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NEW YORK - Dan Rather, the hard-charging anchorman who dominated CBS News for more than two decades but whose final months were clouded by a discredited story on the president’s military service, is leaving CBS after 44 years, the network announced Tuesday. The 74-year-old Rather has complained of being virtually forgotten at CBS Corp. since his exit as anchor last year, six months after the story on President Bush’s military service aired. He has said he is considering an offer to do a weekly show at the HDNet high-definition network. “There will always be a part of Dan Rather at...

Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2006 12:52 PM Subject: Statement from Dan Rather, June 20, 2006 I appreciate the words and gestures contained in today's press release by CBS. I leave CBS News with tremendous memories. But I leave now most of all with the desire to once again do regular, meaningful reporting. My departure before the term of my contract represents CBS's final acknowledgement, after a protracted struggle, that they had not lived up to their obligation to allow me to do substantive work there. As for their offers of a future with only an office but no assignments, it...

by Mark Finkelstein June 20, 2006 CBS radio news just ran an item on the departure of Dan Rather. There was a surprising bit of candor in which CBS reported that Rather had "expressed frustration, feeling he'd been shelved by the network." There was also a bit of - presumably - unintentional humor. We were treated to a clip of the Washington Post's [very liberal] media critic Tom Shales informing us that Rather "was a very activist anchor, and he changed the role of anchor." I'll say! So activist that when he didn't have the makings of a story with...

(CBS) Dan Rather is leaving CBS after 44 years with the Tiffany Network. Sean McManus, president of CBS News and Sports, made the announcement. “Of all the famous names associated with CBS News, the biggest and brightest on the marquee are Murrow, Cronkite and Rather,” McManus said. “With the utmost respect, we mark the extraordinary and singular role Dan has played in writing the script of not only CBS News, but of broadcast journalism." CBS News is working on a primetime special on the newsman’s career. It is scheduled to be broadcast sometime this fall. CBS News also will make...

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) -- CBS is expected to announce today that former "CBS Evening News" anchor Dan Rather will leave the network after 44 years. Rather's contract runs through November, but he is expected to leave CBS immediately to pursue other opportunities. A special tribute to Rather's career is expected to appear on tonight's "CBS Evening News." The move was widely expected in the past few weeks after Rather, 74, had said that he would be leaving CBS after negotiations on a new contract hadn't guaranteed him anything but an office at the network. After leaving "CBS Evening News"...

Since the demise of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, al-Qaeda in Iraq is making plans to rebuild its organization by opening the "Jihadi School of Jihad" and have recently posted course offerings. The standard fare is there-"Introduction to Suicide Bombing," "Cut from Left to Right: A Lesson for Beheadings," "Using the Burqa to Conceal Weapons," and "Ambushes or IEDs: A Seminar in Tactics." But there are also some lighter offerings-"Dealing with Loneliness when Men Are Your Only Companions," "Loving and Caring for Your Goat," "Living in Filth," "How to Tell by Feel If It's a Virgin or a Camel" and "Modern Dance."...

See for example this thread first. The end of the road for Dan Rather? His downfall began (as I gather) when a FReeper (no hype) spied proportional type-- Sauron (Dan) worked himself in a lather!

Rather To Be Gone From CBS BEFORE Contract Expires Here is the latest from Black Rock and West 57th Street. Denying Dan has tried to avoid the ugly truth (Seems strange to refer to Dan Rather in a sentence containing the word “truth.”) … As I was saying, Denying Dan has tried to avoid the ugly truth that no one at CBS wants to have anything to do with him. One senior staffer described Dan’s handling of the phony Bush story was “criminal,” and no one wants that label applied to them because of work with Rather. CBS itself wants...

CBS executives have decided there is no future role at the network for Dan Rather, making it certain that the man who sat in the anchor chair for 24 years will depart by this fall. These executives recognize Rather's contributions over four decades and are not trying to boot him because of the controversy surrounding his botched story on President Bush and the National Guard, say network sources who declined to be named while discussing a sensitive personnel matter. But the executives concluded there was no room for Rather at "60 Minutes," particularly with incoming anchor Katie Couric planning to...

EMINEM is returning to the big screen in an updated version of a 1950s television Western. Have Gun - Will Travel debuted on CBS in 1957 and ran until 1963. Paramount Pictures has extended an 18-month option to develop it as a vehicle for the Detroit rapper. Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers III, has committed to shoot the role and is excited about his latest opportunity, Interscope Records spokesman Dennis Dennehy said. The concept of the series will be updated to contemporary times and feature Eminem playing a bounty hunter. The 33-year-old Grammy-winning rapper rose to pop stardom...

The latest cancerous growth to escape from American journalism’s putrefying Petri dish is the alleged massacre of innocent civilians in Haditha, Iraq. As the tale goes when an IED explosion killed a US Marine during a routine patrol through the town last November, his comrades in arms were so upset they went on a killing spree the likes of which hasn’t been seen since Mi Lai. There is only one problem. It may not have happened...

(NOTE TO FReaders. I would not normally alter the basic article, but it so full of delusional thoughts and outright lines that direct attribution is needed so FReader will see what is being references, much like DUmmie Funnies from PJ Comix) STORY FOLLOWS By Mary Mapes My first thought when I read the NY Post's latest Page Six item on Dan Rather was that Dan must have missed a hush money payment or something. Reading on, I realized this was actually an opening publicity volley for a new book, one that is probably guaranteed a small but ready readership. (IT...

DAN Rather could be gone from CBS News by the end of the year. After months of negotiations, the former anchor - now a "60 Minutes" correspondent - has not been able to make a deal to remain with CBS - and is reportedly bothered that the network where he worked for the last 44 years does not seem to want him anymore. Rather, whose contract expires at the end of this year, had hoped to finish his career as a full-time correspondent at "60 Minutes." "But it doesn't seem like [CBS] wants him there" now, says an industry insider.

The Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block has picked former CBS series "Pee Wee's Playhouse," the channel said Monday. The late-night network purchased the rights to all 45 episodes of Paul Reubens' quasi-children's show, which aired from 1986 to 1991. CBS cancelled the series after Mr. Reubens was arrested in an adult theater and charged with indecent exposure. Since, reruns of the series have been rare. Adult Swim said many of the episodes have not been aired since their original run. Adult Swim will launch the series July 10.

Station executives at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas for last week’s CBS affiliate meeting were so entranced by the vision of the network’s newest star, Katie Couric, they barely noticed that CBS veteran Dan Rather was conspicuously absent. While Couric enjoys a long welcome to the CBS Evening News anchor chair, the man who sat there for 24 years has been virtually disappeared by his network. It seems the infamy he won with his flawed report on President Bush’s National Guard service during the height of the 2004 campaign is far from fleeting. Since leaving his Evening...

Over the Memorial Day weekend, we received quite a few e-mails about a story that appeared on Saturday concerning the ongoing standoff between the Justice Department and House leaders over the recent raid of Congressman William Jefferson’s office. The story originally identified Jefferson as a “Louisiana Republican” when he is, in fact, a Louisiana Democrat. The error sparked e-mails like the following, from Jon L: This paragraph appeared in a cbsnews.com story today regarding Congressman William Jefferson: "Top law enforcement officials at the Justice Department and the FBI indicated to their counterparts at the White House that they could not,...

Why So Little Protest On Iraq? CBS' Dotty Lynch On Theories On Low Anti-War Decibel Level May 30, 2006 Last paragraph- "People at CBS News were touched personally and deeply by the Iraq war on Monday. But must it take a direct a hit for all Americans to get engaged and demand a serious re-examination from those in power whose policies have caused so much bloodshed and damaged America's reputation around the globe?"

NEW YORK — A cameraman and soundman for CBS were killed and a CBS correspondent was seriously injured Monday after their convoy was struck by a roadside bomb in Iraq, the network said.Veteran cameraman Paul Douglas, 48, and soundman James Brolan, 42, were killed, CBS reported on its Web site. Correspondent Kimberly Dozier, 39, was in critical condition at a U.S. military hospital in Baghdad after undergoing surgery. The three were reporting on patrol with the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, when their convoy was hit by an improvised explosive device, CBS said.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - CBS News said Monday that two of its crew members were killed in an attack on a U.S. military unit in Iraq. Correspondent Kimberly Dozier was seriously wounded, the network said. The network identified the dead as cameraman Paul Douglas and soundman James Brolan. The three journalists were embedded with a team from the Fourth Infantry Division when the convoy was struck by an improvised explosive device on Monday, CBS said.

...Top law enforcement officials at the Justice Department and the FBI indicated to their counterparts at the White House that they could not, and were unwilling to, return documents to the Louisiana Republican which were seized as part of a bribery investigation...