Bob Schieffer
Read by Bob Schieffer (the author)

In a bid to compete with NBC's Meet the Press, CBS debuted Face the Nation in 1954 with a contentious interview with Senator Joe McCarthy the day before the Senate debate that condemned his virulent anti-Communist tactics. Schieffer, CBS News anchor and moderator of the award-winning Sunday-morning news show, marks its anniversary with a behind-the-scenes look at the major developments in broadcast news and American history in the last half-century. Schieffer details the stories behind the stories that appeared on the broadcast: getting the first American interview with a Soviet leader when Nikita Khrushchev agreed to appear in 1957; Ed Sullivan's bid to be taken seriously by the news division, nearly scooping his own network with an interview with Fidel Castro in 1957; the interview with NAACP head Roy Wilkins in 1958 after a long, slow recognition that the story of the civil rights movement was being neglected by the networks. Schieffer recounts the triumphs and missteps of the program, including the 1965 interview with Alabama governor George Wallace, who derailed the question-and-answer format, and the 1971 interview with Defense Secretary Melvin Laird, when interviewers failed to ask, even though he was prepared to answer, whether Nixon should have disclosed the Pentagon Papers. A fascinating look at how the nation and the show have evolved over 50 years.

Publisher . : Recorded Books (2004) #C2853
ISBN . . . .: ISBN-10: 1419307444 ISBN-13: 9781419307447
Format . . .: MP3. 28 tracks, 218 MB
Bitrate . . : ~85 kbps (iTunes 9, VBR, mono, 44 kHz)
Source . . .: 5 CDs (6 hours)