been obstinate in legislative negotiations and continually capitulated to the House GOP. He also remarked that when it comes to his potential opponent, ‘it doesn’t really matter’ who Republicans nominate.

In the past week or so, the nation’s capital was all atwitter with the presence of Steve Kroft and his 60 Minutes crew, who were reported to be investigating the cozy relationships between members of congress and business leaders affected by legislation passed by congress itself. Tonight the segment aired, featuring some classic 60 Minutes style ambush questions — in a press room setting — in which Kroft challenged both Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner may have benefited from stock purchases based on non-public information they’d received.

Fox News Sunday Host Chris Wallace made a special appearance on Fox & Friends this morning to talk about the life of Andy Rooney, the longtime 60 Minutes journalist and colleague of his father Mike Wallace who passed away this morning at 92. Agreeing that Rooney was “absolutely” a curmudgeon, Wallace also testified to the “real sweetness” of Rooney and his genuineness on and off camera.

Broadcasting legend and 60 Minutes fixture Andy Rooney died Friday night in a hospital in New York City. Rooney had only made his final sign-off as a weekly commentator on the CBS show just over a month ago, and was reportedly in stable condition following complications from minor surgery last week.

Despite Ruth Madoff‘s claim on 60 Minutes that she and her criminal husband, Bernie Madoff attempted suicide together, New York magazine editor Steve Fishman earlier this year interviewed the convicted mobster and he denied such a plan.

This Sunday, 60 Minutes will air an interview with Ruth Madoff in which she reveals that she and her husband, disgraced financier Bernie Madoff, tried to commit suicide with an overdose of Ambien on Christmas Eve in 2008. “I don’t know whose idea it was,” the gravelly voiced Madoff matriarch says, “but we decided to kill ourselves.”

60 Minutes legend Andy Rooney is in stable condition after suffering serious complications from surgery. CBS News reports he’s currently resting in a hospital bed. His family has requested privacy throughout his ordeal and released no further medicial information.

Walter Issacson‘s latest biography might be the most historically significant, at least for the very moment in which we now find ourselves. Over the last year or so, Apple founder Steve Jobs granted 40 interviews recorded for a biography, the publish date of which has been moved up since the Jobs died this month as a result of pancreatic cancer. 60 Minutes sat down with Issacson for a two-part feature on Jobs, both of which you can view below, courtesy of CBS News:

The news that nonagenarian Andy Rooney would be leaving his post at 60 Minutes resulted in much warmth and nostalgia from a loyal audience, but if he was expecting it from Bill O’Reilly and Bernaie Goldberg, he was left wanting. Goldberg and O’Reilly, who had both worked at CBS, traded stories of Rooney being mean to them both, with Goldberg concluding he was cowardly and “not a stand-up guy.” Ouch.

Legendary TV curmudgeon Andy Rooney gave his 1097th and final commentary on Sunday evening’s 60 Minutes. “I wish I could do this forever,” Rooney lamented. “I can’t though.” He vowed he wouldn’t retire as a writer though, and thanked those who had wished him well but warned his fans to leave him in peace. “If you do see me in a restaurant, please just let me eat my dinner.”

Andy Rooney announced he was making his final regular appearance on 60 Minutes this Sunday. The witty raconteur has regularly given end-of-show commentary on the news magazine program since 1978 and was notable for his quirky, curmudegon points-of-view on various mundane subjects. Sunday will mark Rooney’s 1,097th essay for the show.

NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly has built himself quite the counter-terrorism unit. Appearing last night on CBS’s 60 Minutes, Kelly broke down some of the changes he’s made in the wake of September 11th. “I knew that we had to supplement, buttress our defenses,” he told Scott Pelley. “We couldn’t rely on the federal government alone.” And so he put his 50,000 employees to work devising an anti-terrorism unit on par with any military’s, complete with nuclear radiation detectors, an extensive network of surveillance cameras and, most awesomely, the ability to shoot down rouge aircrafts.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone are the creator’s of Comedy Central other long-running and hit show that consistently makes insightful political commentary by amplifying absurdities from the day’s headlines. South Park has been on air for well over a decade, and its creators have extended their creative reach to movies, and recently, a Broadway show. 60 Minutes‘ Steve Kroft recently sat down with Stone and Parker to discuss their hit musical The Book of Mormon as well as their creative process.

According to Wikipedia, the “sovereign citizen movement” is a loose network of American litigants, commentators and financial scheme promoter who call themselves “sovereign citizens” and believe that they are answerable only to English common law and are not subject to any statutes or proceedings at the federal, state or municipal levels. Tonight they were the focus of an 60 Minutes exposé hosted by Byron Pitts.

From CBS: Three days after he announced that American troops had killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan – President Barack Obama talked with “60 Minutes” correspondent Steve Kroft in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. That video aired tonight and was released by CBSNews.com, which you can watch in its entirety below.

The day after President Obama announced the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden news broke that the lifeless body of the al Qaeda leader was buried at sea in a manner that was consistent with Islamic tradition. Yesterday, the president sat down with 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft for an exclusive and one time discussion of the bin Laden affair, and a new segment has been released by CBS in which Obama discusses the burial at sea.

President Obama taped an interview yesterday to air on 60 Minutes Sunday, but a preview of his exchange with Steve Kroft demonstrates a confident President who is certain about his decision not to release the photos of Osama bin Laden‘s dead body.

CBS News is reporting that during a sit down interview for 60 Minutes, President Barack Obama revealed to Steve Kroft his decision to not release photos of a dead Osama bin Laden. Republican House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers reportedly said “the risk of release outweigh the benefits” before adding that there was concern over how the image would be viewed as a “trophy” and inflame public opinion in the Middle East.

CBS News has announced President Obama will give his “first and only” interview about the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden to Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes. Kroft has interviewed Mr. Obama ten times in the past, most recently last November.

CBS says the interview will be conducted tomorrow at the White House, and aired this Sunday, one week after the dramatic raid that sent U.S. forces into Pakistan and into a dramatic firefight inside bin Laden’s compound, where the al Qaeda leader was shot twice and killed:

In a deeply personal and moving segment that aired on 60 Minutes Sunday night, CBS News correspondent Lara Logan claimed that she thought she was going to die that night in Tahrir Square. “For an extended period of time, they raped me with their hands,” Logan showed great personal courage in sharing specific details, and recovering from an attack that she claims lasted 40 minutes and involved 200 to 300 men.

After the recent investigation by 60 Minutes potentially exposed many fabrications made by Greg Mortenson in the book he co-authored Three Cups of Tea, the embattled author also now faces a health scare. Mortenson was hospitalized for heart surgery and canceled a scheduled speaking appearance in Massachusetts.

Greg Mortenson is now discussing the recen, scathingt 60 Minutes report on him with none other than Outside magazine (one of only two publications Mortenson has elected to speak with in the wake of the 60 Minutes piece – the other being his local newspaper), and is essentially blaming David Oliver Relin, who co-authored and has joint copyright of , for any inconsistencies or embellishments in his books.

“You seem to be saying that most of it is BS,” says 60 Minutes’ Steve Kroft towards the end of a report on Greg Mortenson, summarizing the comments of one of the man’s critics. Mortenson is the writer and humanitarian whose inspirational books like the bestselling Three Cups of Coffee tell the story of his attempt to build schools in wartorn Pakistan and Afghanistan. The scathing segment begins with accusations that some of the books’ most heartwarming stories are made up and ends with a look at the schools that Mortenson’s Central Asia Institute non-profit claims to have made, finding many half-built, abandoned, or completely nonexistent.