Newsman Bob Schieffer takes the reader for a review of his very interesting life as a journalist from the period of the Kennedy assassination through the 9-11 tragedy. Much of the book is political history of past presidents and what took place during their administrations. Whether you lived through this entire period of time or not I think you will find this book to be engaging reading. Schieffer brings you behind the scenes and discusses the personality traits of various persons we have come to be familiar with over the years involving the television media. The book is slightly over 400 pages long, but it makes for easy reading even for those who are not especially interested in American politics from the newscasters point of view.

From the first page to the last, I could hear the warm, Texas cadence of Bob Schieffer's voice. While I have lived through most of the history, much of what he said was new to me. I found the history of White House politics and the press very enlightening. And his stint as a reporter in Viet Nam, gave me a clearer picture of just what the young men of my generation had to deal with.

Bob Schieffer demonstrates in the book that reporters are just as vulnerable to the foibles of life as we are. While his career was most prominent in his life, the needs of his family, in the end won out.

He takes us into the broadcast booth with him where we find people who worked for four days in 9/11, producers who sat under his desk feeding him page after page of the Starr report and where on election night 2000, the networks themselves set the stage for the most bizarre night ever on TV.

We are with him in Dallas, Viet Nam and on the courthouse steps of a sleepy 1960 Fort Worth. Throughout the entire book Schieffer, in his modest, warm and humorous way takes us on a forty year journey through an America that has reinvented itself over and over, only to come full circle on a viewing platform at Ground Zero.

Bob Schieffer was not a name that I knew, so I would not have chosen this biography had a friend of mine not recommended it to me. I always learn something from biographies, and THIS JUST IN did not disappoint.

I don't watch much television inside these prison fences. My schedule is too busy with writing, reading, correspondence, and exercise. I am familiar with Peter Jennings, Ted Koppel, Tom Brokaw, and Dan Rather as newscasters, but I had not heard of Bob Schieffer before reading this book that chronicles his life. He does a fine job describing it.

I admire individuals who set clearly defined goals in their lives, then set in place a strategy to help them achieve those goals. Through Schieffer's biography, readers learn that he was a diligent student and a determined worker as a young man. As a teenager Schieffer worked as a newspaper reporter, and after college became an officer in the Air Force. Immediately upon completing his military duty, Schieffer returned to his job as a local newspaperman. Not long after his return, he courageously persuaded his supervisor at the Fort Worth Star Telegram to send him to Vietnam in order to report on the Texan troops, thereby launching himself on his way to journalistic stardom.

Soon after Schieffer's return from Vietnam he graduated to the world of electronic media as a local television reporter. From his post as an anchor for WBAP-TV (now KXAS) Schieffer doggedly pursued the major networks with hopes of leaving behind the daily coverage of murder, arson, and other bloody crime that local news organizations are committed to broadcasting. Schieffer wanted to cover national news.

His determination paid off, as Schieffer succeeded in landing a coveted job at CBS, and over a career that spans several decades, Schieffer has been responsible for reporting on four of the most prestigious posts in Washington: the State Department, The Pentagon, The White House, and The Congress. Schieffer also has anchored several of his own news shows and frequently substitutes for Dan Rather anchoring the CBS Evening News.

Although I was not familiar with Schieffer prior to reading his biography, it has become clear to me that he is an important journalist. Through his biography I learned more about many events in our nation's history, including the controversy over Vietnam, Nixon, diplomacy, and several presidential administrations. The most compelling part of the book, for me, was his description of his and his colleagues' experiences during the tragedy of September 11.

Besides being a journalist for one of the major networks, Schieffer also comes across as a genuinely nice person; a man committed to his wife, two daughters, and colleagues. I enjoyed reading about his life and the choices he made to reach his goals.