Longtime CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent and "Face the Nation" moderator Bob Schieffer, a fixture on the network dating back decades, is winding down his career.
The 78 year old Schieffer, who has been with CBS for over 45 years, will retire from the network this summer. He announced his impending decision while hosting his annual news symposium at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.
A native Texan, Schieffer served as a public information officer in the US Air Force before joining the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He first became known to many during the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. While at the paper, he received a phone call from the mother of Lee Harvey Oswald. Because of this, he was able to stay in touch with Mrs. Oswald throughout the waning hours, creating several new stories in the paper, as well as other networks, including CBS.
Joining CBS News in 1969, Schieffer became the Sunday anchor of the CBS Evening News in 1973, later adding Saturday duties as well. But perhaps his most well-known position came in 1982, when he became Chief Washington Correspondent for the network. There, he has seen numerous airtime on many CBS News broadcasts.
One of the most significant roles he has played has been as the moderator and host of the Sunday politics show "Face the Nation", since 1991. On the show, he has interviewed many of the country's top newsmakers and politicians, never backing down on a question.
Faced with a massive fallout from the Killian documents scandal that threatened to take down the network, Schieffer replaced Dan Rather as host of the weeknight edition of the CBS Evening News in 2005. Though it was only an interim, he led great success. Within a year, ratings had improved in all categories at a time when both ABC (Peter Jennings' death) and NBC (Tom Brokaw's retirement) were experiencing drops in viewership.
Bob Schieffer leaves behind a legacy of superior journalism that will likely never be truly replaced.
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