Printable Biography of Bob Schieffer

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Bob Schieffer, broadcast journalism’s most experienced Washington reporter, has been anchor and moderator of Face the Nation, CBS News’ Sunday public affairs broadcast, since May 1991. He also serves as CBS News' Chief Washington Correspondent.

 

Schieffer has covered Washington for CBS News for more than 30 years and is one of the few broadcast or print journalists to have covered all four major beats in the nation's capital -- the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department and Capitol Hill. He has been Chief Washington Correspondent since 1982 and congressional correspondent since 1989 and has covered every presidential campaign and been a floor reporter at all of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions since 1972. In 2004, he was chosen as moderator for the third presidential debate.

 

Schieffer is a member of the Broadcasting/Cable Hall of Fame and in 2003 was named the recipient of the Paul White Award from the Radio-Television News Directors Association. RTNDA established the Paul White Award in 1956 to honor the broadcast news pioneer who served as the first news director at CBS. The award recognizes an individual’s lifetime contribution to electronic journalism. Past CBS recipients include Edward R. Murrow (’64), Morley Safer (’66), Walter Cronkite (’70, ’81), Don Hewitt (’87), Mike Wallace (’91), Charles Kuralt (’94), Dan Rather (’97) and Ed Bradley (2000).

 

He has won many other broadcast journalism awards, including six Emmys and two Sigma Delta Chi Awards. In 2002, the National Press Foundation chose Schieffer as Broadcaster of the Year. He has been a principal anchor for CBS News since 1973, when he was named anchor of the CBS Sunday Night News. I

 

n August 1996, Schieffer stepped down as anchor of the Saturday edition of the CBS Evening News, a post he held for 20 years. He and his colleague, Dan Rather, now stand as the only two 20-year anchors of a regularly scheduled network news broadcast.

 

Schieffer joined CBS News in 1969 and, after a brief stint as a general assignment reporter, was named Pentagon correspondent, a post he held for four years.

 

Before joining CBS News, he was a reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and, in 1965, became the first reporter from a Texas newspaper to report from Vietnam. Schieffer later became news anchor at WBAP-TV Dallas/Fort Worth, a post that eventually led to his joining CBS News.

 

He is the author of three books, newly released Face the Nation: My Favorite Stories from the First 50 Years of the Award Winning News Broadcast, 2003 New York Times bestseller, This Just In, What I Couldn’t Tell You On TV, and Acting President, published in 1989.

 

Schieffer was born in Austin, Texas. He and his wife reside in Washington, D.C. They have two daughters and three grand-daughters.