"60 Minutes" Creator Slams Dan Rather. Calls Rather's Anti-Bush Bias "Criminal."

NY Daily News ^ | Lloyd Grove

[MindBender26]

'Minutes' man gets Rather curt

CBS legend Don Hewitt hasn't been shy about criticizing Dan Rather, but the grand old man of "60 Minutes" had stopped short of publicly recommending termination for the central figure in CBS News' painful 2004 Memogate flap.

Until yesterday.

"Should Dan Rather have been fired?" Time magazine managing editor Jim Kelly asked the 83-year-old Hewitt during a Court TV journalism panel at Michael's.

"Yes," Hewitt answered. He suggested that the 74-year-old Rather - a "60 Minutes" correspondent since stepping down last March as "Evening News" anchor - was politically motivated in airing a controversial pre-election report on President Bush's National Guard service.

"I have a built-in bias against reporters who have axes to grind," Hewitt said. "I think there are reporters that allow their own bias to encroach on their journalism, and that's a crime against journalism."

[MindBender26]

It's just starting....

Wait until others get out on high $ lecture circuit.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Where was Don when Rathergate was going on?

[AZRepublican]

This is classical Hewittism speaking there.

[Liberty Valance]

Don Hewett just went up 20 points in my book.

[Fenris6]

Should Dan Rather have been fired?" Time magazine managing editor Jim Kelly asked the 83-year-old Hewitt during a Court TV journalism panel at Michael's.

"Yes," Hewitt answered

_____

Yup. Firing Rather would have made me give CBS a second chance. Letting him retire proved to me that CBS was untrustworthy. Well, I had suspicions, but that sealed it for me.

[theDentist]

In the thick of it. Now he's just distancing himself....

[Rummyfan]

He suggested that the 74-year-old Rather - a "60 Minutes" correspondent since stepping down last March as "Evening News" anchor - was politically motivated in airing a controversial pre-election report on President Bush's National Guard service.

I'm shocked, SHOCKED! Does he mean it was politically motivated on Rather's part?

[Fenris6]

Rules are rules...

[Steely Tom]

I'd like to break that story.

-Dan Rather
(discussing the theoretical possibility that the TANG story might have been bogus)

[johnny7]

He was at the same place Congress was when the Juanita Broaddrick testimony was gathering dust at the Ford Building.

In another words... someplace farther than a 10' pole.

[Galveston Grl]

I see further down in the column that Bill Weld was scmoozing with Ascroft. There is only one Republican I like even less than McCain - Bill Weld. He is a major snake in the grass. He single handedly killed the Republican party in Mass. after it began growing with Reagan Democrats. First thing he did was axe all the Catholics from particpation in the party after they elected him. Why? Because he is a big fat bigot. He could not win dog catcher in these parts.

[MediaMole]

How long until Andy Rooney and the rest of the broken hip gang are calling Hewitt senile?

[Steveone]

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy! The chipmunk is next.

[GOPJ]

"I think there are reporters that allow their own bias to encroach on their journalism, and that's a crime against journalism."

He's "old school" ... old school was better.

[mississippigranny]

No my dear. This is classic LIBERALISM!

[hellinahandcart]

Very courageous of him to speak up a year and a half after the deed was done.

[desherwood7]

I think this damning. And what do you mean it's just starting.

[dfwgator]

A day late and a dollar short.

[FormerACLUmember]

Complete BS from from liberal low-life liar Don Hewitt. The only thing Don Hewitt is mad about is that Rather was stupid enough to get caught red-handed with forged documents.

The nauseating phony Hewitt:

[Aquinasfan]

There is only one Republican I like even less than McCain - Bill Weld. He is a major snake in the grass. He single handedly killed the Republican party in Mass. after it began growing with Reagan Democrats. First thing he did was axe all the Catholics from particpation in the party after they elected him. Why? Because he is a big fat bigot. He could not win dog catcher in these parts.

Absolutely.