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janelle
11-23-2004, 11:58 AM
Veteran to remain with
network as correspondent
The Associated Press
Updated: 1:25 p.m. ET Nov. 23, 2004NEW YORK - Dan Rather, whose nearly 24-year tenure as anchor of the “CBS Evening News” was clouded by a recent questionable report on President Bush’s National Guard service, said Tuesday he will step down in March.



Rather said his last broadcast as anchor would be March 9, the 24th anniversary of when he assumed the position from Walter Cronkite.

The 73-year-old newsman said he will continue to work for CBS, as a correspondent for both editions of “60 Minutes.”

“I have always been and remain a ‘hard news’ investigative reporter at heart,” he said in a statement. “I now look forward to pouring my heart into that kind of reporting full time.”

He made no mention of the National Guard story in announcing the change, saying he had agreed with CBS executives last summer to leave sometime after the Nov. 2 election. But he was forced to fight for his professional life after anchoring a September “60 Minutes Wednesday” story about Bush’s service that turned out to be based on allegedly forged documents.

Investigation of Guard story imminent
A report on what went wrong with the National Guard story, from a two-man independent investigative panel, is due imminently.

CBS didn’t talk about potential successors. Newsmen John Roberts and Scott Pelley have long been considered in-house candidates, but the network will also probably look outside.

Rather has been with CBS News for more than four decades and made his name as a reporter covering the Nixon White House.

“He has been an eyewitness to the most important events for more than 40 years and played a crucial role in keeping the American public informed about those events and their larger significance,” CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves said.

Changing of the anchor guard
Rather’s announcement comes eight days before his NBC rival, Tom Brokaw, steps down as “Nightly News” anchor and is replaced by Brian Williams (MSNBC is part of a joint venture between NBC and Microsoft).

The triumvirate of Rather, Brokaw and ABC’s Peter Jennings has ruled network news for more than two decades. Rather dominated ratings after taking over for Cronkite during the 1980s, but he was eclipsed first by Jennings and then by Brokaw. His evening news broadcast generally runs a distant third in the ratings each week.

His hard news style was mixed with a folksy Texan style that led him to rattle off homespun phrases on Election Night. But odd incidents dogged him: In 1987 he walked off the set, leaving CBS with dead air, to protest a decision to let a tennis match delay the news. And his claim that he was accosted on the street by a strange man saying, “What’s the frequency, Kenneth?” led rock band R.E.M. to write a song with the same name.

Technologist
11-23-2004, 12:19 PM
BUH-BYE Dan..... NOT sorry to see you go!

YNKYH8R
11-23-2004, 12:27 PM
What...no love for Dan the man? Come on he has a song and everything

Quaker_Parrots
11-23-2004, 12:36 PM
I personally will miss Tom Brokaw, Dan never was my cup of tea, his voice always grated on my nerves.

YNKYH8R
11-23-2004, 12:42 PM
So does Barney the dinosaur.. and I have no love for him either. :D
Nooooooo. Barney sings a song. Dan has a song relating to an incedent that happened in his life. Still......no love? Whatsoever? :o

Shancopp
11-23-2004, 12:46 PM
:D
and deservedly so he goes...............

nightrider127
11-23-2004, 01:44 PM
Now if we could just manage to get rid of Fox aka "We report, you decide" aka "Fair and balanced" we'd be all set.

janelle
11-23-2004, 04:10 PM
What song? Guess I missed something LOL

Jolie Rouge
11-23-2004, 05:28 PM
What song? Guess I missed something LOL

Ditto ...

Jolie Rouge
11-23-2004, 05:31 PM
Dan Rather to leave anchor desk in March
Decision comes amid review of Bush-National Guard story
Tuesday, November 23, 2004 Posted: 7:21 PM EST (0021 GMT)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Longtime anchor Dan Rather will leave the "CBS Evening News" on March 9, the network said Tuesday, just months after Rather's use of questionable documents in a report critical of President Bush's National Guard service.

Rather, 73, said he will continue to work full time as a correspondent for the network's two "60 Minutes" programs as well as other assignments. "I have always been and remain a 'hard news' investigative reporter at heart," Rather said in a statement. "I now look forward to pouring my heart into that kind of reporting full time."

CBS spokesman Gil Schwartz said that Rather's decision to leave "was independent of the findings of the panel looking into the '60 Minutes II' report on President Bush's National Guard service."

But Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz, host of CNN's "Reliable Sources," said he thought Rather's departure may be linked to the Bush National Guard story. "It's pretty clear that Dan Rather faced a very unpalatable choice," Kurtz said. "... His contract had at least two more years to run. [Should he] step down now before the outside investigative report, commissioned by CBS News expected in the next few weeks about his botching -- and the network's botching -- of that story about President Bush's National Guard service? Rather [decided] today that it would be better for him to step down on his own terms."

On a September 8 segment of "60 Minutes II," Rather reported allegations that during the Vietnam era, Bush received special consideration to get into the Texas Air National Guard and subsequently did not fulfill his service obligations, including ignoring an order to get a required physical exam.

Among the evidence cited were four memos critical of the future president, purportedly written by Bush's then-squadron commander, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, who died in 1984.

But immediately after the broadcast, the documents came under fire in media reports, with some document experts saying that they were produced with a computer word-processing program, not by a 1970s-era typewriter. Killian's former wife, son and secretary all questioned the validity of the memos, though his secretary said they did reflect his views at the time about Bush.

The documents were supplied by Bill Burkett, a retired Texas Army National Guard officer and longtime Bush critic

Early in the controversy, Rather and CBS News had insisted that the documents came from a "solid" source, that their contents were backed up by other reporting and that the memos had been authenticated by document experts. However, Rather conceded that CBS had only obtained photocopies of the documents, not the originals, which experts said would shed light on their authenticity.

On September 20, CBS announced it could no longer be sure the documents were genuine, and Rather apologized on the network's flagship "Evening News" broadcast.

In a statement on the documents, CBS News President Andrew Heyward said, "We should not have used them. That was a mistake, which we deeply regret."

Rather will leave his post 24 years to the day after he replaced Walter Cronkite as the network's main anchor. He said he also will step down as the program's managing editor. "I have been lucky and blessed over these years to have what is, to me, the best job in the world and to have it at CBS News," Rather said. "Along the way, I've had the honor of working with some of the most talented, dedicated professionals in the world, and I'm appreciative of the opportunity to continue doing so in the years ahead."

Leslie Moonves, chairman of CBS, said Rather has "played a crucial role in keeping the American public informed."

"Dan's 24 years at the 'CBS Evening News' is the longest run of any evening news anchor in history and is a singular achievement in broadcast journalism," Moonves said in a written statement.

Heyward said Rather's "dedication to his craft and his remarkable skills as a reporter are legendary."

"He has symbolized the 'CBS Evening News' for nearly a quarter century," Heyward said in a written statement. "He'll continue to apply his talents to everything he does at CBS News."

There has been no official announcement about a replacement, but there has been speculation about CBS chief White House correspondent John Roberts and another CBS veteran, correspondent Scott Pelley.

Rather, a Texas-born journalist, first joined CBS in 1962 as the chief of its Southwest bureau in Dallas, Texas, from which he reported details of President Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963.

The Rather announcement comes just before the scheduled departure of another longtime broadcast network news anchor, Tom Brokaw, who has anchored the "NBC Nightly News" since 1983. Brian Williams will replace Brokaw.

Rather and Brokaw, along with "ABC World News Tonight" anchor Peter Jennings, have dominated TV broadcast networks' newcasts for more than two decades. Recently, Rather has usually ranked third in weekly ratings among the three network evening news shows.

Rather scored a journalistic coup before the start of the Iraq war, interviewing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in February 2003 before the U.S.-led invasion.

He also reported about abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison in April.


http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/TV/11/23/rather/index.html



{{ This is not the first time that Dan & CBS has with a negitive story on s sitting President with fraudulant documents ... }}

adorkablex
11-23-2004, 06:47 PM
I'm a Peter Jennings woman myself.

adorkablex
11-23-2004, 06:50 PM
What song? Guess I missed something LOL
I think it's a song by REM
Something to do with Kenneth

fatesfaery
11-23-2004, 11:56 PM
I think it's a song by REM
Something to do with Kenneth

What's the Frequency Kenneth?~REM

As far as I know, the song doesn't have anything to do with Dan Rather....he was attacked in a men's room (or was it the subway?) years ago. The attackers kept saying that line over and over again...
As far as Rather leaving....doesn't matter to me one way or another...our local CBS station seems to go for sensationalism as much as possible, so I never watch CBS news. It's amazing how they can report the same story as other local channels and make it seem sordid.

janelle
11-24-2004, 01:46 AM
It was so funny on election night and Rather was trying his darndest to figure how Kerry could win. He was calculating every which way. LOL

I told hubby to turn him off cause he would be at it all night. I wanted to see his face when he declared Bush the winner but he just calculated for hours. Ho Hum. LOL :rolleyes: :D

YNKYH8R
11-24-2004, 06:30 AM
What song? Guess I missed something LOL

CBS News anchor Dan Rather, renowned for his unusual expressions and sayings, has led a colorful life. However, one bizarre event really takes the cake.
One night in October 1986, Rather was walking down a Manhattan street when he was punched from behind and thrown to the ground. His assailant kicked and beat him while repeating, "Kenneth, what is the frequency?"

No one could explain the event, and the rumors flew fast and wide. Some speculated the assailant was a KGB agent, while others claimed the attack was the work of a jealous husband. Rather himself couldn't shed any light on the subject. His explanation at the time?

I got mugged. Who understands these things? I didn't and I don't now. I didn't make a lot of it at the time and I don't now. I wish I knew who did it and why, but I have no idea.
Apparently the strange event moved R.E.M. singer Michael Stipe, who said of the incident:

It remains the premier unsolved American surrealist act of the 20th century. It's a misunderstanding that was scarily random, media hyped and just plain bizarre.
The attack inspired the 1994 R.E.M. hit "What's the Frequency, Kenneth." Being a good sport, Dan Rather even accompanied the band when they performed the song on a Late Show with David Letterman appearance.

In 1997, based on a tip from a psychiatrist, Rather's attacker was identified as William Tager. According to the psychiatrist, Tager, who was currently serving time for killing an NBC stagehand, blamed news media for beaming signals into his head, and thought if he could just find out the correct frequency, he could block those signals that were constantly assailing him. Hence the enigmatic inquiry.

Jolie Rouge
11-27-2004, 11:55 PM
BLOGGERS WIN THEIR AIR ATTACK VS. DAN
Wed Nov 24, 2:27 AM ET
Op/Ed - New York Post
By DEBORAH ORIN [/i]

WASHINGTON - CBS anchor Dan Rather's discharge under less than honorable circumstances is the icing on the 2004 election cake for a lot of Republicans who see him as the icon of liberal media bias.

It's also a dramatic sign of the Internet-fueled revolution that means the old "mainstream media," such as CBS and The New York Times, can no longer set the terms of political debate, as they did just a few years ago. CBS and the Times tried, but failed, to dismiss challenges to Democrat John Kerry's Vietnam War service from the anti-Kerry Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The Internet helped the group make its case.

Now Rather is going out in ignominy because of his "60 Minutes" report using fabricated memos from a discredited source to question President Bush's National Guard service.

The story was quickly torn apart by Internet bloggers, who produced convincing evidence that the memos were forged. Some anti-Rather bloggers now fume that he is still getting away with murder, and that there is a CBS cover-up because he's keeping his job on "60 Minutes."

But go back four years to the 2000 presidential election, in the pre-blogger era, and Rather would likely have gotten away with his phony story and it could have tilted the election against Bush. Instead, because of the bloggers, the story backfired, boosting Bush by revving up his supporters. "The Michael Moores and Dan Rathers of the world attacking Bush kept the Republican base motivated and helped get out the vote, and that's why, to some extent, I'm actually sorry to see him go," said GOP pollster Jim McLaughlin.

Republican strategist Rich Galen put it this way: "The problem with Rather is that he insisted his view was not just a view but the only view. But now the marketplace is deciding who people will read and who people will believe."

Technologist
11-29-2004, 12:46 PM
[
Republican strategist Rich Galen put it this way: "The problem with Rather is that he insisted his view was not just a view but the only view."

Sounds like a lot of people I know.... LOL! :eek:

Jolie Rouge
11-29-2004, 09:59 PM
Sounds like a lot of people I know.... LOL! :eek:

moi ??

Jolie Rouge
11-29-2004, 10:03 PM
RATHER’S RESIGNATION BASED ON FALSE INFORMATION

Internal CBS Memo a Phony, Anchor Reveals Veteran CBS anchorman withdrew his resignation from the network’s evening newscast today, revealing that his decision to resign had been based on information that later turned out to be false.

Mr. Rather said that he only decided to resign after obtaining an internal CBS report blasting him for his role in the network’s recent “Memogate” scandal, but then later discovered that the report itself was a forgery.

When he made the startling discovery, Mr. Rather said, “My face was redder than my Aunt Mabel’s rhubarb pie.”

The veteran newsman indicated that he first suspected that the internal CBS report might be bogus when he saw that it had been faxed from a Kinko’s copy center in Canoga Park, California, and was typed on Holiday Inn stationery.

But the embattled anchor’s attempt to reclaim his nightly newscast may be doomed, one network insider said, because CBS chairman Les Moonves “has already changed the locks.”

According to the insider, security personnel at CBS’ broadcast facility have been instructed to nab Mr. Rather if he attempts to enter the building and have been warned to “be on the lookout for a 73-year-old white man disguised as a Mujahideen.”

While Mr. Rather’s days in the CBS anchor chair may be at an end, associates of the newscaster believe that he may begin a new career at the Central Intelligence Agency, where his ability to gather phony information is said to be highly regarded.

Elsewhere, U.S. forces searching a bomb-making factory in Falluja over the weekend discovered the screenplay of the movie “Alexander.”

www.borowitzreport.com/default.asp

Jolie Rouge
01-10-2005, 02:11 PM
CBS Fires Four Staffers After Memo Probe
By DAVID BAUDER

NEW YORK (AP) - Four CBS News staffers were fired Monday following the release of an independent investigation that said a ``myopic zeal'' led to the airing of a discredited story about President Bush's military service.

The panel's 224-page report detailed dozens of missteps, including the reliance on documents that were allegedly forged to a circle-the-wagons mentality that compounded the damage.

CBS fired Mary Mapes, producer of the report aired Sept. 8 on ``60 Minutes Wednesday''; Josh Howard, executive producer of the show; his top deputy Mary Murphy; and senior vice president Betsy West.

Dan Rather, who narrated the report, was faulted for ``errors of credulity and overenthusiasm,'' but was not disciplined by top CBS executive Leslie Moonves. Rather announced in November that he was stepping down as anchorman of the ``CBS Evening News,'' but insisted the timing had nothing to do with the investigation.

CBS News President Andrew Heyward kept his job. The panel said Heyward had explicitly urged caution before the report aired.

Moonves had appointed former Republican Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and Louis D. Boccardi, retired president and chief executive officer of The Associated Press, to investigate what went wrong. They delivered their report last week. ``These problems were caused primarily by a myopic zeal to be the first news organization to broadcast what was believed to be a new story about President Bush's Texas Air National Guard service, and the rigid and blind defense of the segment after it aired despite numerous indications of its shortcomings,'' the panelists concluded.

Boccardi and Thornburgh said they could find no evidence to conclude the report - aired two months before Bush won re-election - was politically motivated.

The report cited documents purported to be from one of Bush's commanders in the Texas Air National Guard. The documents say the commander, the late Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, ordered Bush to take a medical exam and the future president did not. Killian also reportedly felt pressured to sugarcoat an evaluation of then 1st Lt. Bush.

Questions were quickly raised about the memo. Some document experts said a font used in the document appeared to have been created on a computer and not on any typewriter that was available at the time.

Although the panel said it couldn't prove conclusively the documents were forged, it said CBS News failed to authenticate them and falsely claimed an expert had done so when all he had done was authenticate one signature.

The panel said Mapes had misled her superiors about the documents and the background of her source, retired Texas National Guard Lt. Col. Bill Burkett. CBS News executives relied too heavily on Mapes, who only months earlier had broken the story about the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and had been investigating Bush's National Guard service since 1999. Howard, who had begun supervising ``60 Minutes Wednesday'' in June, gave too much deference to her and Rather, the panel said.


Reached at her Dallas home Monday, Mapes said: ``I haven't seen the report yet, so I won't be saying anything until I do.''

Two days after the report, Heyward ordered West to review the opinions of document examiners and confidential sources who had supported the story - but no such investigation was done, Thornburgh and Boccardi said. ``Had this directive been followed promptly, the panel does not believe that `60 Minutes Wednesday' would have publicly defended the segment for another 10 days,'' Boccardi and Thornburgh wrote.

The panel faulted Rather, and said it did not appear he had even seen the report until its broadcast. And it said CBS' apology, issued nearly two weeks after the report aired, unfairly pinned too much blame on Burkett and not enough on its own failures.

Following the independent investigation, CBS News appointed one of its executives, Linda Mason, to a newly created job of senior vice president of standards and special projects. It will be her job to thoroughly review everything about an investigative scandal before it airs.

Jeff Fager, executive producer of ``60 Minutes'' on Sunday, will oversee the Wednesday broadcast as well for the rest of the TV season.

Both Moonves and the panel said it hoped the report did not have a ``chilling effect'' on CBS News' commitment to investigative journalism. ``By doing what needed to be done, as painful as some of these steps are, we hope to have moved decisively to set the record straight, and to turn this crisis into an opportunity to make CBS News stronger than it ever has been,'' Moonves said.



01/10/05 14:48

Jolie Rouge
01-11-2005, 09:24 AM
Rather Saves Job, but Reputation Takes Hit
By DAVID BAUDER

NEW YORK (AP) - As his anchor career nears its end in March, Dan Rather's reputation as a hard-charging news reporter took some damaging blows from the independent panel that probed CBS' discredited story on President Bush's National Guard service.

Three CBS News executives and the producer of last September's ``60 Minutes Wednesday'' report were fired Monday by CBS chief Leslie Moonves for rushing the story to air and then blindly defending it.

Rather was portrayed by the panel - retired Associated Press chief executive officer Louis D. Boccardi and former GOP Attorney General Dick Thornburgh - as ``pushed to the limit'' by coverage of the Republican National Convention and Hurricane Frances as final reporting on the story was done. ``He's had a distingusihed television news career, he's one of the largest figures in this industry and this event doesn't erase the other things that he has accomplished,'' Boccardi said Tuesday in an interview on CBS' ``The Early Show.''

The veteran anchorman did not see the story before it aired, or appear to have participated in any of the vetting sessions, Boccardi and Thornburgh found. ``The panel has found that his unwillingness to consider that CBS News and his colleague were in the wrong was a mistake, and that the broadcast would have benefited from a more direct involvement on Rather's part,'' Moonves said in a statement.

Given Rather's voluntary retirement as anchor, a decision that Rather said was unrelated to the National Guard story, Moonves said he decided not to discipline him. Rather will move then to ``60 Minutes,'' where Moonves said he will have ``more time to concentrate on his reporting.''

Rather did not anchor the ``CBS Evening News'' on Monday, after traveling back from Thailand over the weekend. An aide said he was reading the report and did not have an immediate comment.

It had to have been a particularly painful moment for a man who regards as one of his proudest legacies that he remained a reporter as well as a newsreader in a quarter-century at the anchor desk. He frequently traveled to the sites of major stories, including tsunami-devastated Asia.



Fired were Mary Mapes, the story's producer; Josh Howard, executive producer of ``60 Minutes Wednesday''; Howard's top deputy, Mary Murphy; and CBS News senior vice president Betsy West.


Boccardi and Thornburgh's 224-page report catalogued a long series of missteps, essentially saying the report was aired too soon under competitive pressure without being thoroughly checked out. Four months after the report was aired, the panel still couldn't say conclusively whether memos allegedly disparaging Bush's service were real or fake. ``If these experienced vetters knew everything that we know about the circumstances, the authentication, they wouldn't have let the program go on the air,'' Boccardi said in his interview Tuesday.

Added Thornburgh: ``One of the things I think that surprised us was the fact that nobody within the CBS family seemed to have any appreciation of how tricky the process of authenticating documents is.''

After compounding its errors by defending the initial report without looking into it further, CBS apologized 12 days later. But the panel found fault with Rather's Sept. 20 apology, saying it placed too much of the blame on the source of the memos and not enough on CBS.

Rather told the panel that he did not think an apology was appropriate, but did it because he was a ``team player.'' Rather also told Boccardi and Thornburgh that he still believes the content of the documents is true.

``It is clear that Rather's joining in the apology given his role as the correspondent on the segment and his status as CBS News' most visible presence was critical to its acceptance,'' the report said. ``The panel finds his comments disavowing the apology to be troubling.''


The only glimmer of good news for CBS and Rather - long the target of conservative critics - is that the panel said it had found no evidence of political bias. But it said it was inappropriate for Mapes to have contacted the Kerry campaign at the behest of her source. ``We can't prove that Mapes or Dan Rather did this thing in order to hurt President Bush,'' Boccardi said. ``If you can't prove it - and maybe in another way the lesson of the Sept. 8 report is, don't say it.''

As predicted by Thornburgh, however, that conclusion did not quiet political criticism of CBS News. ``Such error layered upon error can only happen when there is a rigid political orthodoxy that not only does not encourage dissent, it does not even recognized that dissent might exist,'' said Michael Paranzino, founder of a Web log encouraging a boycott of CBS.

Along with Rather, CBS News President Andrew Heyward emerged from the independent review with no discipline from Moonves. Rich Hanley, director of graduate programs at Quinnipiac University's School of Communications, said the failure to hold Heyward and Rather accountable for these mistakes is ``astonishing.''


But Moonves, in an interview, said it was not Heyward's job to vet individual sources or material. ``Andrew gave explicit directions that just weren't carried out, about not stampeding the project on the air, verifying every syllable ... and making sure everything was buttoned down, and it just didn't happen,'' Moonves said.

``On that basis, I find Andrew's sin was trusting his lieutenants too much,'' he said.



Mapes, in a statement, said she was shocked by Moonves' ``vitriolic scapegoating.'' She said the decision to air the story when it did was made by her superiors, including Heyward, and not by her. ``If there was a journalistic crime committed here, it was not by me,'' she said.


On the Net:


Full report: www.cbsnews.com



01/11/05 08:37

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/story.jsp?floc=ne-main-9-l5&flok=FF-APO-1401&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20050111%2F0837021914.htm&sc=1401

Jolie Rouge
01-19-2005, 12:29 PM
January 18, 2005

Not going gently into that good night

-Keith Olbermann


SECAUCUS — After the Thornburgh-Boccardi report on CBS News came out a week ago yesterday, it was the big question: Why did four mid-level executives lose their jobs, when nobody above them and nobody on the air, did?

Never assume, as Felix Ungar warned. It turns out three of those four executives are still working for CBS News. Thus did CBS President/Chairman Leslie Moonves confirm to writers covering the television publicity tour in Los Angeles today.

Mary Mapes, the producer behind the so-called "Killian Memos" story, was fired outright. But Senior Vice President Betsy West, "60 Minutes 2" Executive Producer Josh Howard, and his deputy Mary Murphy, were asked to resign in the aftermath of the independent investigation.

Mr. Moonves says they have not. "They are in discussions now," he noted, and added that there were lawyers now involved, so he couldn't say much more. But he did go into detail about the continuation of Andrew Heyward as President of CBS News. Moonves said he made the decision to retain him, adding that Heyward's subordinates were responsible for the quote "screw-up."

As to what's next, Moonves says that when Dan Rather leaves the CBS Evening News in seven weeks, he wants a quote "revolution and not an evolution," possibly including an anchor team — the members of which might even be in different cities. He refused to comment on any of the names mentioned as Rather's successor: Katie Couric, John Roberts, John Stewart, Stuart Little, Little Richard, Richard Lewis, or Lewis Black.

But Moonves did talk about what he saw as a "reinventing" of the news format to discontinue what he called the "voice of God" style of single host. "We are looking at all sorts of options, ensembles... big names, little names. One of the ways we're looking at is making it younger and more relevant, something that younger people can relate to, as opposed to that guy preaching from the mountaintop about what we should and should not watch."

Hey, pal — I'm workin' this side of the street.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6667405/#050118a

Jolie Rouge
02-12-2005, 09:45 PM
The Devastation of Dan
Ross Mackenzie

One reads the report on CBS and the bogus memos - all 224 pages of it, supported by about 500 pages of exhibits - with a gathering sense of dismay.

It is not a snow job. CBS promised findings "in weeks, not months" about allegations it had aired bogus memos suggesting disobedience by George Bush in the Texas Air National Guard in1972-73. Four months and half-a-million dollars later, we have a report by two eminences (a former attorney general and a former head of the Associated Press) that amounts to the devastation of Dan Rather and CBS.

The report finds - let's see:

-Abundant carelessness.

-"Egregious shortcomings" (former AP President and CEO Lou Boccardi's words) in the realm of broadly accepted journalistic standards. ("Our report does not give CBS a passing grade.")

-A determination by CBS to rush the memos onto the air.

-"Myopic zeal."

-"Solid sources" (Rather's words) that were in truth a congeries of Democratic hangers-on, hustlers, and hacks.

-Haste.

Devastating stuff.


So, as one reads along, where does the dismay enter and gather steam?

1) Though within hours of CBS' airing of the memos their genuineness lay in tatters across the Internet and the pages of the nation's major newspapers, the panel refuses to go there. It concludes: "The panel was not able to reach a definitive conclusion as to the authenticity of the documents."

Mountains of evidence, not least including the panel's own exhibits, show the memos to be forgeries beyond a reasonable doubt. To conclude anything else is to approach the still-held position of, among others, Dan Rather: that though the memos cannot be authenticated, they cannot be proven wrong either; besides, their content is accurate, even if they are not.

Which is ideological incoherence.


2) Rather was distracted - harried by coverage of Florida hurricanes, for instance, and anyway not deeply involved in preparation of the memos story.

The exhibits make clear Rather's deep involvement in interviews and other aspects of the bogus-memos affair. In truth, for five years he and producer Mary Mapes - who in the wake of the panel's report took the fall at CBS
as principal perpetrator in airing the bogus memos - had been seeking to show Bush as a slacking, disobedient incompetent in the Air National Guard.

Rather still believes that (e.g., his words: "the facts are right on the money") - and never mind whether the memos offered to support the "facts" are fakes. This is why, although he has said he is "sorry" for being "misled" by a wacko source ("we were more trusting in [our] source than we should have been") and thus airing the memos without authenticating them. It also is why he has not yet apologized to President Bush for lying on the air - i.e., for stipulating CBS had "unimpeachable sources," and that it had authenticated the memos when it had not done so because it could not do so - and for seeking to manipulate the electoral process and affect the outcome of the presidential race.



Consider this aspect as well: Rather long has promoted himself as an intrepid reporter. On the contrary, as are all network anchors, he is far more a reader of "news" unearthed and written up by others. If the report is correct in saying he was hardly involved in the CBS segment on the bogus memos, then that finding sustains the suggestion Rather is principally the newsreader he says he is not. And of course, if the report is incorrect in this finding, then that sustains the suggestion Rather the intrepid reporter was heavily involved and should be fired.



3) Finally, the panel concludes it could not find a basis to accuse those who investigated, produced, vetted, or aired the segment of having a political bias.

The panel bases this utterly dismaying finding on Rather and Mapes themselves. It asked them, and both strongly denied that they brought any political bias to the segment.

Bias?

Rather: "Absolutely, unequivocally untrue."
Ms. Mapes: "proximity, not politics."

The panel's conclusion: "[We] cannot conclude that a political agenda at '60 Minutes Wednesday' drove either the timing or the airing of the segment or its content."



In all, the panel exorcised the what of the bogus-memo affair, but not the why. Why were Rather and Mapes and CBS careless and hasty? Why did they rush onto the air with forged memos? They believed the memos' content even in the face of their obvious fraudulence. They were seeking to force the facts into their mold - into their interpretation of reality. That is the essence of ideology.

And ideology - leftist ideology - lies at the heart of the CBS bogus-memo affair.

Linda Mason, elevated to a new CBS post overseeing broadcast standards, said this in explanation - exculpation? - following CBS' announcement of network departures in the wake of the panel's report: "I firmly believe if [Rather and Ms. Mapes] found something about Kerry and his past, they'd be rushing to get that on the air, too."

In truth, rumors about Kerry's past - his performance during four months in Vietnam, his medals, his peacenik activities, the level of his discharge from the military (was it ever less than honorable?) - were as rife at the time as were rumors about Bush's past in the Texas Air National Guard.

Add to that Kerry's determination at the Democratic National Convention to make his Vietnam service a major element of his campaign, and the rumors about his past became particularly ripe for intrepid reporting.

Yet CBS essentially ignored the Kerry rumors and disparaged those (principally members of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth) most responsible for putting the spotlight on them. Such absence of coverage reflected the same leftist bias that led Rather to dismiss those who challenged the veracity of the bogus memos as "primarily supporters of President Bush with their own conservative political agenda." Rather kid-gloved rumors about liberal Kerry, gave him a free ride, while giving no slack to rumors about conservative Bush - even in the face of the truth. Conversely, he did not do what Linda Mason insisted he would do.

The panel probes little in the realm of the memos' provenance. It cites haste and "deficient reporting" but stops short of probing the reasons for the deficiency. It neglects the why of CBS' insistence on airing bogus memos it knew it could not authenticate. Thereby, dismayingly, the panel failed to go to the heart of the problem - the liberalism that so many are convinced so drives CBS News.

Rather & Co. wanted to believe the memos to be genuine in order to sustain their view of President Bush and ultimately to bring him down. But alas, even with the panel's report, vastly fewer believe its finding of no ideological bias than believe the tawdry bogus-memo episode demonstrates once more the driving liberalism that permeates the mainline press in which CBS and Dan Rather have played such a major role.

Jolie Rouge
03-09-2005, 09:41 PM
Dan Rather Signs Off 'CBS Evening News'
By DAVID BAUDER

NEW YORK (AP) - Dan Rather echoed a word he once briefly used to sign off the ``CBS Evening News'' - courage - in anchoring the program for the final time after 24 years on Wednesday.

In a brief statement at the end of the broadcast, Rather paid tribute to Sept. 11 terrorist victims, tsunami survivors, American military forces, the oppressed, those in failing health and fellow journalists in dangerous places. ``And, to each of you,'' he said. ``Courage.''

He seemed to savor each word of his signoff: ``For the `CBS Evening News,' Dan Rather reporting. Good night.''

Rather's reporting career spanned the Kennedy assassination to this winter's tsunami, and he's been the public face of CBS's legendary news division since replacing Walter Cronkite on March 9, 1981.

His first newscast included a story about English girls imitating the hairstyle of Prince Charles' bride-to-be, Diana. On Wednesday, the lead story was oil prices causing a bad day on Wall Street.

He's the second of the three men who dominated network news for more than two decades to step down in four months. NBC's Tom Brokaw exited in November, leaving ABC's Peter Jennings remaining at ``World News Tonight.''

Bob Schieffer is Rather's temporary replacement starting Thursday. CBS expects to name a permanent anchor team to succeed Rather in the coming months.

Rather, 73, is returning to full-time reporting for CBS's ``60 Minutes'' broadcasts. He flashed a steadfast defiance in reminding viewers of the phrase ``courage.'' He was mocked by some for using the word to end his broadcasts for a week in September 1986 before giving up on the idea.

For its first 20 minutes, Rather's final broadcast was all business. No one - Rather or correspondents John Roberts and Anthony Mason - acknowledged it was a special night. Rather wore a dark blue pinstriped suit and striped red tie. His voice was hoarse.

His exit comes at a low ebb in his career. Rather took much of the public blame for a discredited ``60 Minutes'' story last fall about President Bush's military service, and he's a distant third in the ratings behind NBC's Brian Williams and Jennings.

He has been a target for decades of conservatives who accuse the media of bias, since his coverage of the Nixon White House during the Watergate era, and many have exulted in his recent misfortunes.

But he had his supporters, too.

Marian MacNeil of Windsor, Calif., said she watched Rather regularly and admired him. ``I feel terrible the way he's being treated now,'' MacNeil said. ``I think they're smearing a good reputation and overshadowing his 50 years. I hope he's able to rise above this.''

Both Jennings and Williams paid tribute to Rather at the end of their broadcasts. Williams called him a ``very tough competitor'' and a friend of nearly 20 years.

On ``World News Tonight,'' Jennings noted the National Guard story and said ABC took no pleasure in the pain it caused its competitors. ``For many of us, being a reporter turned out to be a calling,'' Jennings said. ``It is an identity for Dan. He would be the first to reflect - as all serious reporters do - that this opportunity to work on behalf of the public interest has been an unusual privilege. ``Dan and I are also friend,'' he said. ``It goes without saying that we wish him nothing but the best.''

When the lights went down at CBS' broadcast center on Manhattan's West Side, CBS News President Andrew Heyward and correspondents Ed Bradley, Vicky Mabrey, Jim Axelrod and Rita Braver offered toasts, a spokeswoman said.

Rather drank from a glass of ``Wild Turkey'' bourbon.

Meanwhile, a CBS affiliate in northern Michigan that had said it would let its viewers decide whether it should run Wednesday's prime-time CBS tribute to Rather backed off those plans. The station in Cadillac, Mich., said Wednesday its poll had been grossly misinterpreted. ``We were simply trying to maintain the great tradition of local viewer input that is the foundation of our modern day broadcasting system,'' said William E. Kring, the station's general manager. ``It was never our intent to embarrass Mr. Rather or the CBS network.''


03/09/05 20:08

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/tv/story.jsp?idq=/ff/story/0001/20050309/2009812722.htm

Jolie Rouge
03-10-2005, 09:53 PM
IN FINAL BROADCAST, RATHER REVEALS WHAT THE FREQUENCY IS
Closes Book on Decades-long Mystery

In his final broadcast as anchor of the CBS Evening News, Dan Rather stunned the American people by revealing, at long last, what the frequency is. “Friends, years ago, a gentleman accosted me on the street in Manhattan and asked me, ‘What is the frequency, Kenneth?’” the longtime anchor said at the end of the broadcast Wednesday night. “Tonight, I would like to answer that question once and for all.”

“For the past twenty-four years, I have used these broadcasts to send thought-control brainwaves through your TV sets,” the veteran newsman continued. “In order to receive those signals, your brain had to be tuned to a frequency of 102.7 – and that, my friends, is the frequency.”

But Mr. Rather saved his most startling bombshell for last: “My name is not, nor has it ever been Dan Rather – it’s Kenneth.”

Mr. Rather than held up a birth certificate showing the name “Kenneth Charles Doobin” before signing off the air with a simple, “Courage.”

The anchor’s final broadcast, widely considered the most perplexing of his storied career, became even more controversial after several leading document experts noticed that the ink on the supposedly 73-year-old birth certificate was still wet and running down the page.

The retiring CBS anchor issued a brief statement in which he chose not to address the controversy, merely saying that he was looking forward to his new job as an Afghan mujahideen.

;)

Elsewhere, in a sign that democracy is continuing to spread in the Middle East, Lebanon scheduled its first elections for April and its first sex scandal for June.


http://www.borowitzreport.com/default.asp

onfire4god57
03-10-2005, 09:53 PM
I for one am going to miss Dan Rather. I have watched Dan Rather since he first started doing the evening news. I remember when he took over for Walter Cronkite.

He brought me through my young adult life with his news stories.

He was there during the good times and the bad times of our country.

He talked us through the wars.

He was the first newscaster I ever saw to show emotion in a story.

He became a part of our lives during hours and hours of TV viewng after the 911 attacks.

CBS News has been a family tradition as far back as I can remember as a child.

You will be greatly missed in our household every evening Dan Rather! Cheers to you! :)

nightrider127
03-11-2005, 04:31 AM
I for one am going to miss Dan Rather. I have watched Dan Rather since he first started doing the evening news. I remember when he took over for Walter Cronkite.

He brought me through my young adult life with his news stories.

He was there during the good times and the bad times of our country.

He talked us through the wars.

He was the first newscaster I ever saw to show emotion in a story.

He became a part of our lives during hours and hours of TV viewng after the 911 attacks.

CBS News has been a family tradition as far back as I can remember as a child.

You will be greatly missed in our household every evening Dan Rather! Cheers to you! :)

ITA. Yes, he made a mistake, a big one. But he is not the first news person to make a mistake and he wont be the last one either.

I think what made him go so quick with that story is because of the pressure put on news people to be the first to report it.

janelle
03-11-2005, 12:02 PM
Read my other posts on him. He is one sided reporter. Always has been. Fawns over the Clintons and puts down the Bushes and Republicans. No one can blame him for favoring one party over the other personally but when you are a reporter you need to stay unbiased for fair reporting. Or at least come right out in the beginning and say you are Democrat and you will be reporting the news with a liberal bent. They do that on the radio why not on TV?

nightrider127
03-11-2005, 02:46 PM
Read my other posts on him. He is one sided reporter. Always has been. Fawns over the Clintons and puts down the Bushes and Republicans. No one can blame him for favoring one party over the other personally but when you are a reporter you need to stay unbiased for fair reporting. Or at least come right out in the beginning and say you are Democrat and you will be reporting the news with a liberal bent. They do that on the radio why not on TV?


Well, there is reporters that go the other way too. Just take a look at Fox News. Yeah, right, fair and balanced, we report, you decide.

ALL news reporters ought to report the news as it really is. Not be biased one way or the other. Simply tell the truth.

Another thing, people need to do their own research on the candidates, make informed choices. A person shouldn't leave it up to anyone to make their decision for them, not news reporter, not anybody.

janelle
03-11-2005, 03:25 PM
I agree. This is why people should listen to all news channels, read, and study the issues. Radio and TV.

Fox is just balancing it all. Nothing wrong with that. All the rest seem to be liberal.

Jolie Rouge
03-14-2006, 11:13 AM
Ask No Questions Of Your Superstar Journalists
March 13, 2006

Jim Walsh of the Courier Post learned an important lesson last week, one he relates to his readers in his column today. After listening to former CBS anchorman Dan Rather speak to a Cherry Hill audience about the need for improvement in reporting, Walsh took an opportunity to ask Rather to talk about a specific instance where media failed -- and wound up censored for his efforts:

http://courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060313/NEWS01/603130348/-1/Cherry_Hill



Freedom of press can cost reporters popularity

I logged another first in my reporting career last week.

Your humble correspondent was booed.

And for that honor, I must thank either my own rude behavior -- or a bunch of folks with no appreciation for irony.

Here's the scene: Former CBS anchorman Dan Rather is in Cherry Hill, giving a speech about the need for journalists to do better. "What's gone out of fashion is the tough question and the follow-up," he tells an admiring audience of about 600 people at Cherry Hill's Star Forum.

So how can I, the guy covering Rather's remarks, just sit there?

When he finishes, I hurry to a floor mike to ask Rather about an issue that will be part of my story. "Mr. Rather," I say. "Great suggestions. But you left the anchor desk last year after your report questioning President Bush's military service was discredited. Key memos could not be authenticated. Do you think the failure to ask questions then affects your credibility now?"

Rather responds with civility -- if not clarity. He notes, in part, that an independent review "couldn't determine whether the documents were authentic or not."

Eager to please, I follow up: "The Courier-Post won't run something if we're not sure it's authentic. Are you saying it's OK . . ."

But my microphone goes dead -- and the audience stirs to life.

Some people jeer. Others glare and scowl (I can now distinguish between the two). This continues outside as I call in my story.

Gee, Rather's speech never mentioned this.

But for everyone I offended, here's more bad news.

I still think the question had to be asked -- and, for deadline reasons, it had to be asked then. And while it was nice that some people at the forum shared my view, it's OK that many others did not.

See, reporters expect criticism. It's part of the job -- from the editor who thinks a sentence could be clearer to the story subject who wishes the same line had never run.

We don't shrug off complaints -- and, let's hope, we sometimes learn from them.

But most of us don't take them personally, either.

Some in the public see things differently.

Consider this e-mail from a woman in Rather's audience: "It is my opinion that you had your own political agenda when you approached the microphone."

In other words, I'm a Bush backer.

But tell that to the reader unhappy with a recent story I did about the 14th Amendment. He said my sources had overlooked an argument that the measure should bar John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat, from serving in the Senate due to his anti-war efforts in the Vietnam Era.

Other reporters had missed that point, too, he said. "All such writers have been liberal Democrats as I have to assume that you are as well."

A more constructive approach came from Pakistan, of all places, where an online reader said Rather's call for a media "spine transplant" was inadequate.

"American media needs a complete brain transplant," that writer said.

Then he ended his note nicely -- "with most cordial regards."

See? Nothing personal.


So let's get this straight. Dan Rather spent his time in Cherry Hill lamenting the dearth of the tough question and the follow-up. When Walsh got an opportunity, he attempted to provide Rather with exactly what he demanded from the media -- a tough question and a follow-up when the first answer evaded the issue. How did Rather and his handlers reward him? They cut off his microphone and made sure he couldn't finish his follow-up.

And after listening to Rather talk about the supposed spinelessness of the media, how did the audience react to this obvious and hypocritical effort at stifling Walsh's inquiry? They booed him. Quite obviously, both Rather and his audience engaged in mere posturing instead of truly supporting aggressive reporting.

Has there ever been a major journalist as egotistical and hypocritical as Dan Rather?

http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/006520.php

Jolie Rouge
09-05-2006, 07:33 PM
From MRC: Meet the Real Katie Couric.
http://www.mrc.org/SpecialReports/2006/sum/sum082906.asp

CBS’s New Star Adores Liberals, Scolds Conservatives
— And Thinks America Should Be More Like France
By Rich Noyes, MRC Research Director
August 29, 2006

( Full Report available on site )

Executive Summary

After more than two decades in which Dan Rather used his CBS Evening News anchor desk as a soapbox to punish conservatives and promote liberals — years in which the Evening News tumbled from the undisputed ratings leader to a poor third place among the nightly newscasts — CBS has elevated Katie Couric, the longtime co-host of NBC’s Today, to sit as Rather’s permanent replacement.

In TV ads promoting Couric’s arrival, outgoing interim anchor Bob Schieffer claimed: "She’s tough, she’s fair, she’s a straight-shooter....Just watch." But meeting with TV critics in early July, Couric suggested a desire to supplant journalistic objectivity with activism. "There are cases where we can be more solution-oriented," Couric proposed.

If her track record is a reliable guide, any policy "solutions" promoted by the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric will likely consist of tiresome liberal clichés: greater burdens on private business, more spending, more taxes and a bigger role for government. Media Research Center analysts have documented Couric’s liberal slant since the day she started on Today back in 1991. Over the years, Couric has embraced liberal politicians, admired Europe’s nanny states, and harshly castigated conservatives in general and the religious right in particular.

Couric’s years on Today have seen her liberal skew on full display. This report presents a detailed accounting of the kind of bias that’s likely to greet viewers of the CBS Evening News starting in September.