I just saw the rebroadcast of Charlie Rose where he interviewed Rather post-Saddam interview.
I came away with a surprising lack of respect for Dan.
Not because of the complaints that he didn’t ask hard-hitting questions of Saddam (hey, he’s lucky to have gotten to ask that nut anything!), but because he seemed to just lack any guts at all.
During the interview with Rose, Dan kept up some strange mantra of “I respect all those who criticize me, but I am a patriotic american, a professional newsman, and I do the best I can.”
It came off quite strange after saying it several times. He also said that he ‘doesn’t guess or say what I believe because I deal in facts’, and then throughout the entire interview said “I believe… and I think…”.
I dunno. I’ve watched the CBS nightly news over many years and have had respect for the guy, but this interview just shattered all that. Charlie seemed to try and pry past Dan’s patriotic/veteran sheild, but gave up after Dan kept repeating the same shit over and over.
I’ve read Bias, which slams Dan as a vindictive liberal, and I questioned the author’s motive’s as sour grapes (he was fired from CBS), but now I am re-thinking that.