On NPR, Bravo's Andy Cohen Finds It 'Awesome' to Land Disgraced Dan Rather As a Guest

Disgraced ex-CBS News anchor Dan Rather may have applied a flamethrower to his own reputation with the fake-documents smear of George W. Bush in 2004, but he's still a Famous Person (or Infamous Person if you care about Bush or careful journalism).

NPR's Karen Grigsby Bates offered a puffy profile of Bravo executive and talk-show host Andy Cohen, who's plugging a book, on Thursday's Morning Edition. The former CBS This Morning producer was thrilled that he landed Rather as a guest on his Watch What Happens Live late-night talk show. Well, he worked for Rather at 48 Hours, so maybe he's just throwing an old boss a bone:

BATES: Cohen started out wanting to be an anchor, and now he sort of is and has anchors as his guests. Anderson Cooper's been on. So has one of Cohen's old bosses.

COHEN: To have Dan Rather, all these years later, walk in and be on be a guest on my little Playboy after Dark meets Wayne's World...

BATES: It was, as to use a favorite Cohen word, awesome. Cohen says he'll continue to juggle being a network executive by day and a television talk show host by night, because he loves both jobs, and he still has the energy for it.

No one should imagine Rather doesn't know Bravo is quite a step up from nearly stringing together Dixie cups at HDNet.

Openly gay Cohen, who NPR plugged as a "pop-culture kingpin," also made fun of his own network's obvious marketing to gay viewers:

BATES: There are so many programs centered on food, fashion, beauty and pop culture that Bravo's often referred to as the gay channel. At a press conference a few months ago, Cohen tried to straighten everyone out about that.

COHEN [clip from press conference]: People always ask me if Bravo is gay. And I always say I think Bravo is bi, because I think Bravo is open enough to go home with whoever it found attractive at the end of the night.