Ex-CBS anchor Dan Rather is stepping up his sour grapes routine against Katie Couric, telling TVWeek magazine that it's only a matter of time before his former employer cancels the "Evening News" entirely:
Dan Rather, who last month accused broadcast networks of dumbing down and tarting up their newscasts [a story which you heard here first], said he can foresee a time when media company executives retreat from evening news production.
“I think we’ll see the time when someone at the top says, ‘We can give this time back to affiliates,’” Mr. Rather said Monday in a discussion with TelevisionWeek Publisher and Editorial Director Chuck Ross at the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing convention in Washington.Story Continues Below Ad ↓
Mr. Rather, who now anchors “Dan Rather Reports,” a weekly news show on Mark Cuban’s HDNet, said media executives’ focus on audience ratings and attracting certain age groups of viewers is eroding the quality of the newscasts.
“The tendency is to dumb it down and sleaze it up,” Mr. Rather said, echoing statements he made last month. Those earlier comments, made in response to a question about current “Evening News” anchor Katie Couric, started a back-and-forth with CBS CEO Les Moonves, who took issue with Mr. Rather’s remarks.
Today, Mr. Rather said his criticisms of the CBS news program didn’t include anything he wasn’t hearing from inside the CBS organization.
CBS spokesman Dana McClintock declined to comment on Mr. Rather’s statements.
Mr. Rather today said he doesn’t know whether Ms. Couric is the right person to lead “Evening News,” noting it will take more time to determine whether viewers embrace her.
“It’s been a short time,” Mr. Rather said. Asked whether he thinks Ms. Couric will work as anchor, he said, “The odds are longer now.”
Incidentally, this has always been Rather's m.o. Back in the 90s when he was forced to anchor the news alongside Connie Chung, Rather routinely called up television reporters and trashed his colleague's professionalism and competance. The only difference now is that he has nothing to lose.
Yet another example of how liberal white people support affirmative action only so long as it doesn't affect them.
He's right about "Evening" getting the ax though. I expect within five years there will be no need for such a broadcast.
—Matthew Sheffield is the creator of NewsBusters and its Executive Editor.
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Wonder if he is attempting
July 24, 2007 - 11:38 ET by bigtimerWonder if he is attempting to get his seat back...(I told you, you shouldn't of forced me to step down Moonves...)
After-all, the election is not that far off, the first primaries are in six months or so...
Would give him plenty of time to form another Rather-gate scenario when it comes to Thompson....as long as he can rehire Mapes.
...lol...
Btw...bias is always okay with the msm as long as it is a leftist doing it, no matter the color of the skin.
He'd love that no doubt
July 24, 2007 - 11:42 ET by Matthew Sheffieldbut Dan burned all his bridges at CBS. Anyone who is important there dislikes him now.
A lot of them hated him before Memogate anyway because he was quite an iron-fisted guy when he had power.
Good morning Matthew... I
July 24, 2007 - 11:48 ET by bigtimerGood morning Matthew...
I am going to have to learn to insert that <sarc> on and off thing...
I was being sarcastic, not serious.
LOL
I couldn't tell that time
July 24, 2007 - 11:50 ET by Matthew SheffieldWith Rather, though, he actually would love to get his old spot back. He'd trade his left leg to get back on big-time TV.
Morning to you to, bt.
I'd probably trade mine for
July 24, 2007 - 13:52 ET by sarcasmoI'd probably trade mine for a couple years of that paycheck, but I do not think the Dan/Katie sized paychecks will be around anymore...Good riddance, if I'm not collecting one!
JMR
Dan is Correct
July 24, 2007 - 11:43 ET by allanfFor once Dan is correct. The time slots for these propaganda broadcasts should go back to the affiliates. Their 18-54 demographics are appaling. The broadcasts serve no informational purpose, but are a place for bombast and pompus moralizing.
A night time version of the Price is Right would be better use of the time.
He is right
July 24, 2007 - 11:46 ET by Matthew Sheffieldbut for all the wrong reasons.
I think that he actually
July 24, 2007 - 11:56 ET by dscottI think that he actually might be telling the truth for once, ironically, without meaning to do so. The MSM would choke if they had to be fair and balanced, so the next best thing is to scale down the financial losses but keep the bias. If 2 hours of obfuscation and framing the issues are too costly, then a 1/2 hour of obfuscation and deception will work just as well as it concentrates the remaining viewers more efficiently on the national news while delivering the same propaganda in a concentrated format. I'm not sure of what contractual obligations station affliates are required to show the Networks news programming, but it seems to me they are hostages to whatever the decisions the network make as long as they go with the network.
“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane"
Rather
July 24, 2007 - 11:55 ET by iveseenitallNone of them (Rather,Moonves, Couric et.al ) gets it. It's the BIASED, DISHONEST, LIBERAL reportage that's doing them in. DUH! Americans are sick of these fools.
NEVER,NEVER trust a liberal
Yeah, it's always someone else's fault Dan.
July 24, 2007 - 11:58 ET by Dave in Texas"... said media executives’ focus on audience ratings and attracting certain
age groups of viewers is eroding the quality of the newscasts."
Gee Dan, one of the reasons they have to do that is to bring in advertisers who will cough up enough cash to pay your 7 and 8 figured salaries. Perhaps if all you guys were willing to work for minimum wage? You know, it's $0.70 higher as of today.
Fox News
July 24, 2007 - 12:50 ET by TotheRightofReaganI would love to see Fox News do a nightly broadcast on local tv, I wonder how the ratings would stack up against the "big three". Of course, with the ratings they are bringing in on cable from 6:00 PM on, why rock the boat.
“Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have. “ – Ronald Reagan
Dan Rather is going to turn out just like Walter Cronkite.
July 24, 2007 - 13:13 ET by Dave RThis may come as a profound shock to Dan, but CBS's slide into the abyss was already well under way before he was forced out. The propping up of the Perky One into Dan's former throne only served to steepen the incline.
I think Dan is headed the way of his mentor, in that he is going to wind up a bitter old fart.
Help Fred defeat everybody.
}}}----> Marshal Matt
July 24, 2007 - 13:19 ET by Cool Arrow"Yet another example of how liberal white people support affirmative action only so long as it doesn't affect them".
Dang, is that Matt Sheffield or Matt Dillon?
The Marshal has spoken, Dan. You better get out of Dodge.
Earth to Dan Rather. The
July 24, 2007 - 13:36 ET by danboEarth to Dan Rather. The company executives retreated from news production years ago. You should have noticed. You were part of it.You were it's prince.
You replaced it with attempts at opinion molding.
Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of truth and knowledge will be shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods. Albert Einstein
Shock crock
July 24, 2007 - 13:39 ET by Jack BauerI'm shocked, dazed and amazed.
Dan Rather's still alive?
It is amazing isn't it
July 24, 2007 - 13:43 ET by bigtimerIt is amazing isn't it Jack?
Same category as Larry King Alive...
LOL
Rather angling for a bigger fish MSCBS
July 24, 2007 - 14:05 ET by Lame CherryRather is a needler full of hate. Always has been and always will be. What his cocktail tongue is telling Moonves is, "Katie just don't make hay looking like an oater and CBS looks like last years prize heifer after the coyotes got done chewing on her.
The answer Moonves is to put your cutie wife on as a cocktail newaitress and spend a billion in making MSCBS with me as lead anchor doing all 12 hours a day."
Rather like old Walrus Cronkite and Babbling Moyers just don't take well in liberal dictators being put out to pasture when they see nothing but woolies bleating in the lot.
Dan wants to rustle up a herd of his own at a new CBS and lay his brand on cable hotter than Aunt Mary's frying pan with an oak fire on a 100 degree day.
Is kind of fun imitating that dolt now that he is no longer bull of the pasture and all he can do now is bellar and nobody even in Texas cares when the cattle comes home.
Too bad Dan as Moonves says next stop for you is the balogna factory.
*HIC IACET ARTORIVS REX QVONDAM REXQVE FVTVRVS
}}}----> Cronkite is the Walrus?
July 24, 2007 - 14:07 ET by Cool ArrowSeems to be a thread running through our thread. koo koo ka joo.
Rather is CBS's Jimmy Carter
July 24, 2007 - 14:45 ET by GalvanicThere's actually some commonality between former CBS anchor Dan Rather and former President Jimmy Carter.
1) Both are widely acknowledged as the worst performers in their respective jobs during our lifetimes.
2) Both are the biggest critics of their successors' failures, as if their own miserable performances grant them some sort of enlightened bully pulpit. I guess they are experts on failure.
The architect of network
July 24, 2007 - 18:48 ET by fitzfongThe architect of network news' demise is now effectively betting on said demise...has he been hanging out with any NBA referees lately?