CBS Tries to Clear Up Signals on Future of 'Evening News'

NYT ^ | 27 September 2004 | JACQUES STEINBERG

[don'tbedenied]

Hmmm, where will they put the new deck chairs on the Titantic?

[bayourod]

It better be a minority female or the "glass ceiling" flags will be raised.

[GeneD]

(The New York Times Company owns four CBS affiliates.)

Hmmmmmmmmm, I smell a conflict of interest here!

[NoCmpromiz]

What? Me watch CBS Evening News? I'd Rather not....

[NavySEAL F-16]

Same thing with BOR, whose radio station is owned by a subsidiary of Viacom, Westwood Radio. I am wondering if they announced that on 60 Minutes with their interview with O'Reilly?

[GaltMeister]

"Recognizing I can't be totally objective about it, I say to myself, 'I think I can do the job as good as anybody and maybe better than most,' '' he said.

What's Dan talking about there? Getting The President out of office?

[Bowhunter]

The question of what to do about Mr. Rather - whose broadcast has languished in third place, behind NBC and ABC, for nearly a decade - began to take on greater urgency in recent months, as NBC has prepared to pass the baton of its nightly newscast from Tom Brokaw to Brian Williams.

Er, ten years in third place - out of three teams? Who does Dan have naked pictures of?

[Bronzewound]

"Recognizing I can't be totally objective about it, I say to myself, 'I think I can do the job as good as anybody and maybe better than most,' '' he said.

Give us a break, Dan. You haven't been able to be objective about anything for a long, long time.

[Iam1ru1-2]

"He's too proud of what he's accomplished as a journalist."

And what was that? Build his ego to the point that he thinks he can tell God Almighty what to say and do?

[ngc6656]

"Mr. Rather..."

"Mr. Rather.. "

"Mr. Rather.. "

Why do I have the feeling they show more respect for a news reader than they do our president?

[Cicero]

Problems, problems, problems. As liberals like to say, the matter is not black and white, but gray. It's complex.

If you translate this story out of NewYorkTimesSpeak, the CBS "report based on documents it now says cannot be authenticated" would read "fraudulent report based on forged documents."

What, The New York Times still hasn't figured out that the Texas Air National Guard didn't have proportional fonts and kerning during the Vietnam War? How long will it take them to investigate this "complex" affair?

[LuckyHat]

Danny boy, is soooo yesterday. Flush the turd and start over with a younger anchor. 73 years old? I mean no disrepect but "gimme a break!"

[blue-duncan]

Even though I have not watched the miserable SOB since he was handed his head by the first President Bush, I think we should start now raising a stink about the bias of that Canadian John Roberts. His reporting on the present President has been just as one sided as Rather's.

[Jenya]

CBS has never disclosed a timetable for replacing Mr. Rather, who turns 73 next month and who has been the anchor of the nightly news since March 1981. But in the weeks before Sept. 8, when the Wednesday edition of "60 Minutes'' broadcast its report based on documents it now says cannot be authenticated, officials atop the network and its news division had begun discussing a transition plan, a network executive said late last week.

This appears to be a statement to try to save face for Rather, by saying talks were already in the works for Blather's exit before he used to fake documents to take our President down. It's such BS. He would have announced his retirement a year in advance in order to get all the accolades and bootlicking.

Too late Dirty Dan. We're on to it. You're getting the axe, and here's a newsflash for you -- it's going to happen sooner than you think. And after all these years, you'll leave in disgrace.

[DoughtyOne]

The CBS evening news is CaBSent from my home already.  They can keep Rather on and kill every shred of rapore with their existing audience, or they can start over and possibly turn things around.  The days of U.S. citizens sitting still for anti-American rehetoric from our own networks for 2.5 hours a week are over.  There's too many choices to sit still for rampant (Al Jazeera level) propaganda that fronts for democrats non-stop, or that even fronts for despotic regiems not infrequently.

Rather's infantile appearances with Fidel Castro and Saddam Hussein are two cases in point.  Rather looked like a six year old who had just been told he could pick out $500 dollars worth of candy in his favorite candy store.  Not having the stature to hide his glee at being in the presence of these two men, Rather ended his career right there with me.  Talk about a blithering idiot...

Hussein was directly responsible for millions of deaths.  In his presence Rather couldn't get that sappy grin off his face.  The only thing I've seen that even rivaled this, was Jack Nicholson's mouth in his role as Joker in the Batman movie.  Nicholson doesn't know how lucky he is that Rather didn't try out for that role, then visualize himself in the presence of Saddam Hussein.  They could have saved a bundly on make-up.

[budman_2001]

[Paul Atreides]

It will be a former Clinton person, as if that would be a change from Dan Rather.

[NavySEAL F-16]

Especially Roberts snide comment when Laura said that they documents were fakes.

Roberts said that there was no evidence to support Laura Bush's remark!

What a JERK!

[Revolting cat!]

The word on the street is they're going to replace Kenneth with an ugly American-African lesbian mongoloid in a wheelchair suffering from the Tourette syndrome!