Goldberg: CBS Brass Ordered Me to Go Easy on Dan Rather
In 1993, when longtime CBS News journalist Bernard Goldberg proposed an investigative report on media bias featuring interviews with top network news stars, CBS brass approved the project, but ordered Goldberg to go easy on Dan Rather.
In his first interview since word of his explosive new book, "Bias: A Veteran CBS Reporter's Account of How the Media Distorts the News" leaked out Friday, Goldberg told WABC Radio's Sean Hannity about an incident where he suggested the media bias report to CBS News boss Andrew Heyward for the new show Heyward was then producing, "Eye to Eye with Connie Chung."
"He looked at me like I must be on drugs," Goldberg said. But after some cajoling Heyward agreed to take the idea to the then-president of the news division.
"He came back and said, 'The president of the news division says you can do it. But you can't ask Dan any tough questions.'
"I thought he was kidding," Goldberg said. "I mean, could you imagine if I said, I want to do a piece on - I want to interview Newt Gingrich, but don't ask him any tough questions?"
When told he couldn't ask Rather what he wanted, Goldberg decided to drop the media bias report altogether.
The veteran reporter had words of praise for Rather, but said he also shared character flaws that bedeviled Rather's old nemesis, Richard Nixon.
"Dan is a great guy a lot of the time," he told Hannity. "He's funny, he's charming, he's intelligent, he's all the things you want a guy to be."
But Rather could also be ruthless and unforgiving, Goldberg said.
"When Dan sneezes, (Rather's staff) all catch cold. When Dan says jump, they all say, 'How high?'.....Any kind of serious disagreement, especially about liberal bias, was seen as treason," he added.
The CBS veteran told Hannity about a network vice president who once warned, "Just like Nixon, if you cross Dan once - if he perceives you as an enemy for a second - you're an enemy for life."
"The irony," said Goldberg, "is (that) Dan Rather, the great journalist who exposed Nixon for what he was, sort of became Nixon."
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