Posted on 11/03/2004 5:52:51 AM PST by ambrose
November 03, 2004
Ed Bradley Calls Election for Bush on CBS, Rather Objects In a rather testy on-air exchange, circa 12:30am PST, between Dan Rather, CBS anchor, and Ed Bradley, long-time corresponent for CBS's 60 Minutes and an election night commentator, Bradley rather roundly criticized both Kerry and his own network for not accepting the obvious mathematics and calling the election for Bush.
Bradley pointed out that Bush leads Kerry by 145,000 votes in Ohio, and even if 250,000 provisional ballots remain (which he considered a high estimate), and that even if all the provisional ballots are valid, Kerry would need 79% of them in order to tie. A result Bradley considered impossible. Rather's reply was basically that "it was the position of CBS News to not call the race." Rather made no attempt to refute Bradley on the facts, except to state and restate that this is what CBS was going to do.
I'd love to see the transcript of the exchange. I do wonder how much Rather's trashing of 60 Minute's reputation had to do with Bradley's willingness to challenge Rather and CBS on the air.
BTW, does anyone know how that Rathergate investigation is going?
Rather going down with the ship!
Dan needs to retire and find God so he can get on with life. I pray for him and others like him all the time.
I thought Rather's head was going to explode...He was the only anchor I saw on any of the networks that would even consider the possibility that Bush had won...
Interesting...thanks - I had no idea this exchange took place and it is telling...
Rather can replace Cronkite as the designate senile crank who blames the weather and everything else on Karl Rove. I'm just waiting for Rather to disclose that "Kenneth" is Rove's code name at the Trilateral Commission. :-)
The Dem media sure did not hesitate to call the last election for Gore. Now a Republican wins decisively, and they can't admit it even after it's rubbed in their faces.
Rather was in full panic last night.
Better yet, Tom Brokaw nearly broke down in tears when NBC called Ohio for Bush. His voice cracked something awful, and his eyes glossed over.
"C'mon, Dan, it's over. Accept it."
I was watching Fox all night because I wanted straight reporting
Bradley reminds you in a way of Alexander Haig ---- Everything's OK, I'm in charge here.
The FACTS? It doesn't matter what the facts are - Rather still believes the documents are true, I, er, I mean Kerry won the election.
Dan will also need a good accountant to handle his earthly, financial affairs!
It's obvious Dan has lost any counting ability he ever had.
And not even based on the acutual results either.
I made it a point to watch some of the returns on CBS just to see Rather stewing.
For once I wanted to actually watch cBS last night and was givin tons of Blather-isms; my favorite being re F'nK: "His back is to the wall, his shirt-tail is on fire, and the bill collector is at the door." Document Dan does have his moments.
It was CBS's position to smear the President of the United States with documents they knew were fabricated, then lie about it.
It was CBS's position to try to smear the President only two days before the election of 2004.
It is no surprise that it is not CBS's position to "call the race" for President Bush.
It's going to be a long time before Rather can wipe away the democrat spunk, if he even wants to.
Has CBS called the 2000 race yet? Honestly, I think all the alphabet networks are left in the dust today by Fox and the internet. Anyone with half a brain can tell it is all over. No one at the alphabets seems willing to call it. None of them has any credibility left, whatsoever.
Mrs Al Hunt, Judy Woodruff, was on the same page as Rather. She looked like she was attending her own funeral.
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