Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: Great insight into history through his eyes... I especially enjoyed the stories of his early days in Fort Worth...
Rating:
Summary: Candor, Credibility, Legacy
Review:
With This Just In Bob Schieffer exposes his person with such candor that his credibility as a journalist is underpinned to an incredible degree.
I found this inside account of contemporary history one of the most riveting of our day.
One day we will not have Bob Schieffer. Based on this work, I hope Bob writes plenty more than he already has. He's leaving a wonderful legacy, and this reader really appreciates it!
Marvin Shilmer
Rating: 
Summary: Some Humorous Ancedotes Of A Career In TV News
Review: This Just In, Bob Schieffer's book about his career, gave me more than a few chuckles and is a good and easy read. I have always liked Schieffer's relaxed on-air personality, a trait which comes through clearly in the book.
I do have one or two quibbles, though. Bob mentions some of CBS News' recent big guns - Dan Rather, Rogr Mudd, Leslie Stahl, etc. - but where are the references to the other giants of CBS news, people like Howard K. Smith, Harry Reasoner, and the man who started it all on air, Douglas Edwards? The world did not begin with Walter Cronkite, Bob. They do not rate even a mention in the book, perhaps because they never played a part in Schieffer's rise.
This leads me to another observation: Bob seems to be quite the social climber. He peppers the book with mentions of the good and great who have had him and his wife over to dinner or to a party. He is not a disinterested observer, either. As he eventually mentions towards the end of the book, Bob's brother Tom Schieffer was a partner with Geoge W. Bush in the Texas Rangers baseball team, and it was President Bush who appointed this same Tom Schieffer as Ambassador to Australia! Keeping this in mind, it pretty unfortunate that Schieffer saves most of the few disdainful comments in the book for the Bush family's political nemesis, Bill Clinton. I don't think Bob is quite as objective as he thinks he is.
A bit of Bob's love of the old lucre also raises its ugly head as he brags ever so lightly about selling his New York apartment for four times what he paid for it. Congratulations, Bob, but please spare us stories of your financial success.
I do recommend this book. Bob came along toward the end of the period of television news golden age, and it's nice to be reminded of those times. We won't see those days ever again.
Rating: 
Summary: An Enjoyable Memoir
Review: This book is a thoroughly enjoyable memoir written by a principled man and fair-minded reporter. It's a light read that includes interesting tales of Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and the Vietnam war, to name just a few topics. I was intrigued by his insights into Senator George McGovern. Although some of his personal anecdotes are less interesting, on the whole it is worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: It Has Its Moments...
Review: Schieffer, Bob, This Just In. New York: Putnam, 2003.
This book was a disappointment. Schieffer is basically a newspaper reporter, and his anecdotes about his long career with CBS-TV lie flat on the page. Aside from a few good quips, such as Dan Rather and Schieffer laughing over being described as "elitist" when they both attended small colleges in remote Texas towns, or Helen Thomas's retort to LBJ when he said that his answer to a question would be a very long one: "Then start at the end," there isn't much that I didn't already know. Schieffer likes everyone: Nixon, Ford, Bush I, Bush II, and the defeated Democrats. But he hates Clinton because of his dishonesty and deception. This attitude tells me that (1) he's not very smart, (2) he is biased in favor of conservatives, and (3) he lacks judgment. This is precisely why I can't trust any of the talking heads on my TV screen. They're "analysis" of the news is superficial and gullible. The writing of the book is entertaining at times, more at the early (Vietnam) stages than the later, when his bitterness over the dismantling of CBS news shows through, but I missed the insights the author should have gotten over 40 years of journalistic work. His concerns were mainly for his career, and, if the book is to be believed, name-dropping and making contacts. His description of 9/11 and what has come afterward are naive and nothing new.
Rating:
Summary: His story, not history, is what he couldn't tell you....
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Like spending an evening listening and learning
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining
Review: This book deserves a very high rating, but it will be most appreciated by readers who have been interested in politics
for quite a few years. The author, Bob Schieffer, has been
reporting for what seems like a long time, and some of his funniest, revealing stories happened early in his career. One of
his oddest happened the day JFK was shot; he was then a reporter
on the big Ft.Worth daily paper, and he got a call from Oswald's
mother, asking for a ride to Dallas. Yes, he was surprised, and
he still has no explanation why such a call was made to the newspaper. But, being a young, gung-ho reporter, he immediately
got a car and took her to the Dallas jail where Lee Harvey was being held, all in the hope of course of getting a nice interview.
But he concluded the Oswald mother wasn't quite mentally
100%, so he worked his reporter magic and got into a room with
Oswald's wife, hoping for an interview with her. Then it turned out
Maria could only speak Russian! His big break wasn't going anywhere, then an FBI agent finally asked him who he was with,
and he was finally thrown out. All without any real story.
And his early days were filled with stories like that, and he relates
them with humor and warmth.
He is almost a throwback, when the men and woman on TV were
real reporters and journalists, so what we usually see on TV now
is a shallow image of what we used to get.
Schieffer also shows considerable honesty by admitting that
most political reporters do, in fact, have personal views and prejudices that sometimes creep into their reporting and commentaries. Most TV people refuse to admit such an obvious
fact, and Schieffer deserves credit for telling the truth.
He is from a Democrat family in Texas, and he married a woman
from a prominent Ft.Worth Democrat family, and those facts have
to color his thoughts at times. And, somewhat oddly in view of
his concern for honesty, he admits that the Presidents he personally liked most were LBJ and Clinton, the 2 most sleazy,
self-centered, dishonest men to ever hold that office. But he also
says he always liked Ford, and he has to admit that his admiration
for Clinton became more diminished as time went on.
But Schieffer has been among the most thoughtful, and most
traveled, reporters with CBS, and he relates stories from most hot
spots in the world, and some of his most interesting stories are
from his days of being the Congressional correspondent, as well
as his days as Pentagon correspondent. He worked with nearly
everyone in both places, and his observations are all but amazing
against today's backdrop of high concern for security. You need
to read about the time when he could just walk into the Pentagon
without question, and he relates he didn't even bother to get press
credentials for a long time, because they weren't needed in those
days.
You can gain some nice insights from reading of all the hours he
spent waiting in the White House press room, and his relationships with various staff members connected with several Administrations.
He also relates several stories about his family relationships and
how difficult they were to handle along with his very demanding
job. Read about his work schedule when he was constantly flying back and forth between Washington, DC and N.Y., and most of
us will wonder how in the world he managed to keep up. He has
put in tremendous hours and effort trying to get the best story
and supporting the others at CBS, and it shows here.
For "political junkies," this is an absolute must. And if you are interested in charting some of the changes in the concept of
journalism, here is a good source.
Schieffer's writing style reflects his training in old-fashioned reporting, where every word counted, and his stories just flow
on from one funny story to another, fascinating, story. His personal interest in getting the facts, and the best stories, show
here, and this is a fun and easy book to read.
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