Emotional follow-up interview with Dan Rather online at CBS.com

[hlthe2b]

Rather did a fairly long interview with their DC affiliate. Anyone who thinks (and a few DUers apparently do) that Rather is an intentional pawn for Rove et al, should watch this. He clearly is very emotional about it and (to me at least) exudes sincerity. Rather got duped, plain and simple, but I think he's not letting go of the story.

Two videos are there. The first (CBS Document controversy) is the actual CBS news piece and the second (entitled "I Feel Like Hell") is the WCBS interview.

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml

[Cha]

1. Thanks for this..more

info on Rather..it's so strange how it is all coming out in bits and pieces.

[Erika]

2. I Hope Rather Stays With The Story and

has a few lucky breaks. The $50,000.00 offer to anyone who can prove Bush fulfilled his NG duties goes unclaimed. In the meantime, we need to stick to the issues.

[candy331]

3. I'm very emotional about the matter myself, If Rather was really duped

then he needs to go ahead and retire, have some fun in his old age because he clearly has lost the edge. Who would trust anything coming out of the WH. I was so hoping that he was on top of this. A damaged and sore animal will get pecked to(chickens do it to each other) death and eaten.

[hlthe2b]

4. The RW are preparing to picket for his head & there is that not small

matter that if we fail to continue to support CBS and Rather, then for all intents and purposes, investigative journalism is dead.

I'm going to be going through another series of supportive email contacts, myself....

As for Rather, I think he is covering for others who he had overly trusted to dot I's and cross t's. Regardless, I don't want to lose him-- not over this. The message it would send is too detrimental.

[Mikimouse]

7. Do you have the e-mail contact addy?

If so, could you post it and I will send some myself.

[hlthe2b]

9. [e-mail]

ADDRESS:
CBS Evening News with Dan Rather
524 West 57th St.
New York, NY 10019
PHONE: [phone]

[Mikimouse]

11. Thank you kindly, I will write immediately...n/t

[hlthe2b]

19. you're welcome... I hope others will write as well....

[NinetySix]

15. My email to Dan Rather

Dear Mr. Rather,

I know there are many calling for your resignation right now. Let me be direct: if Donald Rumsfeld is allowed to keep his job, then there is no reason you should be forced to give up yours.

(NinetySix)

[K-W]

8. Greg Palast: The Lynching of Dan Rather

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0920-08.htm

"This is not a story about Dan Rather. The white millionaire celebrity can defend himself without my help. This is really a story about fear, the fear that stops other reporters in the US from following the evidence about this Administration to where it leads. American news guys and news gals, practicing their smiles, adjusting their hairspray levels, bleaching their teeth and performing all the other activities that are at the heart of US TV journalism, will look to the treatment of Dan Rather and say, "Not me, babe." No questions will be asked, as Dan predicted, lest they risk necklacing and their careers as news actors burnt to death."

There is a bigger story here. Dan Rather took a risk to come out agianst the administration and regardless of whether he deserved it or not it is going to discourage others from doing the same when they already had plenty of reasons to be discouraged.

[Yupster]

5. My bet

is that after a decent interval, he will be quietly retired. He's finished as a newsman.

[maryallen]

10. Such compassion ...

"Lost his edge?"

He's the only friggin' journalist on the networks or cable channels who's been willing to go out on a limb to question "the great one." Yeah, I can see where we might want to put him out to pasture (sarcasm).

He's swimming in a tank of piranhas, or hadn't you noticed?

[K-W]

6. I'm of the mind that Rather was hit on purpose. To them he is a liberal.

Kill two Birds with one stone, discredit rather, make him and CBS look liberal at a time when people are questioning conservative influence in the media on a widespread basis for the first time, and confuse the issue of Bush's national guard duty.

Its almost too effective to have been plannned.

[YoQuieroLiberty]

12. Hope this doesn't offend you

But Rather IS a liberal. I'm from Houston, his hometown, and the profiles they do on him always reveal a lefty bent. It's nothing to be ashamed of at all.

[K-W]

13. No offense at all, I didnt mean to imply that he wasnt, but stress

that to the Right Wing he might as well be Karl Marx.

[YoQuieroLiberty]

14. The fact of the matter is

he makes a good target for the Right. But the guy still has a job, and he's still enormously powerful. They can't slam the guy too much - he's a television institution.

[mrdmk]

16. CBS has been hitting the Bush Jr. Administration harder than

any other network.

Paul O'Neil book was first on 60 Minutes!

Richard Clark lengthy interview was also on CBS news.

There have been many other stories that made the Bush Jr. Administration look bad on CBS, probably more so than the other networks and (so called) news stations.


edit: clarification

[Thurston Howell IV]

17. Don't forget Abu Ghraib pictures were published by CBS

I feel that CBS was set up as punishment for not being deferential enough to the president. It is a stark lesson for the rest of the networks.

[mrdmk]

18. Deferential is a good word, here is another thread asking to

send e-mails. Please join in!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2376103

:bounce:

[TahitiNut]

21. Remember, CBS was the network fined $550,000 for Janet's boob.

Does anyone think the FCC would've fined Murdoch's Pox? What about all the replays? If it was 'indecent' to televise a long-shot for all of about 2 seconds, what about the days-long wallowing? I seriously doubt anyone watching TV could see her boob during the live half-time telecast. The guns were already cocked and aimed at CBS.

[shanti]

20. dan rather

the silver lining to the dark cloud. i'm sure he's quite pissed off at the recent turn of events. watch out for what's coming!