Dan Rather Fired By CBS (Read Details - That's The Bottom Line)

MB26

[MindBender26]

This just in from source at Black Rock:

He/She is at pre-season party in The Hamptons. Other CBSers (The Suits) are there as well.

The Suits confirmed:

Ran Rather's contract at CBS expires in August. He has not been offered ANY type of renewal. There may be some tiny dollar (the exact fee never to be disclosed) face-saving deal but that's it, Dan is out.

This comes after he "resigned" from CBS Evening News position last year in an attempt to stop the bloodletting of advertisers at CBS. As we all know, the primary cause was not so much Rather's broadcasting the original phony Bush "Recordsgate" story but Rather's insistence, way beyond anything or any time that was reasonable, that the story was valid.

From the moment FR's pajamahadeen pointed out the many irrefutable technical flaws in the supposed documents, it was dead meat as a journalistic piece. Rather slew himself by sticking with what was obviously a phony story designed to attack the President and help Kerry.

In addition, Rather's acceptance of a $20,000 fee to speak to Texas Democrats was another quiet nail in his CBS coffin. In journalism circles, that is a huge no-no. Some stations forbid their employees to even contribute to campaigns and fire offenders In this case, Rather was taking $ from the Texas Dems!

After Evening News, Rather was to contribute to "60 Minutes II" on Wednesdays but that show had ratings lower than the radio calls of the Roto-Rooter truck dispatcher.

How significant is this? 25 years after he left the anchor chair, Walter Cronkite is still on some income at CBS.

Rather is out on his ear.

There will be much more on this in MSM (including some severe spinning) in weeks to come, but FR had it first!

[MindBender26]

>I'm going to keep an eye out for Wally Cronkite to come out defending Dan Blather.

Walter HATES Rather. In Dallas, Nov 22, 1963. Rather in CBS man on scene when Kennedy is shot.

Rather tells the Desk in NY that Kennedy is dead. Cronkite announces prez is dead.

White House calls, screaming, says he is not dead. Cronkite has to go on air and retract Rather's prez dead story.

35 minutes later, Cronkite has to go on air again and say prez REALLY dead.

Cronkite looked like idiot and hated Rather for it.

[MindBender26]

UDA MAN !

[Erasmus]

The irony in all that, was that Dan was right.

[Milhous]

After Evening News, Rather was to contribute to "60 Minutes II" on Wednesdays but that show had ratings lower than the radio calls of the Roto-Rooter truck dispatcher.

LOL

[HAL9000]

Rather still has a bio page at cbsnews.com -

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/02/26/60minutes/bios/main502231.shtml

[kittycatonline.com]

I sure do hope this isn't a signal for Fox News to add him to the roster!

Pf, I was thinking Air America! He's already familiar with the editorial policy there; "Spew on George W. Bush first, do some journalism later on if necessary."

[Milhous]

That US Today crap about pilfered phone records is only the latest example of them making up stuff.

Old school Dim fishwrap shtick.

[nopardons]

GOOD! :-)

[demlosers]

What's the frequency? LoL!

[latina4dubya]

i thought he had already retired...

[eddie willers]

Very clever!

[Richard Kimball]

She's not a big wig, other than by association with her father. She could get him to speak, so she got doors opened that wouldn't have opened otherwise. And of course, being Rather's daughter, she probably has money. I always thought she looked like Dan in drag.

I've never met her, but she's on the Barton Creek SOS committee, which is mostly a bunch of hippies, women in comfortable shoes, and malcontents filing lawsuits. Like the Crawford Peace House, they've cultivated a good relationship with the local media, so whenever one of them f*rts, the press covers it, but I don't think any of them have any clout.

I've been out of Austin for a few years, so some Freeps currently living in Austin might be able to give more up to date information.

[Richard Kimball]

[Richard Kimball]

Buckhead, I never thanked you, BTW. They couldn't fire Rather without admitting the documents were forgeries. Forging government documents is a felony. Also, because the documents weren't what they were supposed to be, CBS couldn't even claim they were protected by reporter-source 1st amendment privileges. Therefore, if they admitted the documents were forgeries, they would have HAD to reveal the source, and the source would have led straight back to the DNC, and most likely to Hillary or Kerry. While an underling might have thrown himself on a land mine to try and get Kerry in office, or protect her royal darkness, the other major media outlets had already cast CBS into the fire, so they couldn't count on press confidentiality anymore.

[Atchafalaya]

...FR had it first.
BTW and did it best!!! nuf said.

[Atchafalaya]

yep, she's big.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Ran Rather's contract at CBS expires in August.

 Good RIDDANCE to Ran Ra^ther.

[Atchafalaya]

It will be pollyannish to his liking I'm sure.
No offence intended.

[hope]

wtf? is this old news? seems like this should have already taken place two years ago....Am I in a time warp??? Dan Rather is old news....old media...,

note to self...disregard!

[headstamp]

I had this SOB's number when he did the hit piece on hunting called the "Guns of Autumn" back in 1975. He was a liberal pimping falsehoods then and still is today. What goes around comes around Danny boy, glad to see you finally ran into that brick wall.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.