But with 9/11, we found that people tended to come back to the networks and the people who had been our core viewers in the past came back and they have stayed with us.
BOB SCHAFFERBut with 9/11, we found that people tended to come back to the networks and the people who had been our core viewers in the past came back and they have stayed with us.
BOB SCHAFFERThe government’s view is that the best time to announce bad news, news that it doesn’t want the public to dwell on is late on a Friday, when it will wind up in the Saturday papers, which if you were readers, then the week day editions. A holiday weekend is even better.
BOB SCHAFFERMy bladder cancer was related to smoking, and I think smoking kills people.
BOB SCHAFFERThere’s fierce competition between all the networks to get the guest who can bring the most pertinent information about whatever the story of the moment happens to be.
BOB SCHAFFEROne thing young people have to always keep in mind when deciding what they want to do with their lives is, is it fun? Is it something that I’m interested in? Is it something I enjoy?
BOB SCHAFFERAnd after about two years, I realized that creative writing was not going to help you ace those biological tests. So I switched over to journalism. I didn’t graduate with honors, but I did graduate on time and with some doing.
BOB SCHAFFERWell, you know, in any political campaign, you’re gonna have people on one side that are gonna slip a reporter something because they think it’ll hurt the guy on the other side.
BOB SCHAFFERThey’ve asked me to do this temporarily. I don’t know what temporarily means. Life is temporary.
BOB SCHAFFERNowadays I’m not even sure if newspapers take into account whether a person is a good writer.
BOB SCHAFFERA great deal of our ratings on the morning news are people who died during the night with their TV on.
BOB SCHAFFERBut here’s the deal: If I were smart, I could figure out curling. If I were even smarter, I could figure out why people would actually watch other people doing it. I have tried. I can’t. I can’t even figure out the object of the game. Is it like darts? I just don’t get it.
BOB SCHAFFERThere are many hands touching ballots after a voter drops his ballot into the ballot box. There is no guarantee of ballot secrecy for anyone, which makes the whole system vulnerable to intimidation and bribery.
BOB SCHAFFERThe recent history of Ukraine is replete with dead journalists, beaten journalists, news agencies being shut down, and politicians being injured or killed. Most are killed in mysterious auto accidents.
BOB SCHAFFERThe Iraq war was fought by one-half of one percent of us. And unless we were part of that small group or had a relative who was, we went about our lives as usual most of the time: no draft, no new taxes, no changes. Not so for the small group who fought the war and their families.
BOB SCHAFFERBut, you know, they’re glad to see you when you show up to cover the football game. Nobody is ever glad to see a police reporter when he shows up.
BOB SCHAFFERGood policy always trumps bad public relations and the best PR can’t trump bad policy.
BOB SCHAFFER