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Bob Schieffer turns 67 as 
‘Face the Nation’ 
turns 50

Bob Schieffer, chief Washington correspondent for CBS News, turned 67 last week, which makes him 17 years older than “Face the Nation,” the TV program he moderates each Sunday.Schieffer, who moved into FTN’s anchor chair in 1991, is preparing to celebrate the program’s half-century

mark in November, just two days before the 2004 presidential election, possibly with a joint appearance by President Bush and his Democratic challenger, most likely Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry.  

But even if he does land those two big fish, it’s unlikely the program will produce as many fireworks as its first guest on Nov. 7, 1954. That was Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the Red-baiting Republican from Wisconsin. McCarthy hoped to use his appearance to stave off a censure vote by the Senate, but instead sealed his fate by accusing his colleagues of engaging in a “lynching bee.”

His remarks infuriated his colleagues, including Sen. Wallace Bennett (R-Utah), father of Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah), who came on the program several weeks later and denounced McCarthy.

Schieffer, whose best-selling 2003 memoir, This Just In: What I Couldn’t Tell You on TV, has just been issued in paperback, is writing a history of the program, due for publication in October. It will recount moderator Ted Koop’s McCarthy interview, as well as historic interviews of Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro by another predecessor, Dan Schorr.

Schieffer might even write about some of his own memorable programs, including his two-hour broadcast the Sunday after Sept. 11, 2001.