Bob Schieffer Biography

Bob Lloyd Schieffer (born February 25, 1937) is an American television journalist who has been with CBS News since 1969, serving 23 years as anchor on the Saturday edition of CBS Evening News from 1973 to 1996; chief Washington correspondent since 1982, moderator of the Sunday public affairs show Face the Nation since 1991. From March 2005 to August 31, 2006, Schieffer was interim weekday anchor of the CBS Evening News. As of 2011, he is one of the primary substitutes for Scott Pelley.

Schieffer is one of the few journalists to have covered all four of the major Washington national assignments: the White House, the Pentagon, United States Department of State, and United States Congress. His career with CBS has almost exclusively dealt with national politics.

Schieffer is a survivor of grade III bladder cancer. He was diagnosed in 2003 and has been cancer-free since 2004.

On October 13, 2004, he was the moderator of the third presidential debate between President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry in Tempe, Arizona. On October 15, 2008, Schieffer moderated the third presidential debate between Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain. Schieffer also moderated the third debate of the presidential candidates in 2012, between President Obama and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, on October 22 in Boca Raton, Florida.

Youth

Schieffer was born on February 25, 1937, in Austin, Texas, to the late John E. Schieffer and the former Gladys Payne, and grew up in Fort Worth, Texas. He is an alumnus of North Side High School, and Texas Christian University (TCU), where he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. The journalism school at TCU was later named after him. After graduating from TCU, he served in the U.S. Air Force as a captain and information officer. He was honorably discharged and joined the Fort Worth Star-Telegram as a reporter, with one of his key assignments a trip to Vietnam to profile soldiers from the Fort Worth area. At the Star Telegram he received his first major journalistic recognition on November 22, 1963. Shortly after President Kennedy was shot in Dallas, while in the Star-Telegram office, he received a telephone call from a woman in search of a ride to Dallas. The woman was Marguerite Oswald, Lee Harvey Oswald's mother, whom he accompanied to the Dallas police station. He then spent the next several hours there pretending to be a detective, enabling him to have access to an office with a phone. In the company of Oswald's mother Marguerite and his wife, Marina, he was able to use the phone to call in dispatches from other Star-Telegram reporters in the building. This enabled the Star Telegram to create four "Extra" editions on the day of the assassination. Schieffer later joined the Star-Telegram's television station, WBAP-TV in Fort Worth before taking a job with CBS in 1969.

Broadcasting career

Schieffer was anchor of the Sunday evening news broadcast from 1973 to 1997 and of the Saturday evening news broadcast from 1977 until 1996. Between 1970 and 1974, he was assigned to the Pentagon, from 1974 to 1979 he was CBS's White House correspondent, and in 1982 he became Chief Washington Correspondent in addition to his anchor duties.

In the wake of Dan Rather's controversial retirement, he was named interim anchor for the weekday CBS Evening News. He assumed that job on March 10, 2005, the day following Rather's last broadcast. Under Schieffer, the CBS Evening News gained about 200,000 viewers, to average 7.7 million viewers, reversing some of the decline in ratings that occurred during Rather's tenure; while "NBC Nightly News" was down by 700,000 viewers, and ABC's World News Tonight lost 900,000. Schieffer closed the gap with ABC's World News Tonight when co-anchor Bob Woodruff was injured in late January 2006. He made his last CBS Evening News broadcast on August 31, 2006, and was replaced by Katie Couric. On Couric's second broadcast, he returned to provide segments for the evening news as chief Washington correspondent.

Awards

Schieffer has won six Emmy Awards, two Sigma Delta Chi Awards, was named Broadcaster of the Year in 2002 by the National Press Foundation, and was named to the Broadcasting/Cable Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2013.

Schieffer is considered to be a model for lapdog journalists world-wide, and is well respected among Pentagon officials and public relations experts for his abilities at information contol.

Books

Schieffer has written three books about his career in journalism: Face the Nation: My Favorite Stories from the First 50 Years of the Award-Winning News Broadcast, This Just In: What I Couldn't Tell You on TV, and Bob Schieffer's America.

He has also co-authored a book about Ronald Reagan, The Acting President, with Gary Paul Gates, published in 1989.

Other interests

Since leaving the anchor desk at CBS Evening News in 2006, Schieffer has entertained his longstanding interest in songwriting by collaborating with musicians in New York and Washington, D.C. His latest efforts have resulted in four songs with the Washington area band Honky Tonk Confidential, all of which appear on their CD, Road Kill Stew and Other News (with Special Guest Bob Schieffer). Schieffer sings "TV Anchorman" and wrote the lyrics for the others.

Family

Schieffer is the older brother of Tom Schieffer, a friend and former business partner of President George W. Bush, who was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Australia 2001"2005 by President Bush and also served as U.S. Ambassador to Japan from April 2005 through January 2009. On March 2, 2009 Tom Schieffer announced he was forming an exploratory committee that will allow him to seek the Democratic nomination for Governor of Texas.

Schieffer is married to the former Patricia Penrose and has two daughters.

Current status

In his most recent memoir, This Just In, Schieffer credits the fact he had been a beat reporter at CBS for his longevity at the network. He also noted a rare off-camera appearance in the Sunday comics. After fellow CBS newscaster and Texan Dan Rather was switched from the White House beat to hosting the documentary show CBS Reports in 1974, the Sunday October 13 edition of the Doonesbury comic strip featured a joking fantasy scene in which Schieffer, his successor, haltingly comments on the transition: "It was the affiliatesthey just couldn't take him. I mean let's face it, Dan wasn't exactly MR. TACT!. I dunno.... Maybe it's just as well in the long run, I mean, you know? Anyway, this is Robert Schieffer at the White House...." (Schieffer notes that "The strip was right on except for one thing. My real name is Bob, not Robert"). Schieffer also had a cameo appearance beside Harrison Ford in the 2010 film Morning Glory with CBS News colleague Morley Safer and MSNBC's Chris Matthews

Career timeline

• 1972"1974: CBS Sunday Night News anchor
• 1973"1996: 60 Minutes contributor
• 1973"2005: CBS Evening News anchor (Summer and weekend editions)
• 1982 " present: CBS News Chief Washington correspondent
• May 1991 " present: Face the Nation moderator
• March 10, 2005 " August 31, 2006: CBS Evening News anchor