Journalist Bob Schieffer Retires

Bob Schieffer never wanted to be the story; he just wanted to cover the news.  In signing off for the last time as anchor of Face the Nation, he made that clear.   "The news is not about the newscaster," he said, "it's about the people who make it and those who are affected by it."

Schieffer remembered that he was hooked when he saw his byline in the school newspaper when he was a ninth grader.  He grew up in Ft. Worth, Texas, and went to college locally at Texas Christian University.  He landed his first job at a local radio station, KXOL, working for $1 an hour.   In Sunday's Face the Nation he would recall, "I love the news, and, at the time, every job I have ever had was the best job in the world."

That enthusiasm soon landed him a job at the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram.  It was there he got his first big scoop.  He was working in the newsroom following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas.  In his 2003 book, This Just In, he described answering one of the ringing phones.

"A Woman's voice asked if we could spare anyone to give her a ride to Dallas."  

"'Lady,' I said, 'this is not a taxi, and besides, the president has been shot.'"

"'I know,' she said, 'They think my son is the one who shot him.'"  It was Lee Harvey Oswald's mother who had heard her son had been arrested.  

"'Where do you live?' I blurted out, 'I'll be right over to get you!'"  

Schieffer picked her up and drove her to the Dallas police station where police guided him and Mrs. Oswald into an interrogation room.  Several hours later the FBI realized they had a reporter in their midst and ordered him to leave.  But Schieffer had a great story.  

Following the Kennedy assassination, Schieffer got his first promotion from the police beat to covering the county courthouse.  Then The Star-Telegram would send him to Vietnam to cover America's growing involvement there.  The paper had promised that he would interview every Ft. Worth boy he could find.  "I have yet to match the thrill I got when I would...tell a nineteen-year-old kid, 'I'm from the Star-Telegram and your mom wrote me a letter and asked me to look in on you,'" he remembered in his book.  When his assignment in Vietnam ended, he recalled, "I had gone to Vietnam convinced the government was on the right course, and was coming home convinced the course was hopeless." 

Schieffer would be hired by a local television station, but was eager to move a network news organization.   In 1969, he took a job in Washington as a reporter with Metromedia.  His first assignment would be to cover the Nixon Inaugural.  But he still wanted a network news job, preferably with CBS News because Walter Cronkite was his favorite broadcaster.  Loaded down with tapes of his stories, he arrived one day at the CBS News Washington bureau and announced he was there to see the bureau chief.  After making his case to Bill Small, the tough CBS News bureau chief, he left thinking he had failed.  But a week later Small hired him.

In 1970, CBS News assigned Schieffer to the Pentagon beat.  He would later note that he was one of the few Washington reporters who covered all of the four major beats, the Pentagon, State Department, White House and Congress.   Washington was ground zero for news with the Vietnam War, the re-election of President Nixon in 1972, and the Watergate scandal, and Schieffer was deeply involved in CBS News coverage.  Richard Nixon resigned in August 1974.  Schieffer covered Nixon's final departure from Andrews Air Force Base on Air Force One.  One week after Nixon's resignation, Schieffer was promoted to White House correspondent replacing Dan Rather, who took over as anchor for CBS Reports.

Schieffer covered Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.  Schieffer also continued his role as anchor of the Saturday edition of the CBS Evening News.  In 1979, Schieffer was asked to anchor the struggling CBS Morning News, a role he carried out for twenty-one months.  He would describe his stint as a "graduate course in learning how to handle on-the-air emergencies."  He requested a transfer back to Washington, and would soon become the State Department correspondent.  

In 1981, Dan Rather would replace the retiring Walter Cronkite as anchor of the CBS Evening News.  Schieffer found himself covering politics.  Meanwhile, CBS went through a change of ownership, which led to a round of deep budget cuts.  In the late 80's, Schieffer became CBS News' Congressional correspondent.  He later said that, "Congress had always been my favorite part of Washington."  He mastered the beat.

In 1991, Face the Nation anchor Lesley Stahl became a correspondent for 60 Minutes.  Schieffer was offered the job and responded, "When do I start."  He wrote, "It didn't take me long to realize that of all the jobs I have ever had over the years, this was the best.  I got to interview everyone who was anyone, and I didn't even have to go to them."

Schieffer anchored Face the Nation for twenty-four years.  He led the expansion of the program from thirty-minutes to an hour.  He hosted presidents and world leaders.  He asked tough questions, but was never confrontational.  He tried to make each program informative and interesting.  At the end of his tenure, Face the Nation was consistently the number one ranked Sunday pubic affairs program.  

As he began his final broadcast Sunday, the 78 year-old Schieffer, speaking with his characteristic Texas drawl, said, "Today we'll keep with that tradition set twenty-four years ago, and stay focused on the news."  While the news business has changed dramatically over the past six decades, there is much for all journalists to learn from Bob Schieffer's remarkable career. 

Thank you Bob.

Clinton and Trust

The 2016 Presidential Election is eighteen months away, yet the race already has become very intense for both political parties.   Republican candidates, of whom there are more than a dozen so far, are busy raising money and vying for attention.  On the other hand, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the favorite for her party's nomination, is being battered by conservatives on the issue of trust.

It is no wonder Clinton is her party's overwhelming choice.  A New York Times/CBS News Poll released this week shows the magnitude of Clinton’s strength.   Of the Democrats asked, 84% agreed that Clinton shared "the values that most Americans try to live by."  The poll showed 91% of Democrats surveyed believe that she "has strong qualities of leadership."   Democrats polled were also asked, "Do you think Hillary Clinton is honest and trustworthy?"  The results showed 82% of the Democrats polled said yes.  However, the poll finds that only 48% of all Americans say Clinton is honest and trustworthy, while 45% say she is not honest and trustworthy.

Clinton's trustworthiness is the issue Republicans and conservative media outlets are pounding hardest at.  And Clinton has given her opponents ammunition.  She used a personal server for all of her emails while serving as Secretary of State, which did not comply with Obama administration policies.  Subsequently, she had all of her "personal" emails from that period destroyed, more than 55,000 pages of them.  Was there a "smoking gun" related to Benghazi, or with some scandalous dealings with a foreign country.  For sure, Republicans will ask that question again, again and again.

In fact, they will also have yet another chance to question Clinton about Benghazi, as she has agreed to appear before the House Select Committee on Benghazi later this month.  She insisted that the meeting be open so she would not have to deal with selective leaks from Republicans.  Nonetheless, the Republicans have kept Benghazi alive through more than a dozen hearings and millions of taxpayer dollars in a so far fruitless effort to turn a great and painful tragedy into a scandal.  That's politics.

Now Republicans are proffering allegations that Secretary of State Clinton did favors for foreign countries while she was in office in exchange for huge speaking fees and contributions to the Clinton Foundation.  A newly released book, "Clinton Cash" by conservative author Peter Schweizer, has fueled the attacks.  The book does not offer any hard evidence of sweetheart deals, but it does strongly suggest there is a pattern.  The Clinton campaign is now aggressively attacking the book's allegations.  Earlier this week, former President Bill Clinton, while on a two-week Africa trip, said there was "no evidence" of wrongdoing.  The Clinton Foundation has been widely praised for the work it does in the area of public health around the world. 

Hillary Clinton has long been a polarizing figure on the American political scene.  Those who love her do so with great passion.  And those who hate her absolutely detest her. A Pew Research Center Poll showed that Clinton's term at State might be her strongest positive.  And more older white women, a demographic that usually is heavily Republican, are supporting her.  So it's no wonder Republicans are trying to turn her strengths, her service at State and her leadership, into negatives.

But can voters trust each of the GOP candidates?  After all, they are politicians.   For example, Senator Ted Cruz pandered to his supporters' fears that a U.S. Special Forces exercise was a cover for a plan to impose Marshall Law in Texas.  “My office has reached out to the Pentagon to inquire about this exercise," he said in an interview.   Is he kidding?  This from the man who led a government shutdown, but then denied he was responsible for it.

The Bradenton Herald, a Florida newspaper, last month published a story with this headline: "Senator Marco Rubio claims rated 41 percent honest."   USA Today ran this story in November 2013:  "Rand Paul admits his plagiarism 'is my fault.'"  Paul had been caught lifting other people's work for his speeches and his book.  Of course, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie didn't know about the lane closure on the George Washington Bridge.  

Republicans are out of sync with a majority of Americans on issues like income inequality, how to increase employment, immigration, marriage equality and national security.  Attacking Clinton's trustworthiness is their default position.  The more each of these flawed Republican candidates goes after Hillary Clinton on the issue of trust, the more their hypocrisy will be exposed to all Americans.   And they will give Hillary Clinton the opportunity to talk solutions and her ideas for moving the country forward.

Who do you trust?

Bob Simon Remembered

There have been few television correspondents who could tell a story the way Bob Simon did.   His curiosity, intelligence and sense of adventure would take him from his native Bronx, New York, to Brandeis University, and on to the front lines of history. 

CBS News hired young Bob Simon, a Fulbright Scholar, for its assignment desk in 1967.  He would soon be assigned to cover stories the more veteran reporters did not want to cover.  Four decades later he would recall, in a 2013 interview for the Archive of American Television, "Knowing what to do was simple--tell a story."

CBS News moved him to its London bureau, and from there he was assigned to cover the Vietnam War.  Working with legendary cameramen like Norman Lloyd and David Green, he excelled as a war correspondent.  "It is the biggest adrenalin rush there is," he reflected, "there is no other experience that matches it."   

Simon had an amazing ability to let the pictures carry the story while complementing the scenes with just the right words.  He remembered being there when a young Vietnamese girl was running naked down a road away from a burning village.  "What do you say?  Where it is, her name, and that there are American fighter jets."

Simon had several tours of duty in Vietnam.  He was there at the end.  He recalled that the U.S. had alerted Americans that, "When the military radio played I'm dreaming of White Christmas it would be the cue to get your asses to the embassy."  Simon said when the order came it was chaos, and climbing over the embassy wall was a problem because U.S.  Marines were driving people back.  "You had to have round eyes that day," he recalled. 

Simon became the most acclaimed network Middle East correspondent while assigned to the CBS News Tel Aviv bureau.   He would always push the borders of coverage, and he could beautifully capture its complexity.  "Rivers make the best borders," he wrote.  "Even though Jordan is little more than a lively brook at the level of the Allenby bridge, even though the two banks -- lush vegetation trailing up to mad lunarscapes -- are mirror images of each other, crossing over from Israeli territory to Jordan, always carries a sense of transition of the forbidden, of moving between enemy camps."

Simon would test those borders during the first Gulf War when he and his crew walked to the top of a sand dune near Al-Ruqi, an inland border post between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.   They were captured by the Iraqi military and held, beaten, starved and interrogated for forty days.  The Iraqis accused them of being spies.

 "'Name? Rank?' a voice shouted," Simon wrote in his riveting account of captivity in his 1992 book Forty Days.  "I'm not military, " Simon responded.  "Our sources tell us you have good relations with the government of Israel," the interrogator said.  "That's it, I thought," Simon wrote.  "The game is up.  I found this realization calming in a way...It was all over, but I would go on playing for a while." Simon and his crew would be freed after 40 days, but they were all deeply affected by the ordeal.

Simon would return to work.   He had visited 67 different countries as a foreign correspondent.  He was known among his producer colleagues for screening every inch of footage before writing his story, and then memorably capturing a scene in a few words.  For instance, Simon covered Hong Kong's transition from British rule to China in 1997.  He spotted footage of an old Chinese man doing his Tai Chi exercise in the early morning.  It would be his opening scene.  "The debts of history are coming due," he would write.

He became a full-time correspondent on 60 Minutes in 2005, but he had already filed several important pieces for the broadcast.  Before the U.S. went to war with Iraq in 2003, Simon would remember, "I knew from my sources, and from the Israelis...and whatever you think of the Israeli's, they have great intelligence, that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq."   He continued, "We couldn't say that...so we did a story, called 'The Selling of a War,' and the piece got a lot of attention...but (President) Bush invaded Iraq anyway."

Simon collected 27 Emmy Awards and four Peabody Awards over nearly 50 years of brilliant journalism.  It is shocking that, after covering war zones from Vietnam to the Middle East, and violent uprisings from Northern Ireland to Tiananmen Square, his life ended in the back seat of a town car on New York City's West Side Highway.  

Bob Simon is survived by his daughter, Tanya, who is a 60 Minutes producer, and wife, Franciose.  He will be greatly missed by thousands of current and former admiring colleagues and friends.  And millions of viewers will miss his distinctive voice and unique writing style.  He truly was one of a kind.    

He concluded the final chapter of Forty Days with what might have been broadcast then had things turned out differently for him.  "That obituary for Simon showed clips of him in his various disguises: safari jackets, blazers, tuxedos, covering wars, uprisings, galas.  It was well produced, well edited, and well written...It was first-rate television piece.  Clearly, it deserved to make air."

Sandy Socolow 1928-2015

The legendary CBS News producer Sanford "Sandy" Socolow has died.  He worked at CBS News for 32 years, during its truly golden years, four of them as Walter Cronkite's executive producer.  He was a rare combination of outstanding journalist and wonderful person, beloved by all those who knew him.

Socolow participated in some of the most historic events in network news.  He was there when Cronkite took over as anchor of the CBS Evening News in April 1962, replacing Douglas Edwards.  Then the evening newscast aired for 15 minutes.  In an interview with CNN, Socolow recounted, "The first night up, he ended the show by saying, I'm paraphrasing, 'That's the news. Be sure to check your local newspapers tomorrow to get all the details on the headlines we are delivering to you.'"

Management did not like that. "In the absence of anything else, he came up with 'That's the way it is.'" But Socolow remembered CBS News President Richard Salant's reaction, "We're not telling them that's the way it is. We can't do that in 15 minutes,' which was the length of the show in those days. 'That's not the way it is.'"  But Cronkite prevailed.

Socolow was there in September 1962 when the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite became the first network newscast to expand to a half-hour.  The broadcast featured a lengthy interview with President John Kennedy filmed at his family compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts.  The president would be assassinated just 81 days later in Dallas, Texas.  An emotional Cronkite announced to the nation,  "From Dallas, Texas, the (AP) flash, apparently official:  'President Kennedy died at 1 p.m. Central Standard Time.' (glancing up at clock) 2 o'clock Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago."

Socolow worked with Cronkite during the tumultuous 60's, covering the Civil Rights movement, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, and the Vietnam War.  When Cronkite returned from Vietnam in February 1968, where he went to get a reporter's view of the war, Socolow recalled that Salant urged him to share his opinion on the evening news.  But Cronkite was reluctant to do so, "He was a purist," Socolow said. "And, a lot of people would say, to a fault, if there can be a fault in such a definition."

Cronkite agreed to share his opinion in a prime time news special, not on the evening newscast.  After observing that the U.S. military was mired in a stalemate, Cronkite said, "It is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out (of the Vietnam War) then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could." 

The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite dominated the ratings throughout the 70's, including during the Watergate crisis and the resignation of President Richard Nixon.  Socolow served as CBS News' Washington Bureau Chief from Watergate to President Jimmy Carter's term in office, where he endured the contentious relationship between the Nixon White House and CBS News.

He then served as the final executive producer of The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.  Socolow noted that Cronkite wanted "To retire as undefeated champ, and he made his views known." On Friday, March 6, 1981, nearly 30 million people watched as Cronkite signed off for a final time,  "And that's the way it is, Friday, March 6, 1981. I'll be away on assignment, and Dan Rather will be sitting in here for the next few years. Good night."  Socolow continued as executive producer during the Rather transition before taking over as CBS News London Bureau Chief.

Socolow was born in the Bronx on November 11, 1928.  He worked on the school newspaper while attending Stuyvesant High School.  Socolow remembered being at New York's Polo Grounds watching the New York Giants when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.  "The public address announcer was heard to say, ‘All active military personnel report to their stations,'" he remembered, "and the game continued."

His parents, who were both immigrants, wanted him to be an accountant because "they will always be needed."  So he attended City College, "because it was free," but dropped accounting after one semester for liberal arts.  He worked at the campus newspaper and became a stringer at the school for the New York Times.   North Korea invaded South Korea on the day Socolow graduated from college.  He was drafted and sent to Japan where, because of his New York Times experience, he was assigned to a radio group in Tokyo.

Following the Korean War he landed a job at the International News Agency (INS), which was a news service run by Hearst.  Because of his junior status at INS, he was assigned to cover Marilyn Monroe's weeklong visit to the U.S. troops in Korea.

He had made many reporter friends at CBS News during the Korean War, and they would lobby their management to hire Socolow.  He was hired by CBS News in 1956 to work in the Edward R. Murrow operation for $125 a week, "before taxes."  Soon Socolow would begin writing and producing for Cronkite, and their personal and professional relationship would continue until Cronkite's death in 2009, decades after they each left CBS.

Sandy Socolow is survived by his sons Jonathan and Michael, and daughter Elisabeth.  As word of his death spread throughout the industry, many of his former colleagues shared their thoughts on Facebook.  Long-time CBS News London correspondent Tom Fenton wrote, "Sandy was one of the best and brightest newsmen of the golden age of CBS News. He was also a warm and generous person, a great boss and a delightful friend. He will be greatly missed by all of us who knew him." 

And that is the way it is.  

(Sandy Socolow was a mentor to me, a wise and loving man who had a huge impact on my life. God bless him, and my deepest condolences and prayers for his family.   They will have a private burial for their father, and a memorial service is in the works for March or April.)

Sandy Socolow and Joe Peyronnin 9/14

 View and extended interview with Socolow by the Archive of American Television 

Tiananmen Square Live

The student demonstrations at Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989 led to some of the most riveting television seen in the United States.  CBS News was the only broadcast network to provide live coverage, until the Chinese government forced us to shut down our satellite just hours before the military launched a full assault on the students.

Tiananmen Square

CBS Evening News anchorman Dan Rather and executive producer Tom Bettag had lobbied in April to anchor their broadcast from Beijing for Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's visit to China.   CBS News President David Burke approved the idea, I was his deputy at the time and I strongly urged that we commit.  The news division was under tremendous financial pressure from the company, so the decision to spend a couple million dollars was risky.

It took a large team of producers, reporters, cameramen, sound men, editors and fixers to provide coverage when the Evening News anchored overseas.  The logistics were complicated, and the set up was challenging.  But all was ready when Gorbachev arrived in May.

Student Demonstration

By the time he arrived thousands of students had gathered at Tiananmen Square to voice their demands for change, more freedom and democracy.  The student uprising, supported by many citizens, eclipsed the Gorbachev visit and created a real problem for China's paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping.  Deng mobilized the army, calling in units from around the country.

Deng Xiaoping

CBS News provided live coverage of the protests, which had grown to more than one million people, with Dan Rather anchoring live from Tiananmen Square.  Our competition, NBC News and ABC News, was not anchoring from China.  Viewers in the United States, and around the world, watched CBS News as a nation struggled for its future.  Rather was outstanding, and the CBS team worked tirelessly and courageously to provide round-the-clock coverage for Americans.   A special bond builds among a team of journalists when covering a dangerous and historic news event.  Everyone's work excels, despite lack of sleep and chaotic conditions.

I remained in the CBS New York control room most of the time, coordinating coverage and network break-ins.   On a Friday night  a Chinese official came to our office and demanded that we shut down our live satellite.  Dan Rather and Lane Venardos, the producer in charge in Beijing, negotiated with the official.  I ordered that network programming be interrupted during the 10pm ET hour so all of America could watch as Venardos and Rather negotiated with the official.

Dan Rather

The program I interrupted was Dallas, television's most popular show.  In was the season finale, so viewership was enormous.  But I felt that the events unfolding nearly 7,000 miles from New York were incredibly important and made amazing television.  

It became clear to me that to defy the Chinese government would put the CBS News team at risk.  Many could be arrested and even harmed.  I decided that CBS News would comply with the request to shut down the satellite.  ("Dan Rather Remembers" video.)

As11pm ET approached, I instructed Venardos to tell the official we would comply with the government's order.  But I asked that we be able to shut down the satellite at 11:25pm, during the late local newscasts, which were airing in most of the country.  The official agreed.  

I then had a programming alert sent out to all of our affiliates so that they would inform their viewers about our upcoming special report.   I also asked our press department to inform other news organizations.  As it turned out the delay allowed us to air graphic new footage of the carnage.

At the appointed time Dan Rather appeared live from Beijing, across our network, and explained to viewers that CBS News had been ordered to shut down its live Satellite.  With a handful of CBS News staff watching, he then signed off, "this is Dan Rather reporting live from Beijing," turned to the satellite operator and instructed him to kill the satellite.

In the days that followed, hundreds, perhaps thousands of Chinese students and supporters, were massacred by Chinese troops. (Video by Brian Robbins, CBS NEWS)  Tiananmen Square was emptied.  The full force of Marshall Law was being imposed on everyone.  Citizens lived in fear for their lives.  The elation and hope of the democracy movement had been crushed in a bloody siege by China's authoritarian regime.   

Iconic Image

The iconic image from the student uprising was of a man, holding plastic shopping bags, standing in front of a tank column blocking its forward movement.   Today, the fate of that man is unknown.  The Tiananmen Square uprising is also unknown to most young Chinese, it is not mentioned in school, nor on television.  Twenty-five years later the Chinese government censured the Internet and social media during the anniversary period.  

The Chinese government may try to erase the events at Tiananmen Square from history, but it will never be forgotten by those of us a CBS News who covered the tragedy.      

Larry Speakes: In Memoriam

Former White House Press Secretary Larry Speakes passed away Friday in Mississippi after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.  Larry suddenly became President Ronald Reagan's acting press secretary when the president and then Press Secretary Jim Brady were shot in an assassination attempt in Washington.  

Larry ran an excellent press operation and populated it with many amazing people.  Although there could be tension between the press and the White House, relationships were professional, and generally friendly and cordial.  

Larry had a wicked sense of humor.  He was particularly funny when sharing stories about President Reagan with those closest to him.  He once recounted to me an incident that took place during an important cabinet meeting at the White House.  As Larry sat at the back of the room behind the president, he suddenly heard a beeping noise.  He then noticed that several people reacted to the beep by checking their pagers.  He then scanned the room for the source of the beeping, and soon came upon the answer.  He leaned over and tapped President Reagan on his shoulder and whispered in his good ear, "Mr. President, your hearing aide battery is dead."

Reagan spent weeks every summer at his ranch, Rancho del Cielo, in the hills above Santa Barbara.  The press operation and media worked out of the Sheraton Santa Barbara, about 30 miles from Reagan's ranch.  Given the time difference between New York and California, most of the news briefings took place by early afternoon so deadlines would be kept.

One day Larry asked me to join him, CBS News reporter Gary Schuster, and Deputy Press Secretary Rusty Brashear, for a trip to a Dodger game in Los Angeles as guests of manager Tommy Lasorda.  We arrived at Dodger Stadium late in the afternoon, just before batting practice and were escorted to the Dodgers' locker room.   Larry said, "Get ready for a full Lasorda."  I would soon know what he meant.  

We were led to Lasorda's office where we found him sitting at a plain office desk in his boxer shorts, a Dodger tee shirt and hat. "How you f...ing guys doing!" Tommy said as he jumped out of his chair.  "It's great to see you f...king guys!  You f...king guys want lunch?  Hey someone order these f...king guys some Chinese food!"  In the background I heard, "Okay skip."  Rick Monday, a former Cub and Dodger great, popped his head in to touch base with Lasorda before he headed up to the radio booth to do color commentary.

Then a rookie stuck his head in and asked if he could make a call.  We noticed there was an old rotary dial phone on Lasorda's desk, and he claimed it was the only phone in the locker room (there certainly were no smart phones in those days).   Tommy yelled at the kid to come back a little later.

He then told us about the time the kid had used the phone without asking, against clubhouse rules.  He told one of the coaches to send the kid into the men's room, where Lasorda was in a stall on the toilet.  "The kid comes in and meekly says, 'You want to see me coach?'"  Lasorda yells, "When I say I want to see you, I want to see you!  Open the door and get in here!"  The kid walks into the stall and looks terrified as his manager chews him out while sitting on the toilet.  After the punch line Lasorda said, "What a stupid f...king kid!"

After a big laugh, Lasorda put his pants on and took us for a tour.  Behind the home dugout and under the stands, there was a practice-batting cage surrounded by mesh nets.  As we approached we could hear someone hitting the ball.  Steve Sax was a pretty good player whose mediocre hitting kept him from being a super star.  

Lasorda loudly introduced us and asked, "Hey Saxie, did you ever find out who put that pig's head in your bed in Philly?"  "No, skip," Sax answered.  As we walked away from the batting cage, Tommy said, "That kid is really stupid.  When were in Philadelphia, I had my brother, who owns a restaurant there, arrange to place a pig's head on Sax's pillow with a note that read, 'You better start hitting or your dead'!"  It was a scene out of the Godfather, yet Tommy loved that Sax couldn't figure out who did it.

We walked onto the field, where Tommy verbally harassed one of his players, "You hit like shit!"  The infield was in terrific shape, and the view from home plate to the outfield was breathtaking.  We then returned to the dugout, where Tommy got into his uniform, more food arrived for us--Italian.  Larry was smiling as he led our group to our terrific seats.  The game was close to the end, but the Dodgers lost by a run.  

We didn't know what to expect when we joined Tommy, his wife and a few of their friends at the stadium club.  His spirits quickly picked up as he stared telling baseball stories.  I collected a book he had written and asked him to sign it.  He inscribed, "Hey Joe, you and the Dodgers are great.  Go Dodger blue.  Tommy Lasorda."  It seemed a totally genuine, even when I later realized  that everyone got the exact same personalized inscription.  Larry, thanks for the full Lasorda!

In June, 1982, I was the CBS News producer on President Reagan's trip to the Economic Summit in Versailles, France.  Larry Speakes and his team, including top assistant Mark Weinberg,  oversaw the American press corps.   CBS News had established a temporary editing operation run by a special events producer, Peter Sturtevant, who was in charge of all CBS News coverage from the Summit.

During the middle of the Summit, Israel invaded Lebanon in retaliation for ongoing terrorist attacks.  Their operation was being spearheaded by General Ariel Sharon.   The invasion was a surprise, and CBS News urgently needed to send producers to Lebanon.  The foreign desk called me and said since I was in France, I could get to Lebanon more quickly. 

I was surprised, and expressed concern because I had planned and already paid for a romantic French vacation with Susan Zirinsky that was schedule to begin in three days.  "No problem, we'll get you back in time," the editor responded confidently.  I said, "You can't get me from Versailles to a war zone in Beirut and back in three days."  "Don't worry about that," said the editor, "you need to go."  

I expressed my frustration to Mark Weinberg, who mentioned it to Larry.  But Larry knew exactly what to do.  He had Mark call Sturtevant and say that it would be a mistake to send me to Beirut.  If I were to go, CBS News might not get the latest information from the White House.    The next thing I knew, Sturtevant called me and said I did not have to go to Beirut.  Larry and I laughed when I went to thank him.

Coda: Susan joined me three days later in Paris, and we then traveled to the south of France, where we spent a glorious week.  On the last night I was awakened at 4 am by a phone call.  I vaguely said "Hello" and, in response, two CBS News executives said, "Guess who's going to Beirut?  Your plane for Tel Aviv leaves from Nice at 10am."  I spent a month in Beirut covering the ongoing war.

Larry respected the boundaries between the White House and the press.  For sure, the relationship could get very intense at times.  But I found that he was personally very open to those with whom he felt most comfortable.  More importantly, he was fiercely loyal to the president, and worked tirelessly in service of his country.  Larry was a true professional, and also a wonderful friend.  

NOTE:  Mark Weinberg advises the following:

The family has designated two charities for donations in Larry's  memory:

Sunny Seniors

107 South Victoria Avenue

Cleveland, Mississippi 38732

Alzheimer's Association of America

322 Eighth Avenue  7th floor

New York NY 10001

Susan Zirinsky: A Lifetime of Achievement

Tonight in Las Vegas, Susan Zirinsky will be honored with the "2013 TV & Film Lifetime Achievement Award" by the New York Festivals.  In her 40 years at CBS News, Susan is a legend in the industry.  She is currently the Senior Executive Producer of 48 Hours, she produces prime time news specials, see oversees the website Crimesider, and she has developed a new prime time series, Brooklyn DA, which will premier in May.

Susan has covered wars, presidents, world leaders, summits, elections, uprisings and scandals.  She has produced news packages, newsmagazines and documentaries.  She also served as a role model for Academy Award winning actress Holly Hunter, who played news producer Jane Craig in the 1987 movie, Broadcast News.  Susan's shelf is stuffed with industry awards.  But what is most noteworthy is what those who have worked with Susan say about her. 

CBS CEO Les Moonves: “There is simply no one better in any business than Susan. She’s the consummate pro whose instincts and artistry are unerring and completely unique, and there’s just nobody who is more competitive than she is. For decades, she has simply been the go-to storyteller than we have turned to, over and over again, when there was an important project, something that had to be told. When we needed to capture the truth about 9/11, it was Susan who got us there with her award-winning and deeply moving account of that day. Every week, she gives us the top show on Saturday night, keeping the flame burning bright on one of our most highly regarded franchises – 48 Hours. She’s been doing it for a long time. And she just keeps on getting better and better. Today, she’s at the top of a really tough and crucial game, one of the people leading the regeneration of CBS News. Congratulations, Z, on this honor. We love you too.”

CBS News Correspondent Bob Schieffer: "I have known Susan since when she was a student at American University who was working part time for the weekend news in the CBS Washington bureau. She was one of those kids that you knew was going to rise to the top. The best part of watching her grow up is seeing how she still attacks her job and attack is the right word with the same enthusiasm and determination and grit that she showed back then. She always got to the office first and is still the last to leave. I love everything about her and have for a long, long time."

60 Minutes Correspondent Lesley Stahl: "Congrats to Susan Zirinsky, the maven of Meeting a Deadline.. The Queen of the Crash! In Zee's lifetime in journalism she's been at the top of her game from the beginning - which was in the '70s during Watergate.  Whether she was producing pieces or broadcasts, covering the White House, elections or crime stories, she managed to be a master.  And she's done it all with heart and good cheer.  And against all odds, she always made the deadline, whether that meant ordering up her own Air force of helicopters or just making her reporters better and faster than they thought they could be. How lucky I am, and CBS is, that Susan's been our colleague and friend."

Vogue Editor Anna Wintour: "When I worked with Susan, we were staging a global project with so many moving parts that to us it felt like a military operation.  Now, throughout her career Susan has produced segments on actual military operations.  But she brought the same remarkable focus, levelheadedness and sense of humor to what we were doing as I imagine she brings to everything she does."

Actress Holly Hunter: "It was an extraordinary advantage for me to get to tail Susan Zirinsky around the CBS newsroom in Washington to prepare for the role of "Jane Craig" in BROADCAST NEWS.  I was given carte blanche to steal all behavior, professional and otherwise, from her. I ripped off the unselfconscious intimacy she gave to co-workers---putting her hand on the shoulder of a guy as she was making a suggestion to him---or giving someone's arm a squeeze as she breezed by.  I just loved that.  And I thought it was a beautiful gesture to bring to an environment filled with nothing but deadlines.  I stole her hairdo---scaled her height and took that, too.   I mimicked her feist, but that was easy since I have some of my own.  I tried like crazy to capture her imaginative ability to take divergent parts of a story and intuitively contain them with an image that was previously unrelated but that  made manifest the heart of the story. The one thing I could not steal from her, though, was her calm.  Susan was a still point in a turning world at CBS, as far as I was concerned.  She never raised her voice.  She never ran. She made her producorial rounds with her wit and intellect blazing, but also while brandishing a good deal of laissez faire.  She had faith in her fellow man.  And woman.  Even under pressure, she always looked like she was definitely Not Sweating, which made her more attractive to all the people who were.  Because they knew, under the calm and encouragement, she was obsessed.  That's leadership."

Former CBS News colleague and Sony Chairman Sir Howard Stringer:  "Even actress Holly Hunter in the seminal movie “Broadcast News” could not match the intensity, the skills or the breadth of commitment of the extraordinary Susan Zirinsky.  As a producer she is fearless; as a colleague she is peerless; as a leader she is matchless, but as a friend she is irreplaceable.  When she clambered over a moving freight train to get her tapes to a ground station before the competition, she became a news icon who really did capture hearts and minds. She captured mine long ago!"

Well she captured my heart and mind long ago as well, because she is simply the most amazing woman I have ever known.  

Romney Tales

The story of the third presidential debate is not that President Barack Obama handily defeated Governor Mitt Romney. Rather, what was most noteworthy was how Romney suddenly embraced many of the president's foreign policy stances, as if to say, "Disregard all my previous positions."

Prior to the first debate Governor Romney was flailing and stumbling. President Obama was beginning to take a commanding lead in the polls as even some Republicans were making the switch. A debate win by the president would have effectively ended the Romney campaign. Of course, Romney had the president right where he wanted him.

President Obama, perhaps a bit overconfident, basically phoned in his first debate performance, while Romney came with a clear strategy, energy and purpose. The first debate was a game changer for Romney because it made him look like a legitimate contender. In contrast, President Obama looked as if he didn't care about a second term. Instead of a fatal blow to Romney, the first debate was a near fatal blow for President Obama.

While the president clearly won the rancorous second debate, held at Hoftra University, the results seemed to have little impact on voter sentiment. A bullying Romney commanded the stage, even treating the president disrespectfully. The debate devolved into a sparring match that did not benefit either candidate. Meanwhile, the president's lead in the national polls evaporated.

The third debate was on foreign policy, and moderated by Bob Schieffer of CBS News. For months candidate Romney had harshly criticized every aspect of President Obama's foreign policy. But in Monday night's debate Romney heaped praise on many of Obama's policies. At long last the governor had decided to come home to a more centrist position. He had won the nomination by being a "severe conservative," but Monday night he "Etch a Sketched" his persona into a moderate.

Romney agreed with many of the president's policies, even praising him a couple of times. Of course, there were a couple of tough exchanges, including over military spending. "Our Navy is older -- excuse me -- our Navy is smaller now than any time since 1917. The Navy said they needed 313 ships to carry out their mission. We're now down to 285." Romney said. "That's unacceptable to me. I want to make sure that we have the ships that are required by our Navy."

President Obama was ready with an answer, "You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets -- (laughter) -- because the nature of our military's changed. " He concluded, "And so the question is not a game of Battleship where we're counting ships. It's -- it's what are our capabilities."

Going into the final debate Romney had a clear strategy: avoid looking like a warmonger and sound reasonable. He was attempting to appeal to women. As a consequence his responses were so moderate it appeared he was doing all he could to distance himself from the neocons and the "Bush Doctrine." Romney has no foreign policy experience at all. In the past he has staked out very aggressive foreign policy positions against China, Russia, Syria and Iran.

What is most troubling is that Romney has had no problem changing his deeply-held positions to appeal to some constituency. This pattern has repeated itself throughout his political career. He was pro-choice before he was pro-life. He was for Romneycare before he was against Obamacare, which is based on the former. The reason Romney is a serial flip flopper is because he will do and say anything he needs to in order to become president. He has even changed his position on an issue mid-debate.

Romney is a salesman; he is a closer. He sounds convincing, confident and certain. But while he is never in doubt, he is frequently wrong. And worse, he is often misleading. Take his tax cut proposal, which does add up to $5 trillion over 10 years, and most benefits the truly rich. There currently aren't enough tax deductions to eliminate, including mortgage and charity, to pay for the tax cuts. But tax cuts do not grow the economy. The economy barely grew during President George Bush's presidency even though he had signed into law two unpaid for tax cuts, a.k.a., the Bush Tax Cuts.

For those who are now considering voting for Romney, buyer beware.

Romney Stumbles

“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.”  By his definition, were he alive today, Groucho Marx could point to Mitt Romney as a perfect example!   But, no doubt many Republicans wish they could Etch A Sketch away the past six weeks of the Romney campaign.

Today many political observers characterize Romney's campaign as desperate, disoriented, erratic and lacking a budget plan.  Yet, it was suppose to be so easy.  Having won a bitterly contested Republican primary, Romney would be able to position himself as a successful "Mr. Fixit" businessman who could save the U.S. economy.  His approach was to make the 2012 presidential race a referendum on President Barack Obama's handling of the economy.  But before Romney could get out of the starting gate, the Obama campaign went after Mr. Fixit.  

Romney was co-founder and once head of Bain Capital, one of the world's leading private asset management firms.  It turns out that they succeeded in saving some businesses.  But Bain also closed several companies down, took out millions of dollars and left thousands of people without jobs, all facts that the Obama campaign relentlessly pointed out. Of course, Bain Capital's main goal is to make big profits for its investors, not to create jobs.  At the Democratic Convention, Vice President Joe Biden put it this way, “Folks, the Bain way may bring your firm the highest profits. But it’s not the way to lead your country from its highest office.”

Romney said he was a successful governor of Massachusetts.   But his single biggest achievement was "Romneycare", the state's near universal health care law that was the blueprint for "Obamacare," which Romney has vowed to repeal on his first day if he is elected president.  But last week Romney said, on NBC's Meet the Press, ”Of course, there are a number of things that I like in health care reform that I’m going to put in place.  One is to make sure that those with pre-existing conditions can get coverage."  This set off a firestorm among conservative Republicans.  Later that day, Romney's campaign again reconfirmed he was against covering people with pre-existing conditions who have not had continuous health coverage. 

At the Republican Convention, Romney was upstaged by an embarrassing endorsement from actor Clint Eastwood, who crudely spoke to an empty chair that represented President Obama.  In his tepid acceptance speech, Romney focused on biography and talking points, but offered no specifics on how he would save the economy.  And, in an inexplicable omission, Romney failed to mention the American soldiers serving in Afghanistan and around the world.

The Republican candidate, looking to further mobilize his conservative base and add some spice to the ticket, brought Representative Paul Ryan on as his running mate.  Ryan is a favorite of the right, and author of the Ryan Budget Plan.  But that plan, which was has widespread support among Congressional Republicans, calls for deep cuts in entitlements.  Under Ryan's plan, Medicare would be voucherized and Medicaid would be converted to block grants to states.  As a result, recipients would be left to personally pay for some of the quickly increasing medical costs they will face in the future.

If he embraced Ryan's plan, Romney would risk alienating many seniors, a critical demographic in many swing states.  So Romney has been distancing himself from the Ryan plan.  In an interview with CBS News, he was asked, "Are you running on [Ryan's] budget or on your budget?" Romney responded, "My budget, of course, I'm the one running for president."  Yet, Romney has failed to offer specifics for about his budget.

Romney has also failed to explain why he has parked so many of his investments in off shore accounts.  He found himself on the defensive on his personal taxes.  He has adamantly said he will release only two years of federal returns.  In his 2010 return he paid an effective rate of 13.8 percent in taxes on an income of $21.7 million.  He has not yet released his final 2011 returns, but he has estimated he will pay an effective rate of 15.4 percent on income of $20.9 million.  His taxes are certain to remain an issue heading into the election.

Romney and Ryan have little foreign policy experience, and it shows.  Candidate Romney has blustered about the Russians and the Chinese as if, to use the president's description, he is "stuck in some cold-war tie warp."  So it is no wonder he was poised to seize an opportunity to criticize the president on foreign policy.  While terrorists were attacking the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which left four Americans dead, Romney was attacking the White House for a statement released by a middle level consulate official. 

Romney's statement read, in part, "It's disgraceful that the Obama administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks."  Very few facts were known at this point.  In response to Romney's attack, the White House put out a statement, "We are shocked that, at a time when the United States of America is confronting the tragic death of one of our diplomatic officers in Libya, Governor Romney would choose to launch a political attack." 

While many Republicans were questioning Romney's judgment, the candidate was doubling down at a news conference the next day.  Republican columnist Peggy Noonan said, ""Romney looked weak today I feel, I'm still kind of absorbing it myself, at one point, he had a certain slight grimace on his face when he was taking tough questions from the reporters, and I thought, 'He looks like Richard Nixon.'"

President Obama, in an interview with 60 Minutes, said that Romney tends to "shoot first and aim later."  He continued, “And as president, one of the things I’ve learned is you can’t do that, that, you know, it’s important for you to make sure that the statements that you make are backed up by the facts. And that you’ve thought through the ramifications before you make ‘em.”

The past few weeks have been very difficult for candidate Romney.  A just released Fox News national presidential poll shows President Obama with a 48% to 43% lead over Mitt Romney.  Perhaps Romney's actions have had an adverse impact on his campaign.  After all, you learn a lot about a person in a time of crisis.

   

Mike Wallace's Legacy

"What are the four most dreaded words in the English language?  Mike Wallace is here."  So read an ad that once hung on a wall in Mike's office, overlooking the Hudson River.   Mike commanded attention, whether seated quietly at his desk or gracefully walking the hollowed halls of the 60 Minute's offices on New York's West Side..

60 Minutes was a product of the late great Don Hewitt, its creator and tirelessly energetic executive producer.  He asked the late Harry Reasoner, a brilliant writer, and Mike Wallace, a demanding interviewer, to anchor the program.   60 Minutes is one of the greatest television programs of all time.  The broadcast has finished the season first in the television ratings five times, and it has finished among the season's top 10 programs 23 times.

Since its inception, its quality story-telling and fiercely competitive spirit has characterized 60 Minutes.  And working for the powerful 60 Minutes brand name over the years were legendary journalists like, Morley Safer, Ed Bradley, Diane Sawyer, Dan Rather, Andy Rooney, Lesley Stahl, Steve Kroft, as well as Harry Reasoner and Mike Wallace.

Mike was a perfect fit for 60 Minutes.  His no-nonsense approach to investigative journalism and take-no-prisoners interview style helped define the program in its early years.  He interviewed legends, movie stars and crooks with the same intensity.  He would say, "I'm just nosy."  But he was driven to be first with the story.

Mike was persistent, direct and brash when asking questions of his interview subjects.  In 1979, Mike asked the Ayatollah Khomeini, in an interview with the Iranian leader in Iran, to respond to being called a "lunatic" by then Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.  The visibly angry Ayatollah responded that Sadat "Compromises with his enemies."

In his career, Mike interviewed Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush senior and Clinton.  He interviewed world leaders including Putin, Deng Xiaoping, Begin, Arafat and Meir.  He interviewed stars like, Streisand, Carson and Horowitz. He interviewed Reverend Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.  He once said, "There is no such thing as an indiscreet question." 

As a correspondent Mike was a fighter.  He would fight with his colleagues over a story assignment, he would loudly argue with Hewitt over the structure of his magazine piece, and he would push back hard at management when they wanted to change an adjective.   Most of the time good reason and common sense prevailed.  But no everyone he dealt with was a fan of his hard headed approach. 

In 1982, CBS aired a documentary, The Uncounted Enemy: A Viet Nam Deception.  The documentary alleged that U.S. Army General William Westmorland deliberately underestimated the enemy's troop strength to win American's continuing support for the war.  Westmorland sued Mike and CBS for $120 million.  During the bitter trial Mike was hospitalized for depression.  In the end, Westmorland settled the suit with CBS.

The fact is that beneath that tough exterior, Mike Wallace struggled with depression after the Westmorland trial.  Speaking of depression, he once said, "You fee lower than a snake's belly."  He first publicly admitted he attempted suicide in an interview with his friend and colleague Morley Safer. He credited his wife, Mary Wallace, with having saved his life.

Later he spoke out more freely about his struggles with depression in hopes of ending the stigma that is associated with mental illness.  He was honored by many leading mental health organizations, such as the Mental Health Association of New York City, for having the courage to go public so that others may learn.  

"For people who are contemplating suicide, contemplate, who are so damn scared and in pain and all of those things are true when you’re in a bad clinical depression." Mike once said in an interview on WLIW.  "Take a look at me, that what I’ve learned is that because I was saved I had 20 more years of very productive life."

Mike Wallace retired from 60 Minutes on March 14, 2006, nearly 38 years after he helped launch the program.  In June 2008 Mike's son Chris Wallace, anchor of Fox News Sunday, announced his father would not be returning to television; 68 years after he made his network radio debut on WXYZ Detroit.  During Mike's amazing career he won 21 Emmys, five DuPont-Columbia and five Peabody Awards.  He also won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award in 1996. And in 1991, he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.  

In 1997 Mike told People magazine, "Do I have regrets? No. What good would regrets do now? Would I do things differently? Yes, but I wasn't wise enough at the time. Life is full of decisions, isn't it? And I've made some of the right ones and some of the wrong ones, but I made the right choices for me. Now that may sound selfish, but that's being honest."

Thank you Mike for all your support, your advice and friendship.

More on Mike Wallace From CBS News
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November Madness?

"How do we understand this President and his time in office?" asks actor Tom Hanks in his narration for the documentary "The Road We've Traveled," which the president's reelection campaign released Thursday evening. "Do we look at the day's headlines or do we remember what we as a nation have been through?" Well that all depends on your political point of view.

For supporters of President Obama, the documentary is a well-crafted 17-minute story about a man who has achieved an enormous amount despite difficult challenges.  "Not since the days of Franklin Roosevelt has so much fallen on the shoulders of one president," Hanks says.  It tells of a man who is consistently doing what he believes is best for the country rather than what may be most popular. 

The documentary cites the benefits of the health care reform act, a.k.a. "Obama care", by reminding viewers that the elderly, young adults under 26 years old, and people with preexisting conditions will no longer be without health care. It points to the fact that the controversial stimulus package passed in 2009 added or saved millions of jobs.  The film also highlights the great success of the automobile bail out, which is still criticized by the Republican candidates.  Of course, the documentary spends time detailing the president's actions that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda. 

The timing of the film, released on the normally unlucky "Ides of March", marks the true beginning of the president's reelection effort.  Simultaneous with the film's release, candidates Obama and Vice President Joe Biden sharpened their attacks on their Republican opponents.

On Thursday the vice president said, “Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich — these guys have a fundamentally different economic philosophy than we do.” He continued, “We are for a fair shot and a fair shake. They’re about no rules, no risks and no accountability.”  Speaking of the auto bailout, Vice President Biden then said, “he made the tough call and the verdict is in. President Obama was right and they were dead wrong.”  A few hundred miles away the president criticized at his opponents, “If some of these folks were around when Columbus set sail, they probably must have been founding members of the "Flat Earth Society". They would not believe that the world was round."

But, flat earth or not, recent national polls showed a sharp decline in the president's approval rating.  The latest New York Times/CBS News poll shows Obama's overall approval rating at 41 percent, down 9 percentage points in one month.  The president's rating also slid about 10 percent in a month according to a Washington Post/ABC poll.  Rising gas prices and a slow recovery seem to be dragging the president's numbers down.  The heated debate over contraception and religious rights are not as high a priority to most Americans.

Of course, the man in charge is held accountable for rising gasoline prices, even though they are caused by events that the president has little control over.  Speculators and the fear of war with Iran are driving the prices up.  If all the suggestions that Republicans are making to deal with the problem were enacted they would have little impact on the price.  In fact, the last time gas prices were this high was in July 2008, when George W. Bush was president, and they came crashing down because of the recession that soon followed.  

Here we are in the height of college basketball's exciting tournament known as "March Madness."  Already many fans who have forecast the outcome of the tournament, the "bracketologists," have seen their predictions turn out wrong.  That is because several top-seeded teams have gone down to defeat at the hands of lower ranked opponents. The fact is that any team has a chance of winning on any given day. 

We are still many months away from "November Madness," and the race will not be a slam-dunk for either candidate.  While it is pretty clear that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney will be matched up against President Barack Obama, the election will be very close.  Victory will depend on who has the better ground game and passionate voter support.  But, chances are that many voters will be more motivated by "the day's headlines" than "what we have been through" as a nation.