Award-winning veteran journalist Bob Schieffer to give
The 2011 Sammons Media Ethics Lecture at SMU on Oct. 4

Veteran CBS newsman Bob Schieffer, anchor and moderator of Face the Nation, will give the 12th annual Rosine Smith Sammons Lecture in Media Ethics, presented by the Division of Journalism at SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts.

The lecture is at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 4, in SMU's Caruth Auditorium. A reception will follow the lecture. The event is free and open to the public but tickets are required and must be reserved in advance by calling the Meadows Box Office at 214-768-2787.  The box office is open 12-5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Schieffer is broadcast journalism’s most experienced Washington reporter. He has been the network’s chief Washington correspondent since 1982, and the anchor and moderator of its Sunday public affairs show, Face the Nation, since 1991.

He is one of the few reporters to have covered all four major beats in the nation’s capital - the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department and Capitol Hill. He has covered every presidential campaign and been a floor reporter at all of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions since 1972.

Schieffer has won numerous  broadcast journalism awards, including seven Emmys, is a member of the Broadcast/Cable Hall of Fame, and has been named a “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress.

A native of Austin, he began his career at The Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, and in 1965 became the first reporter from a Texas newspaper to report from Vietnam. He later became news anchor at WBAP-TV Dallas/Fort Worth, a post that eventually led to his joining CBS News.

Schieffer is the author of four books: Bob Schieffer’s America, published in 2008, The New York Times bestseller, This Just In, What I Couldn’t Tell You On TV, published in 2003, Face The Nation, which was published on the 50^th anniversary of that broadcast in 2004 and the best-selling Acting President, published in 1989.

He has always enjoyed writing poetry. In 2006 he wrote a comic song about a gas station worker who became a TV anchorman and sang it at a local charity event with the band Honky Tonk Confidential. The song was a hit with the audience and he was asked to sing with the band at other Washington events. He wrote other songs for the band, which were included in a cd. And in 2008 he and the band were asked to appear with country music stars Trisha Yearwood and Brad Paisley at the Grand Ole Opry. Schieffer called it “an out of body experience and for a moment there I thought I was in some sort of parallel universe.” He loves performing with the band, but does not plan to give up his day job.

About Face The Nation

Face the Nation is one of the longest-running news programs in the history of television, having premiered on CBS on Nov. 7, 1954.

Each Sunday, CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer interviews newsmakers on the latest issues. The program broadcasts from Washington, D.C., where Schieffer has spent more than 25 years covering government and politics. He has anchored Face the Nation since 1991.

Guests include government leaders, politicians, and international figures in the news. CBS News correspondents engage the guests in a lively roundtable discussion focusing on current topics.

About The Rosine Smith Sammons Lecture Series in Media Ethics

The Rosine Smith Sammons Lecture Series in Media Ethics is funded by a generous endowment from the Rosine Foundation Fund of the Communities Foundation of Texas, at the recommendation of Mary Anne Sammons Cree of Dallas. The series is named in honor of her mother, Rosine Smith Sammons, who graduated from SMU in the 1920s with a degree in journalism. The endowment will provide permanent resources for the Meadows School of the Arts to present annual lectures focusing on media ethics.

About The Division of Journalism

The Division of Journalism, under Belo Distinguished Chair Tony Pederson, offers concentrations in all media – broadcast, print and Internet – through its convergence journalism program. With the help of a gift from The Belo Foundation, the Division has become one of the few journalism schools in the country to provide hands-on experience through a new digital newsroom, television studio and Web site.

Media Contact:

Victoria Winkelman
SMU Meadows School of the Arts
214-768-3785
vwinkelm@smu.edu

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