Rather Tricked by Prank Caller During Columbia Coverage

RatherBiased.com

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2003-02-3 17:09:41

• While covering the disaster surrounding the space shuttle Columbia, Dan Rather jumped the gun again when a crank caller managed to make it past CBS's screeners and embarrass an anchor eager for new information.
  The prankster called up the Broadcast Center and told the handlers that he found some of the shuttle in his yard. He was immediately connected with Rather on the air, who excitedly announced,
  "We have, we think, somebody on the phone now who believes that he may have some, may, underscore the word, may have some debris from the shuttle in his back yard.... Sir, are you on the phone with us?"
  "Mike Weller," from "Euleff, Texas" responded, "Yes, I'm here, Mr. Rather."
  Rather tried to put him at ease, "Dan, please." Then the fellow Texan asked him to "tell us who you are, where you are, and what you see."
  "My name's Mike. I'm in Euleff, Texas, and a little over an hour ago I heard a loud explosion and a big piece of what appeared to be metal landed on my property. It's lying there now and there are a lot of people here, obviously, looking at it."
  

  Thus far it appeared Mike was a legitimate caller. But then he added, "And they believe that it's one of Babba Booey's teeth."
  Russ Mitchell, whom Rather had pushed aside in order to do special Saturday coverage, remarked "We got a crank." But Rather took it all in, the same way he did in 1999 when a previous crank caller also brought up Babba Booey--radio host Howard Stern's producer--after the crash of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s plane:
  "Whether it's John F. Kennedy's Saratoga, we don't know. We also found Baba Booey's teeth were laying along the bay, too, and Howard Stern and Baba Booey were all there."
  

  In 1999 a handler had to tell Rather in his ear that it was a fake, but this time the caller did it for him.
  

  Rather still held onto the scoop, while also trying to show off his knowledge of Texas Geography (having grown up there): "Hold on just one moment while I keep you, Mike. A lot of people don't know where Euleff, Texas is. From Dallas you're in what direction and where?"
  The Howard Stern fan was amazed that Rather kept the charade going, and finally told him, "You're a real idiot, you know that?" Immediately he was cut off.

  Mitchell said "that was a crank call, unfortunately," and Rather responded, "Well, it was a crank call and it is true I'm an idiot, but that's beside the point." Sometimes "keeping these crank callers off of the phone works and sometimes it doesn't." Before changing the subject, Rather stated, "We apologize to you for that. That was a mistake on our part. Abject apology for it and we move on."

• Watch Rather the first time around, as he he gets excited over an "exclusive" about the location of the downed plane of John F. Kennedy Jr.
  

[governsleastgovernsbest]

I watched Rather's slip live on Saturday, and immediately posted about it, but no one picked up on it. Interesting that it turns up now as a news item.

Here's my post on Rather's obtuseness, at #142:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/833930/posts?q=1&&page=101

[baseballmom]

As much as it pains me to say this, I was impressed with the CBS coverage on Saturday morning. Fox news channel was AWFUL. MSNBC was good, as was CNN. CBS had a guy at the Kennedy Space Center, (his name escapes me just now), but he is their long time correspondent there - and he was VERY GOOD. I didn't see the incident you're referring to. I was switching back and forth a lot.

As far as Howard Stern's idiot callers, one of them called into CNN, the night that Princess Diana died, and it was really repulsive. Some people need to know when to joke, and when to leave it alone.

[Possenti]

It's pretty sick that someone would take advantage of this tragedy to get his "15 minutes of fame",

but I admit...

It was funny to see Bizzaro Dan get pranked and admit he was an idiot on live TV.

"Idiot" used to describe Rather is an understatement. The man is truly bizarre and unstable. As G. Gordon Liddy said (quoting PJ O'Rourke, I believe) - "People watch Dan Rather for the same reason they watch the Indy 500 - they're just waiting for something to crash."

[per loin]

Will Kenneth ever find the correct frequency?

[gavriloprincip]

Bump, this is funny :)