janelle

"It is not just Congress that is taking a sharp turn to the right. The surge to the right on Capitol Hill is making waves all over the country on openly politically partisan, and sometimes racist, radio." — CBS Evening News, January 4, 1995.

"Nineteen days after the presidential election, Florida's Republican Secretary of State is about to announce the winner — as she sees it and she decrees it — of the state's potentially decisive 25 electoral votes. Katherine Harris will officially certify the state's election returns....The believed certification — as the Republican Secretary of State sees it — is coming just hours after a court ordered deadline.... The certification — as the Florida Secretary of State sees it and decrees it — is being signed." — During CBS News live coverage, November 26, 2000.

"Good evening. Texas Governor George Bush tonight will assume the mantle and the honor of President-elect. This comes 24 hours after a sharply split and, some say, politically and ideologically motivated U.S. Supreme Court ended Vice President Gore's contest of the Florida election and, in effect, handed the presidency to Bush." — Beginning the December 13, 2000 CBS Evening News.

"The Republican convention opens in New York to re-nominate George W. Bush and showcase the party's, quote, ‘moderate side.' Will voters buy it?" — Opening the August 30, 2004 CBS Evening News.

"I hear you talking and, as I have before on this subject, I don't know of anybody, friend or foe, who isn't impressed by your grasp of the details of this [health care] plan. I'm not surprised, because you have been working on it so long and listened to so many people." — Interview with Hillary Clinton, 48 Hours, Sept. 22, 1993.

"I read the book [My Life by Bill Clinton] completely. And I think it compares very favorably with Ulysses S. Grant's gold standard of presidential autobiographies." — Dan Rather on CNN's Larry King Live, June 18, 2004.

"Is or is there not some concern of the public perception, in some quarters, not all of them Democratic, that this is, in fact, a kind of effort at a, quote, ‘coup,' that is you have a twice elected, popularly elected President of the United States, and so those that you mention in the Republican Party who dislike him and what he stands for, having been unable to beat him at the polls, have found another way to get him out of office?" — Interviewing former GOP Senator Warren Rudman during CBS's live coverage of the start of President Clinton's impeachment trial, January 7, 1999.

"On another front, there could be trouble for the Ken Starr Whitewater investigation. Reports continue to surface that this key witness for the prosecution, David Hale, may have been secretly bankrolled by political activists widely regarded as Clinton opponents, people that Clinton supporters call Republican haters from the far right." — CBS Evening News, April 2, 1998.

"Al Gore must stand and deliver here tonight as the Democratic Party's presidential nominee, and now Gore must do so against the backdrop of a potentially damaging, carefully-orchestrated story leak about President Clinton. The story is that the Republican-backed special prosecutor, Robert Ray, Ken Starr's successor, has a new grand jury looking into possible criminal charges against the President growing out of Mr. Clinton's sex life." — Opening the CBS Evening News, August 17, 2000, the final day of the Democratic convention. The next day, a Carter-appointed federal judge revealed he had inadvertently revealed the news. Rather has never apologized.

"While Fidel Castro, and certainly justified on his record, is widely criticized for a lot of things, there is no question that Castro feels a very deep and abiding connection to those Cubans who are still in Cuba and, I recognize this might be controversial, but there's little doubt in my mind that Fidel Castro was sincere when he said, ‘Listen, we really want this child back here.'" — During live coverage of the Elian Gonzalez raid, April 22, 2000.

"Gays and lesbians are beaten to death in the streets with increasing frequency — in part due to irrational fear of AIDS but also because hatemongers, from comedians to the worst of the Christian Right, send the message that homosexuals have no value in our society . . . In the post-Cold-War era, gays have been drafted to replace communists as the new menace to the American Way." — Writing in The Nation, April 11, 1994.

"Senior Americans who saw retirement savings evaporate in the Wall Street meltdown have another financial headache now. It turns out it was all talk and no action with the President and Congress again today on passing any version of Medicare prescription drug coverage." — CBS Evening News, July 23, 2002.

"You and the President were being party to sending missiles to the Ayatollah of Iran. Can you explain how — you were supposed to be the — you are — you're an anti-terrorist expert! Iran was officially a terrorist state . . . The question is — but — you made us hypocrites in the face of the world! How could you sign on to such a policy?!" — During a live interview with Vice President George H.W Bush on the CBS Evening News, January 25, 1988.

"Today, on the Internet and elsewhere, some people, including many who are partisan political operatives, concentrated not on the key questions of the overall story, but on the documents that were part of the support of the story. They allege that the documents are fake . . . The "60 Minutes" report was based not solely on the recovered documents, but on a preponderance of the evidence, including documents that were provided by what we consider to be solid sources." — CBS Evening News, September 10, 2004, two days after his "60 Minutes" reporting alleging President George W. Bush failed to fulfill his National Guard service.

"Powerful and extremely well-financed forces are concentrating on questions about the documents because they can't deny the fundamental truth of the story. If you can't deny the information, then attack and seek to destroy the credibility of the messenger . . . I think over the long haul, this will be consistent with our history and our traditions and reputation. We took heat during the McCarthy time, during Vietnam, during civil rights, during Watergate. We haven't always been right, but our record is damn good." — Rather quoted in the New York Observer, Sept. 15, 2004.

"I don't back down. I don't cave when the pressure gets too great from these partisan political ideological forces." — Rather quoted in the Sept. 16, 2004 Washington Post.

"Anybody who knows me knows that I am not politically motivated, not politically active for Democrats or Republicans, and that I'm independent. People who are so passionately partisan politically or ideologically committed basically say, ‘Because he won't report it our way, we're going to hang something bad around his neck and choke him with it, check him out of existence if we can, if not make him feel great pain.' They know that I'm fiercely independent and that's what drives them up a wall." — Rather quoted in USA Today, September 17, 2004.

"Democrats were quick to portray the ticket as, quote, ‘two Texas oilmen' because Cheney was chief of a big Dallas-based oil supply conglomerate. They also blast Cheney's voting record in Congress as, again quote, ‘outside the American mainstream' because of Cheney's votes against the Equal Rights for Women Amendment, against a woman's right to choose abortion — against abortion as Cheney prefers to put it — and Cheney's votes against gun control." — Reporting on Bush's selection of Dick Cheney as his running mate, July 25, 2000 CBS Evening News.

"Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore officially introduced his history-making running mate today, Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut . . . In their first joint appearance they gave a preview of the Gore-Lieberman fight-back, comeback strategy. Their message: They represent the future, not the past, and they are the ticket of high moral standards most in tune with real mainstream America." — Reporting on Lieberman's selection exactly two weeks later, August 8, 2000 CBS Evening News.

"I'm all news, all the time. Full power, tall tower. I want to break in when news breaks out. That's my agenda. Now, respectfully, when you start talking about a liberal agenda and all the, quote, ‘liberal bias' in the media, I quite frankly, and I say this respectfully but candidly to you, I don't know what you're talking about."
And, as Bernard Goldberg might say, he probably doesn't know anyone who does. More's the pity.