Rather Ends 15-Year Tenure at '48 Hours'

RatherBiased.com ^

[RatherBiased.com]

2002-09-21 21:42:49 PT

• Dan Rather and Bill Whitaker air a biased report against the auto insurance industry, quoting three critics of the practice of credit scoring for insurance customers and only one defender. The piece begins with a profile of a woman whose insurance rates went up when she missed two credit card payments in the aftermath of her daughter's death six years ago. Not mentioned is the size of her unpaid bills, or when her rates rose. Whitaker also doesn't allow a representative from her company (or any other company) to respond the woman's charges.

  The next portion of the report has an interview with a representative from an insurance association who is allowed only 44 words to counter the earlier part of the piece, plus the words of a critic of the industry and the testimony of an agent who says insurers charge lower-income people more.

• Dan Rather ended his tenure as anchor of CBS's primetime newsmagazine 48 Hours on Friday. He told viewers it was his last appearance and gave his version of how the show originated--neglecting to mention the power struggle behind its birth. For a more personable, informal effect, Rather had his tie off and his shirt unbuttoned.

  "This is the last 48 Hours I'll be doing, at least for a while. It's been a long, good run--more than 15 years--as one who helped create the program and then be a reporter and anchor for it.

  "The original idea was to be on once a week or more in primetime with focused, emotionally moving hours of television journalism that affects people's lives. Not just short bursts but full hours, on one subject. And, to do full hours in times of crisis everything from hurricanes to wars. 48 Hours has done that and is, today, the third-longest-running program in primetime. Some of the most accomplished professional journalists in the world have made it so and they'll continue to do that."

• Thursday's CBS Evening News featured a story (with a follow-up on Friday) about police in a mid-size Indiana town trying to track down a mother after a shopping mall security camera caught her angrily spanking and hitting her four-year-old daughter. Dan Rather was one of the first to report on it and the only Big Three anchor to mention it the day it was reported in the local Indiana press. This is the same Rather who dismissed former President Clinton's alleged rape of Juanita Broaddrick as a "somebody's private sex life" and who once admitted that he "hated" covering the Clinton-Lewinsky affair.

  And while he and news partner CNN were the first to jump on the Indiana story, (which until then had been confined to the local news) he was the very last to report on the disappearance of Chandra Levy, a former Washington intern who had had an affair with Democratic Congressman Gary Condit. Rather said that instead of reporting on the missing woman, reporters should instead "consider seriously some important news from around the world."

[Fred Mertz]

Rather who?

[sheik yerbouty]

Dan Blather.

[AmericanVictory]

I wish we were finally rid completely of our most dangerous weapon of mass deception.

For the record, as a senior at the GWU Law Center in the 1960's, I voted against having this man as our paid speaker on the grounds that he had nothing to contribute to the Rule of Law. I was outvoted. He spoke. I was right. He went on to do great harm to the Rule of Law. Even in the guise of righting wrong, he wronged self-righteously.

[John Lenin]

Dan Rather is irrelevant ....

[Vidalia]

Did he actually recieve a silver plated drool bucket, or is that just newsroom spittle?

[John Lenin]

Someone should start a thread of irrelevant leftist's . The list is growing every day.

[Ciexyz]

I'm glad to say that when I did the Nielsen ratings five years ago, I pointedly watched another program when "48 hours" was on. In other words, my TV was registered as "in use" but it wasn't tuned to Dan Blather. (Hee hee.)

[Naplm]

I don't mind seeing the old fool once or twice a year on the tube, kinda gives me a pickup to see how much he ages between times I see him.

[PsyOp]

Good Ridence to him - and the snake he slithered in on.

[Jeff Chandler]

Is that show still on? I remember it from years ago, like I remember "My Mother the Car".

[brat]

Buh BYE! Don't let the door..........why not call your buddy the stainmeister for a game of golf? Psst...he cheats.

[capitan_refugio]

15 years? I nevered even watched the show. Oh well.

[leprechaun9]

It's Dan BLATHER!

[wingnuts'nbolts]

Thanks, but, I'd really RATHER not!

[cubreporter]

This should have happened sooner RATHER than later!!!