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

The average rating for This Just In: What I Couldn't Tell You on TV based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-01-29 00:00:00 Carey Wolowski A memoir of the CBS newsman's life, from his early days as a police beat reporter, through Nixon and Watergate, the bloodshed at home and at Vietnam in the '60s, up to 9/11. I had never heard of Schieffer before, even though he was originally a Texas newsman. In any case, this is a very pleasant autobiography which also serves as a sort of informal history of America's last half-century. (The subtitle is somewhat misleading, as the book does not provide us with juicy tidbits which were too classified or secret to be revealed at the time. This is simply a series of pieces on episodes of American history: Watergate, the Ford pardon, the Clinton years, etc.) At times, too, it gets a bit too bogged down in CBS' internecine struggles and budget cuts for the average layman to get worked up about, but otherwise, Schieffer elegantly balances personal anecdotes and commentary about American history in simple, unfussy, modest prose. I did enjoy the first part of the book more than the second, if only because Schieffer paints such an interesting picture of what American life was like in those pre-Watergate days (cops mistaking him for a detective because he wore a certain cap! no security at the Pentagon door!). I found this memoir very engaging and hard to put down. Oh, and a final word about bias: Schieffer demonstrates that he's an ethical journalist, and his biases are admitted but not apparent from his writing. I found his disapproving account of the Clinton years very fair, although I'm a big Clinton fan, and could find no fault with his assessments of Nixon, Ford or Carter (indeed, Schieffer opened my eyes to the accomplishments of these latter two). So I don't think Schieffer is wielding any kind of political axe here, though it is odd that the Reagan years are largely absent from the book.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-01-21 00:00:00 Michael Donohue I really like books that take a look at the inside world of journalism and network news. This was an easy to read account of Bob Shieffer's career beginning in radio in Fort Worth, Texas, moving to the print media, and finally to television news. The book brought home how random events can make the difference in a national career or a noncareer--that pesky being at the right place at the right time. The section on the infighting at CBS over who would replace Walter Cronkite was particularly interesting. Loved the account of Roger Mudd storming out of the building when he didn't get the call and starting a career with another network. Two stories stood out for me. The first was that Senator Sam Nunn (D-Georgia), the head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was Bob Shieffer's best friend in Washington and he refused to give Shieffer any inside information. In fact, it was only while researching the book, and after Nunn had been out of office for years, that Shieffer found out that Nunn had been offered the job of Secretary of Defense before it was offered to Senator John Tower (and we all know how that turned out). The other story dealt with the Long family of Louisiana with whom I have been fascinated for years. While working for the leading newspaper in Ft. Worth, Texas, Shieffer got a first-hand look at Governor Earl Long getting off an airplane in Ft. Worth with a paper bag over his head with eye holes cut in it. He wanted to slip into town unnoticed. Good try, Earl. No wonder Long had to eventually be placed in a mental institution in Texas for a short period. (He couldn't be put into a mental institution in Louisiana because as governor he could sign himself out.) And, of course, Shieffer touched on the Blaze Starr stories about Earl Long--the old governor and the stripper trick. (I've already told you my stories about Blaze Starr up close and personal in Baltimore in the late 1960s.)