Bob Schieffer to Replace Dan Rather as CBS Anchor
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James Joyner | Wednesday, February 2, 2005 |
Schieffer set to fill Rather’s CBS seat (USA Today)
Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer is all but certain to be named interim anchor on The CBS Evening News when Dan Rather steps down next month, sources within CBS News say. Though no final decision has been made, sources with knowledge of the deliberations say Schieffer, 67, would provide a smooth transition between Rather and a new, multi-anchor program.
Rather announced in November that he would leave March 9. His announcement came in the middle of an investigation into the “Memogate” scandal, in which Rather cited documents, later discredited, as the basis for a 60 Minutes report on President Bush’s military career. The possibility of Schieffer as interim anchor surfaced quickly. Schieffer knows the ropes, having anchored the Saturday CBS Evening News for 20 years until 1996.
With Rather’s departure a month away and a new format still under development, it’s likely CBS will tap Schieffer to anchor from New York, probably until late spring or early summer when the new program is ready.
Schiefer is a credible journalist and certainly a suitable news anchor. It’s unclear to me, though, why CBS can’t simply get their act together and put together whatever format they’re going to use in time. They’ve had three months and it’s not as if reading the news is some new innovation CBS is experimenting with–they’ve been doing it for 60-odd years.
About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.
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And considering Schiefer's age, this is hardly a long term solutuion.
It is far from an exciting one, that's for sure.
...it's not as if reading the news is some new innovation CBS is experimenting with--they've been doing it for 60-odd years.
Define "news."
For them, this is a new innovation.
Dan Rather would probably comment that Schieffer is probably happier than a dog with two tails, or some Texas-sized Dan-ism.
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