CBS chief Les Moonves, says that Dan Rather might have stuck around behind the anchor desk for a 25th year, had the newsman not been at the center of "Memogate" last fall.New Your Post - March 2, 2005"Maybe, but he made the choice [to step down]," Moonves told the latest edition of Playboy magazine about the possibility or Rather spending another year at "The CBS Evening News."
"It was important that he do this ahead of the report [of the investigation into the scandal]," says Moonves.
"Yes, he may have announced his retirement a month earlier than he would otherwise have in order to distance the announcement from the report, there's no question about that, but he had already planned to retire."
I believe that Rather changed his retirement intentions after getting caught pushing and defending the forged Killian memos. He's been caught in a lie before, so bailing early on this one is out of form with his past conduct. That makes me think he is covering something more important.
Well, actually, it's humorous that we are even discussing this from a 'Les Moonves' perspective. Because if this was Dan Rather's "planned retirement" one would think, there would be a succession plan. Even if ole Dan didn't have it in him to find a replacement, it was Moonves job to do so. He didn't thus we have......abrupt retirement.
Glad I'm not a Viacom stockholder, myself.