Dan Rather, center, became the topic of discussion on a panel, which included his peers Tom Brokaw, left, and Peter Jennings.
Posted on 10/04/2004 5:52:32 AM PDT by OESY
When The New Yorker magazine, planning months ago for its annual festival weekend, booked Dan Rather, Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw for a panel discussion about the presidential campaign, the topic seemed relatively innocuous.
But as the three network news anchors convened on Saturday under a vaulted ceiling at the New York Public Library, a subject far closer to home had intruded: Mr. Rather's admission last month that he had erred, first in broadcasting and later in defending a flawed report on the Wednesday edition of "60 Minutes" about President Bush's National Guard service.
Under early prodding from the panel moderator, Ken Auletta, the New Yorker's longtime media writer, Mr. Jennings was the first to testify on behalf of Mr. Rather, with whom he has competed, often fiercely, for more than two decades.
"I don't think you ever judge a man by only one event in his career," Mr. Jennings said, as Mr. Rather looked on from a tall director's chair to his immediate right.
The comment drew the first of several rounds of sustained applause for Mr. Rather from an audience that numbered nearly 500. As his eyes visibly moistened, Mr. Rather could be seen whispering, "Thank you, Peter."
Mr. Brokaw waded in next. While saying that he, like Mr. Jennings, did not wish to prejudge an ongoing CBS investigation of how the report came to be broadcast, Mr. Brokaw lamented the outcry it had provoked.
"What I think is highly inappropriate is what's going on across the Internet, a kind of political jihad against Dan Rather and CBS News that's quite outrageous," said Mr. Brokaw, who is 64 and plans to step down as anchor of the "NBC Nightly News" in December.
Mr. Rather said he had been asked by CBS News to refrain from commenting publicly on the investigation. But later in the discussion, he indicated that he had no immediate plans to quit the anchor desk.
For a conversation that was drenched in nostalgia, there was also plenty of good-natured ribbing.
When, for example, Mr. Rather said that he wished that the "CBS Evening News" spent less airtime reporting on surveys of voters and more on the positions of the candidates, Mr. Jennings interjected. How, he wondered, had Mr. Rather's bosses at CBS reacted when he had broached the subject?
"They think I'm full of prunes when I suggest it," Mr. Rather said.
Dan Rather, center, became the topic of discussion on a panel, which included his peers Tom Brokaw, left, and Peter Jennings.
All three should be hung out to dry.
Anchors are usually old, underwater and rusting very badly, aren't they?
When this bunch sinks, the news media might want to replace the term "anchor" with something else.
Fifty years of propaganda, biased slanders, character assasinations, moral depravity, lies and delusions sold to America until the label of "responsible journalism".
More than just inappropriate.
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