Bring Rather Down!

Dan Rather has Resigned.

 

Dan Rather has resigned.

 

Rather is stepping down from anchoring the Evening News.
He is staying with CBS and is going to do investigative reporting for both editions of Sixty Minutes.
Sorry.

 

Rather needs a fig leaf to cover his vulnerability -- That's the 60 Minutes II gig.


I think he won't be there much
He won't be there long,
And he won't have much to do while he is there.

It's just an excuse for him to keep an office, and not look like he was kicked out the door.

 

Rather Quitting as CBS Anchor in Abrupt Move <posts>
NY Times ^ </^http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/24/business/media/24rather.html?hp&ex=1101272400&en=c3110f9598c5c314&ei=5094&partner=homepage> | November 24, 2004 | JACQUES STEINBERG and BILL CARTER





Dan Rather announced yesterday that he would step down next year as anchor and managing editor of "CBS Evening News." The move came two months after he acknowledged fundamental flaws in a broadcast report that raised questions about President Bush's National Guard service.



Mr. Rather's last broadcast will be on March 9, the 24th anniversary of the night he succeeded Walter Cronkite. He plans to continue to work full time at CBS News, as a correspondent for the Sunday and Wednesday editions of "60 Minutes."



The network has yet to select a successor to Mr. Rather, who is 73, but two CBS executives said that the front-runner was John Roberts, 48, CBS News's chief White House correspondent, who also serves as anchor of the network's Sunday evening news program.



Though Mr. Rather and senior CBS executives had begun last summer to discuss a possible departure date within the next couple of years, Mr. Rather's announcement yesterday signaled an abrupt end to the nearly quarter-century that he spent in one of the most visible jobs in broadcast journalism. [Page C1.]



Both he and Leslie Moonves, CBS's chairman and co-president of its parent company, Viacom, emphasized that the timing of the announcement was dictated by events largely out of their control.



In an interview yesterday, Mr. Rather said that he and Mr. Moonves believed that it was important that he make his announcement well before the forthcoming release of a report by an independent panel investigating the journalistic breakdowns that led CBS News to broadcast and then vigorously defend the National Guard news segment.



"I wish it were not happening while this panel is looking into the '60 Minutes' weekday story," Mr. Rather said at his office at the CBS Broadcast Center on West 57th Street in Manhattan. "One reason I wanted to do this now was to make the truth clear - this is separated from that."



Mr. Rather said the most intense round of conversations among himself; his agent, Richard Leibner; and Mr. Moonves began about 10 days ago at Mr. Moonves's office at Viacom's headquarters in Times Square. At a certain point, Mr. Leibner excused himself and Mr. Rather spoke alone to Mr. Moonves.



"Dan was very emotional," Mr. Moonves recalled yesterday. "Clearly, this job and CBS News mean a lot to him. It was a very hard decision for him. Dan said to me, 'I'd like to do this on my own terms.' We totally supported him."

Mr. Rather - after a series of conversations last weekend with his wife, Jean, and his grown son and daughter - said he called Mr. Moonves, who was in California, on Monday afternoon and told him that he had made up his mind to go. In a measure of the awkward predicament in which CBS finds itself, Mr. Moonves said he felt compelled to inform the investigative panel of Mr. Rather's plans....

 

I hope you happy Gambino, sigh. Perhaps you will finally give us peace now.