Texas Monthly Talks
Bob Schieffer
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I loved it. I never expected to do that job, because Dan [Rather] and I were close to the same age, and when he got it back in 1980, I thought that was that. I had been in New York at the time doing the Morning News, which was a huge flop. I came back to Washington and lived happily ever after. And so when they asked me to do it [on an interim basis following Rather’s retirement, in 2005], it was a great thrill. But it was not something I ever wanted to do for an extended period of time.
Because?
I would have had to move to New York, and two of my grandchildren live here in Washington. We’re settled. We have a wonderful life. If they had offered me the job when I was fifty years old, it would have been a different story. But at this stage of my life, that was not something I wanted to do.
Were you daunted by the format?
I still think there’s a place for the evening news. When you look at the combined audience of the three [network newscasts], they don’t have nearly the audience that they did when there were only three or four stations on your television dial. But a sizable number of people out there want a summary of the important news of the day. People now know the news before they sit down to watch the evening news, so you have to keep that in mind, which means more analysis. What I tried to do was tell the news in language people could understand. We inaugurated a format while I was there in which I would debrief the correspondents. I would ask them about a story, and they would tell me about it. My thing used to be, “Just tell me how you would tell your mom about something that happened.” The way you communicate on television is in very simple, direct language.
If you look at the ratings of even the lowest-rated show, which may be the CBS program, it gets five to six million people a night. That’s four times Jon Stewart’s or Stephen Colbert’s ratings.
Exactly. There are plenty of customers for us to aim at. I think the program right now is a good broadcast. On most nights we’re competitive. Some nights we’re ahead, and some nights the other guys are. But it’s like all things: Sometimes you get the bear, and sometimes he gets you.
I need to ask about Katie Couric. Are you a fan? There was some sense in the press that you didn’t approve of her selection.
That was all just totally erroneous. I was basically in charge of the welcome wagon when Katie came to CBS, and I did everything I could to make her welcome there. I think she was very appreciative of that. I like Katie.
You think she’s doing a good job?
She’s doing a fine job. I hope she stays for a while. These ratings are funny. What you have to do is put on the best news program you can and then see if anybody watches. If you’ve put on a good program, that’s the best you can do.
How’s your brother, Tom? He’s still the ambassador to Japan.
He’s doing great. He’s sure looking forward to coming back to Fort Worth. He’s been out of the country for seven years. He’s going to stay right up until Inauguration Day.
If the next president asked him to stay in the job . . .
I think he would be honored, but he would say, “It’s time for me to come home.”
Does he keep an eye on the team he used to partly own and run, the Texas Rangers?
Oh, yes. He remains a huge baseball fan. He goes to the games in Japan. The new commissioner of Japanese baseball, who is the former ambassador to the United States, is a real good friend of his. My brother keeps up all his ties with baseball in the U.S. Who knows? He may get back into it in some way.
Can I put in a bid for him to buy the Chicago Cubs instead of Mark Cuban?
I think I’m going to stay out of that.
You’ve just published a book, Bob Schieffer’s America, that’s a collection of the commentaries you write and then deliver at the end of Face the Nation. You’re the only Sunday host who does such a thing.
It all started, literally by accident, on the Sunday after Richard Nixon died. We had a roundtable on Nixon, and I thought the program needed a little button, so I wrote up this short commentary that said, “He left the White House in disgrace, but he left the earth with dignity.” I got such a huge response that a couple of weeks later I thought maybe I should try it again, and again I got a huge response. And so the next year, we incorporated it as a regular feature, and it’s now the most popular part of the program. It’s kind of interesting because it shows you how television works. When I started doing it, I never heard anything from the bosses in New York, and I started to worry that maybe I was violating CBS guidelines, because they’re very strict about not having a point of view. I thought, “Well, if I’m doing something wrong, they’ll tell me to stop.” But no one ever said anything. Then I won the Sigma Delta Chi award for commentary on television, and everyone from New York called down, “Great work! Keep up those commentaries!”
What does the future hold for you, Bob? How much longer do you expect to keep doing this?
I don’t know. My brother says I act like Roger Clemens: I say I’m going to retire and then I don’t retire. He sent me an e-mail: “For God’s sake, don’t get into the steroids.” My latest plan, if there is such a thing, is that I’m going to continue to do Face the Nation until CBS decides who they want to succeed me. Right now that’s wide open. Once the decision is made, I’m going to help with the transition. This will probably be over the next couple of years.
So you aren’t going to retire at the end of this campaign.
I’m not going to do that. That was the original plan, but they asked me to stay around and help with the transition. Once that happens, I’m going to work at CBS as needed. I’ll be around for big events.
You’ll go from Roger Clemens to Manny Mota.
I’m never going to work for someone else. That’s what it amounts to.
To keep the whole baseball thing going, you’re going to play with one team your whole career.
Whenever I do hang it up, it will be from CBS. I’ve said that my guide for the golden years is Tom Brokaw—what Tom is doing now. He does a documentary or two and keeps his hand in but has plenty of time for other things. I’ll tell you, I think NBC is very lucky to have Tom to come after Russert [as the interim host of Meet the Press].
He’s stable and familiar.
It would have been hard for anybody else to come in right after Russert. They would have been compared to him and all that. This gives NBC a little breathing room.
He’s free of the perception that he’s in there to get the job permanently.
I think a good part of the success that I had when I stepped in after Dan—and we were kind of in the middle of a train wreck right then—was that people understood that I hadn’t been trying to push him out the door. I wasn’t campaigning for the job, and I didn’t want it. I think that made it a little easier for me in those circumstances. I think it’s much the same thing for Tom. You know, he called me last night—he’s in Beijing. We’re good friends. We have been since we covered the White House together back in the Ford days. I’d sent him a note congratulating him on being another of the debate moderators. He said, “With you and me and [Jim] Lehrer doing the questioning, people know that Social Security will get its proper attention.”
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