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It's official: Dan Rather leaves CBS after 44 years

I come from the generation that grew up watching Walter Cronkite anchor the CBS Evening News, so my comments about Dan Rather are going to sound bias to some.

First Rather, nor anyone else at the time, could replace Cronkite. To me Cronkite personified television journalism.

One has to give Dan Rather credit for being an excellent field reporter. His demise as an anchor came about because of his erratic behavior both on and off camera. The “Kenneth” incident and of course him walking off the set when a tennis match went longer than expected.
The sweaters and his aborted attempt at a catchy sign-off were nothing but cheap gimmicks.

Look, Dan Rather had a good run, almost 20 years. So now it’s time for the guy to step aside and let someone else have their shot. What’s the old show business saying, "Don’t stay on stage so long that the curtain falls down on you? "

The person that I actually feel bad for his Bob Schieffer. Schieffer has increased the number of viewers to the CBS Evening News, yet he is given little credit for that. Instead the papers and tabloids are too busy writing about the pending arrival at CBS of Katie Couric.
 
The newspapers were writing about Connie Chung, too. And Sally Quinn before that.
And over at ABC, there was the first Today Show female co-host to be named an Evening News anchor: Bawa Wawa.

All excellent in the right role. All totally wrong for the Evening News. It's just not the same. As good as Cronkite was on the Evening News and on continuing coverage of breaking news, even he wasn't that great when CBS put him on the Morning Show.

And people are not born to the role of anchor. Peter Jennings at 26 was not ready and could not cut. He smart enough to know he had to go out and earn the job.

Next year, the newspapers will be bemoaning the loss of Schieffer. In all fairness, he was given credit for brining up CBS' numbers. But he was never considered more than temporary, no matter how good his performance on the Evening News.

Is there any reason to continue evening newscasts? Well, products like Metamucil and Geritol need a place to advertise. And networks do need somebody who can front continuing coverage when all hell breaks loose - and that person needs something to do the rest of the time to maintain a public presence.

Is there anybody around today who can really fill Cronkite's role - and the role of others less well remembered? Frank McGee (who anchored most of NBC's breaking news coverage except conventions and election nights) and John Daly (who did it all superbly and is remembered today only for What's My Line). Peter Jennings came close to Cronkite's stature and ability but nobody else has. And nobody with necessary gravitas appears to be waiting in the wings - or in the pipeline. When a crisis happens anymore, who you gonna call? Certainly not Katie.
 
Do not be suprised to see Dan Rather pop-up at CNN or even Fox.
Yes, Fox !
 
Rather accomplished a lot in his years ar CBS, obviously not all of it good. He also forgot a lot, for example his early days in Houston at KTRH radio when listeners complained about his delivery and pronunciation, and his later days at KHOU-TV when he was widely known as "the hot dog kid at Channel 11 bent on setting the world on fire." Like another Houston broadcast product, Jessica Savitch, Rather was a master of self promotion and putting together stories in a way that often made the story revolve around him--not only reporter visibility and participation but reporter dominance. But that indeed is all in the past, and as the earlier post stated, the question is where does he go now. CNN and Fox are good guesses. Both would gladly allow the situation to be "here's Dan Rather" (the big news) and he has a story or some sort to report (the lesser news).
 
I guess that's how the business runs.

To me, Dan Rather didn't care about being an anchor.

In my opinion, he saw it as credibility more than a lilability. ???

He wanted to be a generation's Edward R. Murrow.

And for the most part he lived up to it. (Kennedy Assination,Vietnam, Russia v. Afghanistan, Nixon, Tienman Square)

Years from now, history books will remember these stories with Rather as a huge footnote.

Hadn't that Bush Scandal came out he would've retired as anchor of CBS Evening News down the road.

I think Les Moonves panic and that's why he left the way he did.

Tom Brokaw left with grace and diginity for NBC News

while Peter Jennings death left ABC in panic mode.

So for now, until Katie's first week, it looks like Brian Williams will be around for a while.
 
He wanted to be a generation's Edward R. Murrow.
Click to expand...
Murrow did OK in the self-promotion department. But Murrow had integrity and substance. Rather has neither. To use one of his own Texasisms, journalistically he is all hat and not cattle.
 
This would explain a lot of Rather's behaviour:
"I've tried everything. I can say to you with confidence, I know a fair amount about LSD. I've never been a social user of any of these things, but my curiosity has carried me into a lot of interesting areas."
--Dan Rather in Ladies' Home Journal, July 1980 edition.
 
Julius May said:
Dan Rather talks about it: http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/rather_statement.pdf
Click to expand...
In the first paragraph he thanks CBS for their kind words and gestures.

In the second paragraph, he gives CBS a few gestures of his own, trying to make it look like his termination was a result of their inability to find a proper place for him, rather than his inability to conduct himself with integrity.

Class act, Kenneth.
 
I hope to see him bounce back. I thought he was damn good at his job, and got railroaded for political reasons during a national election year. Minus the forged documents, his '60 Minutes' story about President Bush's armed service was still accurate, minus the obviously forged documents. That gets lost in all of the hoopla.

Here's hoping he gives back to journalism by helping students or possibly with another show...
 
Cindy Adams of the New York Post in an interview with WNBC mentioned that he was going to go work for a public access cable station in Texas.
 
toby said:
Cindy Adams of the New York Post in an interview with WNBC mentioned that he was going to go work for a public access cable station in Texas.
Click to expand...

You jokes pale in comparison to the enjoyment that comes from watching Current TV.*




*inside joke for toby
 
She said it on air, but she works for the Post, and we all know how accurate they are!
 
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