Old-timer Schieffer leads new era at CBS
When discussing the strange twist his career has taken, Bob Schieffer compares himself to an old-timer enjoying a final fling at a baseball fantasy camp.
''It's kind of a fantasy," says Schieffer, who became interim anchor of ''The CBS Evening News" after Dan Rather departed under the cloud of last September's flawed ''60 Minutes Wednesday" story about George Bush's military record. ''This was just a bolt out of the blue when they picked me to do this. They said, 'Do it for a while.' "
In town yesterday to speak at a meeting of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, the 68-year-old Schieffer is clearly enjoying an unexpected late moment in the spotlight. While speculation about who would succeed Rather had focused on younger CBS stars like Scott Pelley and John Roberts, it was Schieffer -- the veteran Washington correspondent -- who ascended to the post when Rather left in March.
In an industry trying to cater to a younger demographic profile, Schieffer is a graying journalistic warhorse. He carries the short-term, interim anchor label. And CBS chairman Leslie Moonves has talked about the possibility of shifting to an innovative format of multiple anchors.
But a funny thing happened since Schieffer succeeded Rather. His relaxed style, and his habit of conversing with correspondents about their stories on the air, began generating boffo reviews.
There was a flattering story in The
Says Andrew Tyndall, who monitors network news in the Tyndall Report newsletter: ''He's the people's anchor. He's the viewers' anchor."
And suddenly, there's some buzz that perhaps Schieffer isn't such a short-timer after all.
''I don't know what they're going to do," says Schieffer when asked about CBS's plans." I don't think people know what they have in mind. . . . I have told them this: I'm going to retire at age 70. . . . I would like to leave the stage out there, while there are a few people applauding."
A 36-year veteran of CBS News, Schieffer took over the anchor duties as the network was reeling from the fallout of the ''60 Minutes Wednesday" scandal.
''I think what we really need to do now is work on our credibility," he said. ''I think it hurt us and it really hurt the morale of people. . . . We're kind of like a baseball team here. We're in a rebuilding phase. What we're trying to figure out is who our next stars will be."
He adds, ''I feel like, in a way, kind of a playing coach."
One defining wrinkle of the Schieffer newscast is the more casual and conversational tone to the program; the anchor often throws out unscripted questions to his reporters to interject context and some voice into the story.
''I'm a firm believer in plain talk," he says. ''It's just sort of who I am. . . . I think it's a better way to communicate."
''It's just gotten this overwhelming reception," he adds.
But Schieffer also says that the network newscasts must try new approaches to news gathering and presentation if they are to survive in an era of instant on-demand information.
''I think people come to the news at 6:30, and they already know what the news is," Schieffer says. ''We have to evolve into something beyond what the standard 6:30 broadcast was. What you can do is you can add perspective, you can add a bit of analysis. . . . We're at the end of an era. There's no question about that. Unless [the newscasts] evolve into something other than a summary of the day's news, I think they will go away."
However serious his journalistic mission, Schieffer is treating his new role with a combination of humor and self-deprecation. Speaking to the assemblage of guests in the Copley Plaza Hotel yesterday, he joked about the irony of anchoring a newscast looking for younger viewers.
''I feel kind of odd being the one leading the youth movement," Schieffer said. But he quickly added that his current job at the anchor post ''will give me something to do until I'm old enough to be on '60 Minutes.' "
