Customer Reviews

This Just In: What I Couldn't Tell You on TV

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I would not have thought to pick up this book, except that, by serendipity, I heard parts of it on Radio Reader as I was driving to work for several mornings, and by further serendipity, I heard the author talking about my late aunt, whom I never knew very well, and who, as it turns out, was a noted eccentric among the White House press corps.

So, I bought the book. And I'm very glad I did. The story begins with Bob Schieffer's baby steps in journalism, his experiences during the the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the civil rights struggles of the 60s, his changing perceptions of the war in Viet Nam, his personal experience of growth and change in the news business and in American governance, then Watergate, and finally, the events of September 11.

Although I learned nothing dramatically new (except the story of my eccentric aunt), I did enjoy seeing familiar events through the eyes of one very astute and well-informed observer. Author Bob Schieffer writes in an easy, flowing style, as though he is talking to the reader personally. He conveys a great sense of warmth and compassion as he talks about figures who are, to most of us, the great and near great. He does not hesitate to poke fun at himself or to share his foibles and failures. He comes across as a really nice person who just happens to have first-hand experience of the great events of the last forty years. The book moves along quickly, reads easily, and leaves you wanting more.

I feel very fortunate that I was able to read this book, and I highly recommend it to others. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.

If you're expecting one of those polarizing, didactic tell-alls from Mr. Schieffer, you will be disappointed. This is a wonderfully centrist look at 40 years of American history through the eyes of one of the elder statesmen of the news media. THIS JUST IN allows you to check your dogma at the door, along with whatever SLANDER or STUPID WHITE MEN drivel you've been reading, and to enjoy a nonfiction book without judging its contents or its author. WAY TO GO, BOB!!

This is a terrific memoir of Mr. Schieffer's professional life. The book is, as one would expect, extremely well-written. The author's self-effacing and engaging style that works so well on TV works equally well as he tells his stories.
The book is a newsman's view of the news he reported.

Most impressively, Mr. Schieffer walks that thin line of relating recent history to give enough background without insulting the reader's intelligence by treating him as if he has been living in a shell for the last 35 years or so.

This is a typical memoir in that it relates Mr. Schieffer's professional career. The subtitle - "What I Couldn't Tell you on TV" is unfortunate, however, because there are not really any secrets in the book. This is a memoir and not a "tell-all". I do not think this author would be amenable to tablois style tell-all yarns. That does not detract from the book, only makes the title a bit misleading.

Mr. Schieffer has reported and/or been close to most of the major stories in America for the last few decades. This is an enjoyable look at those stories through his eyes which had a close-up view. The writing is as good as the view he gives the reader.

Bob Schieffer was not a name that I knew, so I would not have chosen this biography had a friend of mine not recommended it to me. I always learn something from biographies, and THIS JUST IN did not disappoint.

I dont watch much television inside these prison fences. My schedule is too busy with writing, reading, correspondence, and exercise. I am familiar with Peter Jennings, Ted Koppel, Tom Brokaw, and Dan Rather as newscasters, but I had not heard of Bob Schieffer before reading this book that chronicles his life. He does a fine job describing it.

I admire individuals who set clearly defined goals in their lives, then set in place a strategy to help them achieve those goals. Through Schieffers biography, readers learn that he was a diligent student and a determined worker as a young man. As a teenager Schieffer worked as a newspaper reporter, and after college became an officer in the Air Force. Immediately upon completing his military duty, Schieffer returned to his job as a local newspaperman. Not long after his return, he courageously persuaded his supervisor at the Fort Worth Star Telegram to send him to Vietnam in order to report on the Texan troops, thereby launching himself on his way to journalistic stardom.

Soon after Schieffers return from Vietnam he graduated to the world of electronic media as a local television reporter. From his post as an anchor for WBAP-TV (now KXAS) Schieffer doggedly pursued the major networks with hopes of leaving behind the daily coverage of murder, arson, and other bloody crime that local news organizations are committed to broadcasting. Schieffer wanted to cover national news.

His determination paid off, as Schieffer succeeded in landing a coveted job at CBS, and over a career that spans several decades, Schieffer has been responsible for reporting on four of the most prestigious posts in Washington: the State Department, The Pentagon, The White House, and The Congress. Schieffer also has anchored several of his own news shows and frequently substitutes for Dan Rather anchoring the CBS Evening News.

Although I was not familiar with Schieffer prior to reading his biography, it has become clear to me that he is an important journalist. Through his biography I learned more about many events in our nations history, including the controversy over Vietnam, Nixon, diplomacy, and several presidential administrations. The most compelling part of the book, for me, was his description of his and his colleagues experiences during the tragedy of September 11.

Besides being a journalist for one of the major networks, Schieffer also comes across as a genuinely nice person; a man committed to his wife, two daughters, and colleagues. I enjoyed reading about his life and the choices he made to reach his goals.

From the first page to the last, I could hear the warm, Texas cadence of Bob Schieffer's voice. While I have lived through most of the history, much of what he said was new to me. I found the history of White House politics and the press very enlightening. And his stint as a reporter in Viet Nam, gave me a clearer picture of just what the young men of my generation had to deal with.

Bob Schieffer demonstrates in the book that reporters are just as vulnerable to the foibles of life as we are. While his career was most prominent in his life, the needs of his family, in the end won out.

He takes us into the broadcast booth with him where we find people who worked for four days in 9/11, producers who sat under his desk feeding him page after page of the Starr report and where on election night 2000, the networks themselves set the stage for the most bizarre night ever on TV.

We are with him in Dallas, Viet Nam and on the courthouse steps of a sleepy 1960 Fort Worth. Throughout the entire book Schieffer, in his modest, warm and humorous way takes us on a forty year journey through an America that has reinvented itself over and over, only to come full circle on a viewing platform at Ground Zero.

I am leading a discussion on this book in two days. I began knowing little about Schieffer; I'm an NBC/Meet the Press viewer. I found my opinion changing as I read the book. Some of the drag early on came from his blinding ambition and delusion-slight chance of Cronkite replacement? Some of my favorite presidential coverage was Johnson, Nixon, McGovern where his subtitle makes the most sense. I found the review of the changes in broadcast journalism from hard news to story telling and entertainment interesting because he adapted surprisingly well, but room for book editing here. He calls himself an independent although his roots were in the democratic party, and I think he clearly assesses the strengths and weaknesses of both parties' presidents with just a lingering question about the limited Reagan coverage. He's willing to change his mind (Ford pardon) and Nixon praise at his death. He doesn't omit his personal issues with alcohol, caffeine, and sleep deprivation and lack of quality time at home. I am glad I didn't stop reading as I was tempted to do around 20% of the way in. As a good journalist knows how to do, he'd hook me again and again with well crafted anecdotes, as I was getting annoyed at the detail on budget cuts, leadership in CBS, and wanting to know something new. From the Pentagon, White House, State Department, and Congressional beats, he has quite the distinguished career and continues to outlast them all on Face the Nation and chief Washington correspondent.

Schieffer is a good storyteller and has seen a lot of important news from the last 40 years. He also manages to have something nice to say about nearly everyone he discusses. This book is certainly not a spiteful political diatribe, and is generally very pleasant.

I gave the book 4 stars because of one small point that nagged me as I read the book. For the Nixon era, he interviews many of the important players in Nixon's administration, or at least consults their memoirs, including Nixon himself, Melvin Laird and H.R. Haldeman. The one glaring exception is Chuck Colson, who has written very thoughtfully about the role he played in the Nixon administration, is very contrite for the crimes he committed during that period, and has done a world of good in this country's prisons since having served his own time. Colson very candidly described the m.o. of the administration as a flawed "ends justifies the means" mentality. Why would Schieffer not interview him, or at least consult the significant body of work Colson has produced on the subject?

In general though, I thought it was a very evenhanded and fair-minded account, and Schieffer deserves kudos.

Bob Schieffer who spent his life in journalism and was the anchor of 'Face the Nation'. He offers a behind-the-scenes account of his more than forty years in journalism, including coverage of the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, and Capitol Hill. Mr. Schieffer also discusses his reporting of Kennedy's assassination, the civil rights movement, Vietnam, Watergate and September 11, 2001.

You can tell that he enjoyed his career as a journalist and seems to be honest in his recollection of his career. And his brushes with those he interacted with. Though he does name drop and seem to let us know when ever fate favored him. Other then some of the few self-serving statements on his personal life and social climbing, his anecdotes are still worth reading. Even though he seems to never have met a person he didn't like. Do not expect to learn anything new, but it will jog your memory of many familiar events.

The title alludes to all kinds of 'secrets' to be told, and at a time when the debate over journalism itself is as much the topic of controversy, you would expect views and opinions relating to this as well as events throughout history. He covers historical events, but only as they effect him and his career. I would say there is a fair balance of insights on the news, and insights on himself. I kept waiting for something new on events of the past, but for the most part it was the same old stuff rehashed. This is due mainly because a lot of the story is about how he had been somewhere else as big news was taking place. You can't be everywhere at once, but he was rarely 'in the thick of things', and most of the 'inside' stuff was about the history makers he knew on a 'personal' level, though you get the impression it wasn't as personal as he makes it out to be.

I stopped looking for deep secrets when he referred to Al Gore's irrelevant statement about the Internet as 'a tall tale'. Anyone that doesn't take the media for granted and actually investigates this statement in context can see he doesn't think he 'invented' the Internet. The fact that Bob would make such a statement illustrates why his career took the course it did, and puts all the excuses throughout the book in their true light.

Still, if you want to know about the man, the book is very informative.

From start to finish, Bob Schieffer, in his gentle way, sits us down and tells us what it was like over the last 40 plus years. From his early days as a Texas newspaperman finding himself in the company of Mrs. Oswald the day Kennedy was shot, to being sent to cover the war in Vietnam, then finally joining CBS TV and covering all aspects of Washington from Watergate through the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon. Yes, he was there and his reportage then and his insight now gives us a greater understanding of what has been going on in the world over these four decades. His plum assignments at CBS kept him at the center of action: covering the presidential campaigns, the White House, the Pentagon, Capitol Hill, even the war in the Falkland Islands, and now continuing his moderating chores on Face The Nation which he began in 1991. The subtitle of this book is "What I Couldn't Tell You On TV," and he keeps that promise with many anecdotes that haven't been widely reported before this book. He also describes the movers and shakers of the U.S. during this period. He got to meet and know them all and he shares his thoughts on such as Lyndon Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Ford, Laird, Cronkite, Rather, the list goes on and on, even includes Agnew. His take on the changes that have infuenced political races, the Congress, and network TV, and what happened when CBS TV and everybody else blew it on election night 2000 makes for fascinating reading and gourmet food for thought. Throughout the book he gives us stories of his personal life and glimpses of his day-to-day working routines to give us a feel of what it is like to be a reporter at the center of activity. This is a fine book. On a few occasions he breaks from his chronological telling of the story, and I found that momentarily confusing. And a few more dates sprinkled in would have been helpful. But, I'm ready to sit down again and hear more of the adventures in journalism from this gentleman and scholar.