On Oscar night, while most of the country was doing its own Hot Or Not review of the Hollywood red carpet people, a staple of Sunday evening entertainment, 60 Minutes, came out with one of its hardest-hitting episodes of the year.

Scott Pelley’s look at the ludicrously suspect indictment, trial and conviction of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman on bribery charges makes it plain that the case is another of the million reflections we see in the low-brow highly partisan carnival mirror that is Karl Rove’s Bush Administration. Perjured witnesses, confessions of investigative misconduct, refusal to testify at Congressional hearings… Any of that sound familiar?

Sometimes the streets of Oakland can be as treacherous for journalists as those of Baghdad, explains Anderson Cooper in a report on the death of newspaper editor Chauncey Bailey. The murder remains a compelling mystery and the related organized crime orchestrated through a place called Your Black Muslim Bakery points to a strange and uniquely American cultural product, something like The Godfather meets The Nation of Islam. The segment is a fitting tribute to those writers and photographers willing to put their careers and lives on the line to bring us the story.

The show finished with a revision of Steve Kroft’s cautionary tale of the world’s missing honey bees. Seems little has changed since last we heard about these AWOL insects. Scientists remain uncertain whether the losses are due to pesticides, disease, malnutrition or… something else. Hives continue to empty out and Congress has been slow to pledge additional research or beekeeper assistance. One thing we do know: if this trend continues, it will not only mean major trouble for the beekeepers, but also for the wider agricultural industry, reducing fresh produce and impacting consumer prices everywhere. What are they serving these days in the Capitol Hill cafeteria? Recession gumbo?

Finally, the burning journalistic question 60 Minutes failed to answer this Sunday as it has failed to answer every Sunday for the last hundred years: How is it that Andy Rooney is still on television?