Veteran journalist Bob Schieffer has spent many evenings featured on television sets across the country on the CBS Evening News.
He spent Tuesday evening in front of a class of about 25 broadcast newswriting students in the School of Media and Public Affairs talking about his career and the journalism industry.
Professor Randy Wolfe, who teaches the class, worked with Schieffer for about 15 years at CBS, where the two became friends. Schieffer is the chief Washington correspondent for CBS, and for more than a year served as anchor of the national evening news.
“He’s the finest broadcaster, if not the most experienced,” said Wolfe, who worked as a producer at CBS for about 20 years.
Students in Wolfe’s classes are not strangers to broadcast news all-stars. Earlier this semester, his class met with NBC Nightly News anchor, Brian Williams.
On Tuesday night, Schieffer focused the discussion on his career and today’s journalism landscape.
“I like to talk to young people about journalism and let them know what a great way it is to spend your life,” Schieffer said in an interview after the talk.
“The secret to writing good broadcast news is to tell people a story they will remember,” Schieffer said. “Keep it as simple as you possibly can.”
With a slight Texas drawl, the 50-year journalism veteran described his work experiences at the Forth Worth Star-Telegram newspaper and reporting overseas in Vietnam.
Last year, Schieffer served as interim anchor of the CBS Evening News before Katie Couric took over as the first female to anchor a major evening news program.
“She’s a lot of fun to be around,” Schieffer said of the former NBC Today Show host.
“The show got off to a rocky start,” he said of Couric’s anchoring of the CBS Evening News. “But it’s going back to harder news.”
Schieffer said he spent most of his day Tuesday being interviewed by other journalists about the Don Imus controversy.
Imus, a CBS radio broadcaster, made remarks many are saying were racist and sexist last week about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team. Schieffer has made guest appearances on the program and on Tuesday called Imus “a friend.” Media organizations were asking him if he would return to Imus’s program as a guest.
“What he did was indefensible,” Schieffer said. “He’s a good person; he just shouldn’t have done this.” If invited, Schieffer said he would go back on Imus’s show.
Sophomore Alex Carusillo said that Schieffer’s discussion gave him a sense of hope for a possible future in media, and added value to his studies here.
Schieffer said one of his greatest achievements was when his alma mater, Texas Christian University, named their school of journalism after him.
Schieffer covered the White House, Pentagon, State Department and Capitol Hill throughout his career. He has also covered every presidential campaign and Democratic and Republican National Convention since 1972, according to the CBS Web site.
“I love Washington, D.C. best of all,” said Schieffer, in response to a question about what city he preferred to work in. He said another proud moment will be interviewing U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney on his program Face the Nation Sunday. n
-Brandon Butler contributed to this report.
