Just days before he's due to step down as anchor of the "CBS Evening News," Dan Rather admitted the constant attacks on his credibility and career occasionally get to him. "No rhinoceros has a hide so thick that some well-placed, hard-thrown, pointed spear can't get under it," Rather told the Daily News. "It's also true, it's not very often. And when it does, when I feel it, it's not for very long."
Dealing with the criticism comes with the turf of being a hard-nosed, hard-news reporter, according to Rather. "As a reporter, I risked more than some people do. ... Nobody's perfect, I'm not as a person, as a reporter. I don't have any apologies for that," he said. And Rather doesn't expect it to change much after Wednesday night, his last as anchor of the "CBS Evening News." The night will mark 24 years to the day that he replaced Walter Cronkite The one who's lies helped cost us the Vietnam War....
- and comes after months of dealing with the fallout from a forged flawed "60 Minutes Wednesday" report on President Bush's military career. The 73-year-old Rather, during a wide-ranging interview with The News, said he felt good and had none of the emotional jitters others suggested he might get at this point. "I'm not retiring," said Rather, who'll return to full-time reporting of false, made-up stories for the "60 Minutes" franchise. "I'm changing jobs. For better or worse, I'm a big-game hunter. And I'll continue to hunt big game."
He says he knows he'll still be the target for critics because he's not backing down from chasing important, controversial made up and forged stories - something he has never done since he was a cub reporter in Houston. "You can look at me; after 43 years, I've got a lot of scars," Rather said. "They're all from the front. I didn't get it in the back because I didn't run. And now would not be a time to start."
Rather and CBS announced in November that he would leave the "CBS Evening News" set on March 9. Discussions about Rather's role on the "CBS Evening News" began last summer, long before the controversial Sept. 8 "60 Minutes Wednesday" report about Bush's National Guard record that has since cast a short shadow over a long, illustrious career that any journalist would envy. Actually this wasn't the first time Rather has forged a story. Wasn't there a report in the late 70's of so-called vietnam veterans who confessed to numerous 'war crimes' -- only it turned out to be all a fake and none of the vietnam vets were ever in Vietnam (some had never been in the military).
"I think he's the last of a vanishing breed of bigger-than-life television journalists that began with Edward R. Murrow and continued with Walter Cronkite Another liar ,
[Chet] Huntley, [David] Brinkley, Tom Brokaw and Rather," said Paul Levinson, chairman of the media and communications department at Fordham University. Levinson said Rather has, since the 1960s, "been at every major event that affected our lives. ... He was and is a man of the people." Billshit! Him and Cronkite and the others have always been for (and members of) the liberal elite.
"I'm either cursed or blessed," Rather said, "but I never lost my thirst, my hunger for daily news. The one reason I like daily news is that right around the corner might be the next big story." He insisted that the fallout from the "60 Minutes Wednesday" report had been a "learning" experience for him. One of the things he has learned is "who your real friends are ... who stands up, who stands with you and who hits the sill." To that point, Rather won't respond to criticisms from "60 Minutes" legends Mike Wallace and Don Hewitt leveled in a New Yorker magazine piece. Hasn't really learned a thing....
Instead, he wants to focus on the future, saying that what was overlooked in the investigation into the Bush story was that the panel said CBS should not diminish its efforts to do investigative reporting, he said. And that's what he plans to do. He does admit to being curious about how he'll react when the next big breaking news story comes along - and he's not in the anchor chair. "I don't underestimate that when the bell rings," he said, "somebody might have to physically restrain me." Look! Up in the Sky! Its a bird! Its a plane! Its SUPER-ANCHOR!
#1
Billshit! Him and Cronkite and the others have always been for (and members of) the liberal elite.
CF : You may not be old enough to remember, but, there was an AFTRA strike in the late 1960s, it affected the on camera newsmen. Chet Huntley, Republican, refused to strike, croossed the picket line, and continued to brooadcast the news without Brinkley for the duration of the strike.
AFTRA is the union of on-air TV personalities.
It exists to this day, even Rush is a member...
#2
Rather came to national prominence on a lie. During the JFK assasination, he broadcast a report that kids in Dallas were cheering the assasination, thereby feeding northeastern prejudice against the south.
Posted by: ed ||
03/06/2005 16:41 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Ok BigEd, I stand corrected. And thanks whoever for moving this to page 3 where it belongs :).
#4
call me crazy - but I'm actually glad to see Rather sticking to his story. It makes them all look so stoopid and deranged. Kind of like when what's his name went off on the purple teletubbie. Just kind of lets the next generation know what they are dealing with.
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Just days before he's due to step down as anchor of the "CBS Evening News," Dan Rather admitted the constant attacks on his credibility and career occasionally get to him. "No rhinoceros has a hide so thick that some well-placed, hard-thrown, pointed spear can't get under it," Rather told the Daily News. "It's also true, it's not very often. And when it does, when I feel it, it's not for very long."
