There’s a piece at the CBS website (9/21/11) by Robert Hendin marking Bob Schieffer‘s 20 years hosting the network’s Sunday morning show Face the Nation. Hendin, a senior producer for the show, writes:
From the get go, Bob made his plans known. “Our aim is to going to be very simple here: to find interesting people from all segments of American life who have something to say and give them a chance to say it,” he said that morning.
The piece goes on to reveal–likely by accident–a lot about what they mean by “all segments of American life.”
So to celebrate Bob’s 20th Anniversary, we went through the files and looked at exactly who he’s had on the broadcast. Here’s a look at Bob Schieffer’s 20 years at Face the Nation by the numbers:
Bob has interviewed:
Three presidents of the United States, four vice presidents, seven secretaries of state, six secretaries of Defense and 45 different cabinet members. He’s also interviewed 123 senators and 109 different representatives.
Of those, a few notable names come up more frequently than others: Vice President Joe Biden has been interviewed by Bob on Face the Nation 46 times. House Speaker John Boehner, seven times. Former Vice President Dick Cheney has been on the broadcast 16 times, including this past Sunday’s program. By far though, the number one guest of Bob’s tenure as host of Face the Nation is none other than Senator John McCain, who has been on the program 76 times.
All segments of American life. When did they give up on that idea?
“CBS News Celebrates 20 Years of Speaking For Power”
Fixed!
Actually, I think Bill Moyer got it right.
Bill Moyers and Charles Kaurault both spoke with the people. Maybe we’re just to boring for a Face the Nation segment.
The CBS show’s record is barely above that of local tee vee news shows, like those I watched in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton market for two decades: The happy news team speaks from the news release podium.
Wow! What a diverse group of corporate owned stooges did Bob Shieffer(who also plays a lot of golf with them) interview! Speaking to power or speaking for it? Seems to me to be the latter. I also note that CBS local news affiliates here in the bay area are none other than FOX News. Yeah! They do a great job speaking to power too!
Boring show…Sorry
@Duncan. Right on. Nicely done.
The notion that the corporate mass media would do anything other than push the status quo is beyond naive. And, yes, for years on ‘public’ television Bill Moyers actually did interview a diversity of people who did not necessarily defend the establishment. Why would anyone expect that of corporate tv?