Moving Ahead, Rather Throws Sad Look Back

NY Times ^ | June 17, 2006 | JACQUES STEINBERG

[Pharmboy]

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times, 2004
Dan Rather might work for the
high-definition channel HDNet.

The 74-year-old man with the Mets cap pulled far down on his forehead slid into a booth at a diner on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and ordered a glass of milk without so much as turning a head — so quietly, in fact, that it was hard to believe it was Dan Rather.

In place of the swagger that had served him so well throughout his 44-year career at CBS News was an obvious sadness that his tenure at the network was ticking down to an inglorious end. Mr. Rather complained that since stepping down as anchor of the " CBS Evening News" last year, in the aftermath of a reporting scandal, he had been ill used as a correspondent on "60 Minutes" and had been given virtually nothing at all to do for the previous six weeks.

Among the places he had sought solace, he said on a recent afternoon, was in "Good Night, and Good Luck," George Clooney's homage to Edward R. Murrow and the CBS News of old, a film that Mr. Rather said he had seen five times in theaters, most recently alone.

Mr. Rather's contract with CBS, and "60 Minutes," is not scheduled to expire until late November. But he said yesterday that he and the network were close to an agreement that would end his tenure early, and that he was seriously mulling a new venture that, at least initially, relatively few viewers would be able to see: he would develop and be the host of a weekly interview program on a high-definition television channel known as HDNet.

The offer, he said, had come directly from Mark Cuban, the unbridled owner of the NBA's

[AFPhys]

WOW... I hadn't seen the NYSlimes stock price lately!

That volume picking up as the price is declining doesn't bode very well, either...

[Howlin]

You're exactly right. Boy, that was some night, wasn't it??

[MrCruncher]

Breaks my heart.

Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of hate-America leftwingers

and promoters of homosexuality.

[AFPhys]

Yeah, it was SOME night... I sadly missed that thread due to unavoidable obligation, but the next day I went back through all the threads I could find and will always point out to all who will listen that TankerKC said it first, you agreed only three minutes or so later, and then FReepers all over the country joined in the dogpile that buckhead and LittleGreenFootballs and Powerline blogs and others really carried out with tremendous effectiveness.

This was a real community effort, just as several other events have been before and since then, and it is going to be much tougher for leftists to get away with perpetuating these frauds ever again.

Can you imagine what this year's Iraq spin would be like in the media without talk radio and us? At least they have to attempt something that looks a little like balance now.
(PS: glad to see you here today... hope you're recovering well)

[AFPhys]

Somehow I don't think this is a Chrysler story in the making. Probably more like Manville.

[You Dirty Rats]

I posted TankerKC's post earlier in the thread (Post 73). As far as I know he was the first to question the authenticity of the memo and why it looked bogus.

[AFPhys]

Yes - I didn't see your post until later. I'm glad I'm not the only one trying to keep the record straight! Thanks!

[Albion Wilde]

Asked if the network had sought to marginalize him over his role in the disputed Guard report — including his spirited defense of the segment, for more than a week after it was broadcast — Mr. Rather said, "There's a lot I have yet to figure out."

Translation: "My lawyers just haven't figured out yet how I can sue."

[You Dirty Rats]

Mr. Rather said, "There's a lot I have yet to figure out."

Right, Dan -- like how nobody is above the truth, even a journalist or network anchor.

When Sam Donamdson called you "arrogant" after George HW Bush kicked your ass on network TV, that should have been a humbling experience that made you realize you don't know everything. Instead, you failed to heed Jesse's advice: "Stay out of the Bushes!!"

Have you no shame, Sir??

[04-Bravo]

Dan should call Walter Cronkite and Connie Chung, and ask how much sympathy they have for him...

[TankerKC]

...and then FReepers all over the country joined in the dogpile...

Dogpile on Dan!

[AFPhys]

LOL

Ain't this memory great!

Finally, at long last, we see the fruit of our labor!

[churchillbuff]

What's the big deal? He's 74 -- at least 9 years past most people's retirement age. Even if I liked the guy, what's the big deal about him being let go? Doesn't he have any grandchildren he should be pampering?

[foreverfree]

bump of courage

[wmileo]

"Among the places he had sought solace, he said on a recent afternoon, was in "Good Night, and Good Luck," George Clooney's homage to Edward R. Murrow"

I remember an episode of the Twilight Zone where a Nazi criminal, hiding in France and with the law on his tail, spent time in an art gallery and wished he was in a painting of a man in a boat on a lake all alone. That character reminds me of Rather. He is probably trying to get lost inside the movie. I feel the same way about his leaving CBS as I did a few years ago when it was reported that Alger Hiss had passed on to the infernal region. They both are icons of treason except that Hiss at least had guts.