We Didn't Get The Paris Interview

Weekly commentary by CBS Evening News chief Washington correspondent and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer.

Face The Nation did not get the big interview with Paris
Hilton.

I feel terrible about it.

I haven't felt so low since one of our competitors broke into programming to report that the embalming of Anna Nicole Smith's body had begun. Getting scooped on a big story is never fun, not then, not ever. And we never got to first base on that story either, which is why we tried to be competitive on this one.

We held strategy sessions on how to stay ahead on the Paris story. In the finest network tradition, we blamed each other for not getting the interview. We even leaked the infighting to competitors. But nothing worked.

All those big-time bookers dangled all those deals in front of Paris' family, and we were just out of our league. Heck, we couldn't even figure out what league we were in.

As Paris herself might've summed it up, "Whatever."

When the deals for the other networks fell through, my friend Larry King got the interview, and to show what a big deal that is, this morning The New York Times took note of it on page one.

There's nothing left for me to do but stop making excuses and 'fess up.

The truth is I never asked Paris Hilton to be on Face The Nation, and for one reason, I couldn't think of anything I wanted to ask her.

Can you?