Rooney: An Idea For CBS News [Dan needs MORE airtime, not humor]

CBS News ^ | Oct 3, 2004 | Andy Rooney

[Mike Fieschko]

(CBS) The following is a weekly 60 Minutes commentary by correspondent Andy Rooney.

I've worked for CBS for 55 years now. You get loyal to anything you're involved with for that long, whether it deserves it or not.

But I like CBS News, and I don't feel real good about it these days because of the questionable documents that were used on the 60 Minutes Wednesday broadcast in the story about President Bush's National Guard service.

To tell you the truth, I don't care whether the president got help from the old man or not. I was in the Army for four years, and if my father could have gotten me out of it, I'd have taken his help.

This incident hurt the credibility of CBS News though, and I want to make a suggestion to Sumner Redstone, the chairman of the board of Viacom, the company which now owns CBS.

You're one of the richest people in the world, Sumner, if I may call you Sumner. People say you're one of the smartest, too. If I seem to be sucking up to you here, it's because I want to sell you an idea.

How about this for re-establishing the credibility of CBS News?

Turn our Evening News With Dan Rather into a one-hour broadcast seven nights a week. Provide it as a public service in exchange for the license that CBS has to make hundreds of millions of dollars from the entertainment shows that Les Moonves puts on.

The American public gets most of its news from television, and it doesn't get enough. The Evening News is 20 minutes long -- nowhere near long enough to tell Americans what's going on in their own country, let alone anywhere else.

One of the reasons America is hated around the world is because we're ignorant of everyone else's problems, and that's partly our fault. Television provides too little foreign news.

So, send a bunch of CBS reporters to other countries, too, so we give viewers an idea of what's happening somewhere other than here. If CBS News was on the air every night for an hour, it might make people forget this mistake.

One more thing, Sumner. I'd like to have a small part in the one-hour broadcast myself. I'd sit at a desk over in the corner of the newsroom, and any time I disagreed with something, I could interrupt. My part would be called "Wait A Damn Minute With Andy Rooney."

I'd like to have had that desk at the Bush/Kerry debate, too.

[glock rocks]

So, send a bunch of CBS reporters to other countries, too, so we give viewers an idea of what's happening somewhere other than here.

I heartily agree with Andy. In fact, CBS, send them all, including Andy.

[Rokurota]

Is this real? He's actually suggesting that going from a half-hour of BS to one-hour of BS is going to increase credibility?

[ken5050]

so, if I get this "plan" correctly, instead of 20 minutes of biased news coverage, it'd be expanded to an hour of biased news...Andy Rooney obviously forgot his meds..

[Question Liberal Authority]

Turn our Evening News With Dan Rather into a one-hour broadcast seven nights a week. Provide it as a public service

Why not just run sitcom reruns for an hour and donate the ad revenue to The MacNeil Lehrer Report?

[vrwcagent0498]

Send them to the NorKomms. That pot-bellied pygmy commie "leader" over there probably is a big fan of See-BS.

[OldCorps]

I'm all for See BS throughing more and more money sown the Dan Blather hole. The worse for See BS, the better for real America.

[FourtySeven]

Poor Andy.

No one at CBS News has the guts to tell him he's gone over the edge, and so they allow him to make a fool out of himself every week.

[Blue Highway]

At this stage it seems Andy Rooney is as laughable as Mickey Rooney, only Andy is not trying to be funny.

[Blue Highway]

Replacing Dan Rather with someone like Bernard Goldberg would be the right way to establish some sort of credibility. Oh I forgot... they fired him.

[kellynla]

"Looney" Rooney!
...Rooney & Rather...
two Dans don't make it right!
Yea, Rooney...more time for leftists propaganda will change the minds of the masses and make them forget the whole thing ever happened. LMAO
Josef Goebbels would be proud!

Does anyone actually watch "60 minutes" anymore???
with less credibility than a screen door on a submarine, why bother???

[Pompah]

Ho-Lee Crap.

Try to visulize one FULL HOUR of Captain Dan The News Man.

I'm getting nauseous.

[Tweaker]

"One of the reasons America is hated around the world is because we're ignorant of everyone else's problems, and that's partly our fault. Television provides too little foreign news.

So, send a bunch of CBS reporters to other countries, too, so we give viewers an idea of what's happening somewhere other than here. If CBS News was on the air every night for an hour, it might make people forget this mistake. "


If America was ignorant of everyone else's problem we wouldn't be the first to offer aid in their disasters, natural and self inflicted. We wouldn't GIVE them billions of dollars to prop up their economies. We wouldn't send our sons to die for their freedom.

How about we call the show "Rooney has lost HIS damn mind"

[subterfuge]

No Andy, what cBS needs to do is dump you, Dan and his minions and START TELLING THE DAMN TRUTH.

I know, I'm asking the impossible.

[kempster]

Wait just a darn minute. This better not cut into Judge Joe Brown or a lot of people are going to be mad.

[planekT]

"You get loyal to anything you're involved with for that long, whether it deserves it or not."

This does accurately describe Dan's affiliation with the Democratic party.

Hahaha. Dan Rather needs more time. If he were talking about a prison sentence, I'd agree.

[sr4402]

"Turn our Evening News With Dan Rather into a one-hour broadcast seven nights a week."

I could really do in the Republicans with that

/sarcasm off

[zlala]

"One of the reasons America is hated around the world is because we're ignorant of everyone else's problems, and that's partly our fault. Television provides too little foreign news.

We are probably the most educated country when it comes to knowing something about other nations. There are countries/people in the world who think the American Indian & Cowboys are still shooting at each other with bows and arrows and guns. And that we lie about the freedom we have to go from one state to another without border or id checks. We are not the ignorant ones. But Rooney would never report on that...it's just not PC and it doesn't benefit the leftist propaganda machine.

[EQAndyBuzz]

I like the idea. From 6-7 they can do the evening news and from 7-11 they can run syndicated episodes of "Ellen".

Or the can have a BS meter. Each time Dan reads a story, the meter will determine how much BS we C. Maybe each week have another cBS guest host. Would love on week one to have Rush doing it.

At the ebd of each episode they do point/counterpoint between Rather and the guest.

[BigDaddy63]

This is the same Ansy Rooney that got "punked" by Ali G. He is so old he farts dust. I think the average age of A SEE BS anchor is 103 nowadays... se·nile ( P ) Pronunciation Key (snl, snl) adj. 1.Of, relating to, or characteristic of old age. 2.Relating to or exhibiting memory loss or mental impairment associated with aging. 3.Geology. Worn away nearly to the base level, as at the end of an erosion cycle. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Latin senlis, from senex, sen-, old. See sen- in Indo-European Roots.] --------------------------------------------------------------------------------