SOUTH DAKOTA STRAIGHT TALK

Bob Schieffer, former CBS news anchor and long-time newsman was in Vermillion on Thursday to receive the prestigious Al Neuharth Award For Excellence In The Media.

A fun and very enlightening night as another Fort Worth boy who made good was honored at the top of his game. Schieffer immediately showed that he approaches life with gusto and has a love of life and a love for what he does. It was a great show put on by USD and while Schieffer’s formal address was far far too short it was filled with gems.

Schieffer began his journalism career in Fort Worth first at the TCU student newspaper, “Daily Skiff”, and then at a popular AM station KXOL (there was no FM in the late ‘50s), Following service in the Air Force he worked for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (that had both morning and afternoon editions) where he was the police reporter. He later left the newspaper to join the local television station WBAP (We Bring A Program). WBAP shared common ownership with the Star-Telegram and was the Fort Worth-Dallas NBC network affiliate. There Schieffer become a popular local television newscaster.

Sidebar – WBAP was an early radio broadcast pioneer that operated in east Fort Worth atop “Broadcast Hill”. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover dedicated the station. WBAP television was one of the first commercial broadcasters in the Southwest and began broadcasting in 1948.

Schieffer left Fort Worth for Washington, DC in 1969. During his career he has covered politics in Washington continuously since and is one of the few persons to have achieved the “political reporting grand slam”. He has been a chief correspondent at the White House, Pentagon, State Department, and Capitol Hill. Additionally he is the enduring host of the CBS news show, "Face The Nation", and most recently was the very popular television anchor of the CBS Evening News.

The program Thursday night which was broadcast on South Dakota Public Television consisted of brief remarks by USD President Jim Abbott, and Al Neuharth - Major Domo, former Gannet CEO, founder of USA Today, USD alum and Eureka South Dakota native. They were followed by Schieffer who after receiving the Neuharth Award gave his brief address entitled “Journalism: The New Challenge."

From the outset you knew it was going to be a fun night without being an overly serious lecture. (I do not remember who said it perhaps President Abbott when) The stage was set for levity when they played to the USD crowd by relating a brief story. In the past two weeks Schieffer who has just retired from ceding the anchor chair to Katie Couric was Roasted by the Washington , DC Spina Bifida charity. One of those roasting Schieffer was Tom Daschle. Daschle made a comment that the Journalism School at Texas Christian University had just been renamed the Schieffer School of Journalism and then asked what kind of school has a Horned Frog as a mascot? As the Roast concluded and when Schieffer made his rebuttal, he acknowledged that while the Horned Frog mascot was unusual he could never understand how any school would want a Jackrabbit as their mascot. The Coyote faithful went wild.

More Fun - Before Schieffer spoke there was a brief video shown that was produced by CBS. Surprisingly in the spirit of bi-partisanship it was narrated by Tom Brokaw and included many bloopers and outtakes by Bob Schieffer over the years. The video portrayed him as very genuine, direct, and with a great sense of humor. Besides Brokaw also included were Clint Eastwood, Jay Leno, and David Letterman.

Schieffer gave not so much an address but a few observations about the role that Journalism plays. A few of his comments follows:

“Today is a tough time to be a journalist” – the left believes you are a lapdog for the government and the right believes you are liberal.

“There will always be a need for reporters”

“Journalism is the pursuit of the truth”

Schieffer made the point that throughout successive Presidential administrations that government is becoming more secretive with each Presidency becoming more secretive than its predecessor. Schieffer expressed that a fundamental difference between totalitarianism and democracy is than in democracies there is a second source for news. Not just the Government sponsored news outlet.

In conclusion he stated that the “Changes in technology are breathtaking” but  the charge will always be for reporters to “Go find out what happened.”

The program continued when they focused on the little known fact that Schieffer was a poet and he and a CBS colleague have been writing songs. What followed were Schieffer performing “Bob Schieffer’s Greatest Hits” including songs titled TV Anchorman, From There to Here, Long-Shot Love, and Little Lulu and Sister Hot Stuff (named after Schieffer’s grand daughters.) TV Anchorman and Little Lulu were upbeat while the other two were C&W love songs. All had a country rhythm that are reminiscent of Schieffer’s Cowtown origins.

Watching the pleasure Schieffer took in performing was great and clearly he is a man comfortable in front of a camera.

Intermittent between songs Schieffer tooks questions from the audience.

Following the “lecture” there was a bull session with Volante staff and USD Journalism students where Schieffer opened up a little more with opinions about current events and where we find ourselves today in America . When asked where he gets his news he said from newspapers although as part of his job he reads the newswire most of the day.

At the bull session he expressed doubt that Repbulicans can hold their majority in the U S House and he said the Senate apprears very close and more importantly stressed that the Government is Broken. While I do not agree with his solutions, unquestionably he is correct about the problem. Schieffer feels that Congress is not getting things done because they only worry about themselves and re election and not the Country. He feels and I agree that there is no premium on compromise and no focus on working together or solving problems.

One point he made worth following up on is that politics has become more extreme. There is little interest in Republicans and Democrats working together as everything has become overly partisan. He noted that members are so busy raising money and working with special interests that they have little time to build any personal relationships or get to know those across the aisle. His point being that when you have an argument with a friend and you disagree you can still come to some agreement. But when you disagree with someone who you have no relationship with you generally do not find any need to make concessions or find solutions to problems.

During the evening I vacillated as to whether Schieffer was a liberal, moderate, or closet conservative and frankly am still not sure. I remember when he was the moderator of the third George W Bush – John Kerry debate; the Democrats were outraged because Bob Schieffer’s brother was a close associate of the President. Tom Schieffer had served as the President of the Texas Rangers Baseball Club when George Bush was the general partner of the Ranger's ownership group, and was the United States Ambassador to Australia. (After the 2004 election Brother Tom was appointed and now serves as the Ambassador to Japan.)

The most memorable question that Schieffer asked in the debate was about the influence of their wives. After the debate there was never any suggestion that Schieffer was unfair or prejudicial for President Bush.

Bob Schieffer is a reporter who just wants to get the story. He believe that if the viewer has the facts and an accurate rendition without bias that they (the viewer) has the intelligence to make their own conclusion.

Post Script – With all the discussion about the direction that the media is going, not once was blogging mentioned. This was significant  as the genesis of Schieffer becoming the CBS anchor was the firestorm brought on his house by bloggers during Rathergate.