Posted on 02/17/2005 7:22:15 PM PST by Arnold Zephel
|
|
|
 |
||
| Rather to Host His Own Farewell Tribute on CBS Thu Feb 17, 2005 08:31 PM ET
By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - No sooner will Dan Rather bid viewers a final good night as anchor of the CBS Evening News than he will be back on the air to lead viewers through a retrospective of his 50 years in broadcast journalism.
CBS News said on Thursday that an hourlong special, "Dan Rather: A Reporter Remembers," will be telecast on March 9, at 8 p.m. EST, within an hour of his stepping down as host and managing editor of the "Evening News."
The broadcasts come exactly 24 years after Rather assumed the anchor chair from legendary newsman Walter Cronkite.
The prime-time special is billed as a "candid memoir of Rather's extraordinary career, told in his own words." CBS said it will span the past five decades of his life and include never-before-seen archival footage.
A network spokeswoman said Rather would address the controversy surrounding his now-discredited "60 Minutes" report last September questioning the military service of President Bush.
The program will undoubtedly highlight the more celebrated points of Rather's career, including his coverage of the Kennedy assassination in 1963, the tumultuous Democratic National Convention of 1968 and the Watergate scandal during the 1970s, not to mention testy on-air exchanges with President Nixon and then-Vice President George H. W. Bush.
It remained to be seen how CBS would handle Rather's less flattering moments, such as walking off the set in 1987 after a tennis match pre-empted the start of a newscast, or the jokes he endured after being assaulted on the streets of Manhattan by a man who asked him: "Kenneth, what's the frequency?"
While TV retrospectives have become ubiquitous on prime time, paying homage to figures ranging from Johnny Carson to "Laverne & Shirley," a self-hosted special paying tribute to a living broadcast journalist on the day of his retirement is rare.
"I don't remember them doing one like this for Walter Cronkite, but you could bet they would if Walter Cronkite were retiring today," said Robert Thompson, director of Syracuse University's Center for the Study of Popular Television.
On the other hand, Thompson said, "He (Rather) has got a lot of good clips."
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
He also plans to give his own eulogy.
LOL, I love his new hairdo!!
He borrowed sKerry's lipstick?
I can't wait for the show to start so I can shun it.
By any chance is it against "24" or "American Idol"? Then their ratings will kill him.
Again, if anyone comes up with a plan to FReep this Fraudulent, I will do whatever I can to make it there to FReep any retirement party or this show.
Probably a retirement party would be the better occasion to FReep if we can determine a date and time for it. Especially those of you with inside tracks on New York goings-on or just awareness of where on the web to search for such info, please see what you can develop.
No ...tell me this isn't true..He's NOT hosting his OWN farewell tribute ? No way ..Oh man ..this guy is beyond OBNOXIOUS
If my memory serves me correctly "a self-hosted special paying tribute to a living broadcast journalist on the day of his retirement is about as common as a hen with a tooth on a cold day in july, driving a tractor the wrong way on a one way street."
Dan Rather starring in his own obituary.... fitting.
Let me take a wild guess as to who the first annual winner of the Rather Award for Journalistic Greatness might be.
LOL!
I barely tolerated Tom Brokaw's final week at the helm of NBC News, culminated by the primetime 2 hour self-aggrandizing 40 year retrospective of Tom Brokaw. I don't think I could take one hour more.
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!
His daughter will be the audience.
If Bill Maher wants to look for mental disorders, their narcissistic personalities are wonderful exhibits.
Oh, wait. Add him to that list.
I'm sure some good Photoshop parodies are already in the works. I can't wait!
Kerry must have attended the Dan Rather school of lying. These guys think they can say anything about what they did 25 years ago and nobody can check it out.
"This man is absolutely 100% delusional. The fact that he feels no shame or embarassment for what he's done over the years is proof. Liberalism *IS* a mental disease!!!!! "
CBS is ingenious. They know that ordinarily nobody would touch a stupid Dan Rather farewell tribute with a 10-foot pole if it involves Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, et. al. fawning over him (and they couldn't get anybody to show up anyway; they're all out of town on "assignment"). Even if the TV viewers showed up, they'd be switching over to Super Nanny or Extreme Makeover Home Edition in about 5 seconds. But people will tune into this because it is too damn funny seeing Dan blowing his own horn. CBS knows people will tune into Dan doing his final crash-and-burn like a stunt man who doesn't know when to retire. The CBS brass gets to experience the pleasure that comes from Dan making a fool of himself because his ego is a monkey on his back the size of King Kong (gotta feed the monkey). It's all about the ratings. What could go wrong? LOL.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
