And there's little doubt he is closing out his 50-year career in journalism on a high note. "Face the Nation," the Sunday morning public affairs program that he has anchored for more than two decades, is currently #1 in the ratings, well ahead of NBC's "Meet the Press." Schieffer also anchored almost every other news broadcast at CBS during his tenure at the network, including the network's evening newscast, during the rocky period between Dan Rather's dismissal and the hiring of Katie Couric. Schieffer is widely credited for restoring stability to the broadcast, and given Couric's dismal performance, many believe he would have been a far better choice to permanently fill the chair.
Mr. Schieffer announced he was stepping down last Wednesday at his alma mater, Texas Christian University. He revealed his retirement plans during the annual news symposium which bears his name, at the school's college of communications, which is also named for Schieffer. Anyone see a pattern here?
But TCU's lionization of its famous graduate almost pales compared to the effusive praise Schieffer received from fellow journalists. A sampling of tweets collected by Poynter.org hailed the retiring anchor as a "stalwart" and "trusted by both sides."
However, in the interest of fairness, we offer the "other" Bob Schieffer, a collection of his greatest hits (compiled by the Media Research Center) that highlight the CBS anchor's obvious left-wing bias. Consider this summation of Barack Obama's eminently forgettable State of the Union speech in 2013:
"This was a speech that had some music to it, as they used to say. He coined a few phrases in there, talked about the 'unfinished task before us,' sort of reminiscent of what Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address.
Or this lecture to Herman Cain in 2011:
"Mr. Cain, I have to ask you, what is the point of that..having a man smoke a cigarette in a television commercial for you? Well let me just tell you it's not funny to me. I am a cancer survivor like you. I had cancer that was smoking related. I don't think it serves the country well and this is an editorial opinion here, to be showing someone smoking a cigarette. You're the frontrunner now and it seems to me as the frontrunner you have a responsibility not to take that kind of tone in a campaign..why don't you take it off the internet?
We should also note that Mr. Schieffer's folksy, on-air demeanor has concealed a petty, vindictive streak that was sometimes directed at colleagues. During the late 70s and early 80s, Schieffer anchored the CBS Morning News, which never gained any traction against NBC's "Today" or "Good Morning America" on ABC. At one point, CBS decided to hire network TV's first female meteorologist, Valerie Voss, to handle the forecasting duties. For some reason, Schieffer disliked his new colleague, and never spoke to Voss on the set. She went on to a long career as a senior meteorologist at CNN.
Likewise, Schieffer had low regard for Bill Kurtis, the man who eventually replaced him on the Morning News. Never mind that Kurtis had a CBS News correspondent in Los Angeles; a spectacularly successful anchor for the network's owned-and-operated station in Chicago (WBBM), and the recipient of numerous journalism awards. In one of his books, Schieffer simply refers to his successor as the "deep-voiced announcer" for the CBS station in Chicago.
It's also a fair bet that Bill O'Reilly of Fox News won't be on the invite list for Schieffer's going away party in Washington. Schieffer was the senior CBS correspondent who was dispatched to Argentina to cover the Falklands War, reducing air time for O'Reilly, who was a newcomer at the network. O'Reilly exacted a measure of revenge by (reportedly) using Schieffer as a model for the lecherous White House correspondent murdered in the first chapter of "Those Who Tresspass," a novel published by the Fox News host in 2004.
To be fair, no one works in broadcasting for more than 40 years without making a few enemies, and that appears to be the case with Mr. Schieffer. But in the examples cited above, it appears his spite was reserved for colleagues with little power, or those who had the temerity to replace him in a high-visibility gig. For all his courtly manners, Bob Schieffer could be vicious and mean-spirited and that's part of his media legacy as well.
“Mr.
Cain, I have to ask you what is the point of that? Having a man smoke a
cigarette in a television commercial for you?...Well, let me just tell
you, it’s not funny to me. I am a cancer survivor like you. I had cancer
that was smoking related. I don’t think it serves the country well, and
this is an editorial opinion here, to be showing someone smoking a
cigarette. You’re the frontrunner now and it seems to me as frontrunner
you would have a responsibility not to take that kind of a tone in this
campaign....Why don’t you take it off the Internet?” - See more at:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeffrey-meyer/2015/04/09/cbs-oozes-giant-journalism-amazing-bob-schieffer-retiring#sthash.ytwhbqwu.dpuf
“This
was a speech that had some music to it, as they used to say. He coined a
few phrases in there, talked about the ‘unfinished task before us,’
sort of reminiscent of what Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address.” -
See more at:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeffrey-meyer/2015/04/09/cbs-oozes-giant-journalism-amazing-bob-schieffer-retiring#sthash.ytwhbqwu.dpuf
“This
was a speech that had some music to it, as they used to say. He coined a
few phrases in there, talked about the ‘unfinished task before us,’
sort of reminiscent of what Lincoln said in the Gettysburg Address.” -
See more at:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeffrey-meyer/2015/04/09/cbs-oozes-giant-journalism-amazing-bob-schieffer-retiring#sthash.ytwhbqwu.dpuf
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