# Who really gives a fuck about Dan Rather?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-gives-a-fuck-about-dan-rather/293416>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [March 7, 2005, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-gives-a-fuck-about-dan-rather/293416 "2005-03-07T19:52:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2005, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-gives-a-fuck-about-dan-rather/293416/21 "2005-03-08T20:13:38Z")

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What, a Republican as a sexploitative immoral hypocrite? This is news? 😃

> [@Starving Artist](#):
>
> Every network (and nearly all print media) save Fox is full of them.

Which one of the following is more likely to be true:

1. All news outlets are scum, except for the one that spouts the ideology I agree with; or
2. All news outlets are reasonably neutral, except for the one at the fringes which I happen to agree with.

The answer should be rather obvious, but I doubt you’ll pick it… 😉

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**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2005, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-gives-a-fuck-about-dan-rather/293416/22 "2005-03-08T20:43:28Z")

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> [@rjung](#):
>
> What, a Republican as a sexploitative immoral hypocrite? This is news? 😃

No! No! No! Don’t you see, rjung? She’s a _journalist_…and she’s a _Republican_!

It’s actually gotten to the point in this country where it makes the news when a journalist is a Republican. 😃

> [@rjung](#):
>
> Which one of the following is more likely to be true:
> 
> 1. All news outlets are scum, except for the one that spouts the ideology I agree with; or
> 2. All news outlets are reasonably neutral, except for the one at the fringes which I happen to agree with.
> 
> The answer should be rather obvious, but I doubt you’ll pick it… 😉

How about “Are you still beating your wife, yes or no?”

I’m sure you’ve read Bernie Goldberg’s book which elucidates on the part of most journalists the very point of view you just expressed. Although overwhelmingly liberal, most jounalists consider themselves as merely rational, reasonable people who are centrist and have no bias.

There is only themselves, and right-wing nutjobs.

Just like you.

Regards. 😉

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2005, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-gives-a-fuck-about-dan-rather/293416/23 "2005-03-08T21:21:00Z")

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[Cronkite took a pretty good shot at Rather yesterday:](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15601-2005Mar7.html)

> [@](#):
>
> Appearing on CNN, Cronkite, who anchored the CBS Evening News from 1962 to '81, said CBS News should have given the gig to Bob Schieffer years ago:
> 
> “He is, to my mind, the man who, quite frankly, although Dan did a fine job, I would like to have seen him there a long time ago,” Cronkite told Wolf Blitzer.

Dan _was_ good at covering weather and space related stories. He always seemed to work up a little boner for them behind his desk, or out on a wave swept pier, waiting for the eye of the storm. On other news though, meh. Even all those artificial sounding Texasims failed to cover his ‘insecure dude trying to fake good’ persona.

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**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-gives-a-fuck-about-dan-rather/293416/24 "2005-03-09T06:38:28Z")

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> [@Starving Artist](#):
>
> I’m sure you’ve read Bernie Goldberg’s book which elucidates on the part of most journalists the very point of view you just expressed.

Given that Goldberg has a track record of [taking other reporters’ words out of context](http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/10.23.03/franken-0343.html) to fit his “everyone in journalism is a left-wing shill except me” act, I wouldn’t suggest giving him too much credit.

And how come whenever right-wing nutjobs ( **cough_ahem_StarvingArtist\*cough** 😉 ) talk about media bias, they always trot out the same twenty-year-old canard about biased journalists, but ignore current studies showing [overwhelming](http://www.inquisilab.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=92) [conservative](http://www.consortiumnews.com/Print/123102a.html) [bias](http://www.opednews.com/hersh_062904_media_bias.htm) on the parts of the publishers and editors of said media? Couldn’t be because it’d shatter those self-martyrdom delusions, now could it?

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**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-gives-a-fuck-about-dan-rather/293416/25 "2005-03-09T07:52:48Z")

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> [@rjung](#):
>
> Given that Goldberg has a track record of [taking other reporters’ words out of context](http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/10.23.03/franken-0343.html) to fit his “everyone in journalism is a left-wing shill except me” act, I wouldn’t suggest giving him too much credit.

Al Franken!!! Al frickin’ Franken??? He’s your cite? He plucks one comment out of an entire book, claims it was taken out of context, and this is supposed to negate an entire book by a (formerly, until he outed Rather & Co. for what they are) highly regarded journalist with decades of experience at CBS?

(I take it this means you haven’t read the book? 😉 )

> [@rjung](#):
>
> And how come whenever right-wing nutjobs ( **cough_ahem_StarvingArtist\*cough** 😉 ) talk about media bias, they always trot out the same twenty-year-old canard about biased journalists…

Well, actually I could go back 60 years or more to illustrate media bias, but who’s counting? The fact of the matter is that liberal media bias was abundant 60 years ago, twenty years ago, and right up to this very day.

> [@rjung](#):
>
> but ignore current studies showing [overwhelming](http://www.inquisilab.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=92) [conservative](http://www.consortiumnews.com/Print/123102a.html) [bias](http://www.opednews.com/hersh_062904_media_bias.htm) on the parts of the publishers and editors of said media?

So it’s your contention that CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Time Magazine, Newsweek Magazine and USA Today are _overwhelmingly conservative_? These are who I think of when I think of the news media and I certainly don’t regard them as being overwhelmingly conservative.

Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, and Fox itself have become hugely popular due to years of pent-up resentment created by an overwhelmingly liberal media for which there was no alternative. Now there is an alternative and people are flocking to it like the oasis in the desert that it is.

It should probably be noted also that the popularity of Fox, etc. is exaggerated due to the fact that the country is approximately fifty percent conservative but has only one channel to turn to in order to avoid the ubiquitous liberal bias found everywhere else in the mainstream media. If the conservative viewpoint was spread among as many outlets as is the liberal viewpoint, I doubt that Fox, Limbaugh, et al., would be drawing the huge audiences they do.

So there! Put that in your smipe and poke it. 😉

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**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-gives-a-fuck-about-dan-rather/293416/26 "2005-03-09T14:01:23Z")

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Good bye, Dan. Never watched your sorry ass anyway.

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**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-gives-a-fuck-about-dan-rather/293416/27 "2005-03-09T15:10:43Z")

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Dan was never the man to watch for hard journalism. Dan was the man to watch because he was just a little bit nuts, and he had full access. He, in about so many words, has called ‘bullshit’ in a presidential press conference on occasion. He asked questions completely from left field… and got answers.

Not always, but sometimes. I think I _will_ watch him on 60 Minutes… Dan in the Field is a thing of glory. Much like Tom Baker’s 14’ Dr. Who Scarf.

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**Author:** ![Hoodoo\_Ulove](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/58956e/32.png) [@Hoodoo\_Ulove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoodoo_Ulove)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-gives-a-fuck-about-dan-rather/293416/28 "2005-03-09T15:47:26Z")

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To me he has always been Dan Rather than Walter.

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**Author:** ![Gamaliel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b487fb/32.png) [@Gamaliel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gamaliel)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-gives-a-fuck-about-dan-rather/293416/29 "2005-03-09T15:54:56Z")

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> [@Starving Artist](#):
>
> a highly regarded journalist with decades of experience at CBS?

So a reporter who agrees with your view of the “liberal media” is “a highly regarded journalist with decades of experience at CBS”. A reporter who does not is a biased shill. Gotcha.

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**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-gives-a-fuck-about-dan-rather/293416/30 "2005-03-09T16:29:20Z")

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They keep showing this clip of Dan Rather and Nixon.

In it, it looks like early 70s. Rather is at a podium and has apparently been questioning Nixon. . Nixon says to him, “Are you running for something?”

Rather, “No, are you?”

What is this? Is this suppose to show his quick wit?

All it is is rude, really. You’re standing at a podium interviewing the guy for chrissakes. Nixon’s been running for stuff for about 20 years straight at this point. . .yeah, he’s running for something.

Nixon’s question was a jab at your partisanship. Yours was a playground-level retort akin to “am too”.

The clip really makes him look petty and foolish and belligerent. Not witty and clever and satirical.

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**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-gives-a-fuck-about-dan-rather/293416/31 "2005-03-09T17:00:31Z")

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I care about Dan Rather.

Dan Rather SHOT HEROIN so he’d know what it was like when he was reporting on it. Dan Rather beats people up. He’s been attacked by wierdos and held hostage by cabbies. He’s been everywhere, done everything, doesn’t put up with the BS. Dan Rather says strange things with a straight face on national news. And he’s just a bit of a wierdo himself. He’s a people’s hero. He’s someone we can look up to. In his next life, he’ll be a punk rock star.

I’ll miss you, Dan.

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**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-gives-a-fuck-about-dan-rather/293416/32 "2005-03-09T17:08:03Z")

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> [@Gamaliel](#):
>
> So a reporter who agrees with your view of the “liberal media” is “a highly regarded journalist with decades of experience at CBS”. A reporter who does not is a biased shill. Gotcha.

He was “highly regarded” by people in the news media…until he turned “traitor” and spoke the truth about something most of the nation knew already knew about but was at a loss to explain, i.e., liberal bias in the media.

I didn’t say he was highly regarded by me, although certainly he is now because he had the guts (and the objectivity) to see things as they are and speak out accordingly, even if it meant he became a pariah to those he worked with and was close to during his aforementioned “decades of experience at CBS.”

Got me now?

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**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-gives-a-fuck-about-dan-rather/293416/33 "2005-03-09T17:16:23Z")

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> [@Trunk](#):
>
> The clip really makes him look petty and foolish and belligerent. Not witty and clever and satirical.

I couldn’t agree more. To me, the fact that this is held up by his peers as an example of his strength and courage in pursuit of a story is just another example of the bias we’re talking about.

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**Author:** ![Tigers2B1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc29f/32.png) [@Tigers2B1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tigers2B1)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-gives-a-fuck-about-dan-rather/293416/34 "2005-03-09T17:35:30Z")

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Dan Rather is a giant eared ass munch – I hope he grows a big pair of those man boobs -

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**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-gives-a-fuck-about-dan-rather/293416/35 "2005-03-09T17:36:18Z")

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He is one of the great journalists of our time. Conservatives hate him because he doesn’t sell himself out. The great liberal media bias is a myth, unlike the very real conservative media buy-us. I wish Mr. Rather a fond farewell.

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**Author:** ![Tigers2B1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc29f/32.png) [@Tigers2B1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tigers2B1)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-gives-a-fuck-about-dan-rather/293416/36 "2005-03-09T17:48:15Z")

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> [@Trunk](#):
>
> They keep showing this clip of Dan Rather and Nixon.
> 
> In it, it looks like early 70s. Rather is at a podium and has apparently been questioning Nixon. . Nixon says to him, “Are you running for something?”
> 
> Rather, “No, are you?”
> 
> What is this? Is this suppose to show his quick wit?
> 
> All it is is rude, really. You’re standing at a podium interviewing the guy for chrissakes. Nixon’s been running for stuff for about 20 years straight at this point. . .yeah, he’s running for something.
> 
> Nixon’s question was a jab at your partisanship. Yours was a playground-level retort akin to “am too”.
> 
> The clip really makes him look petty and foolish and belligerent. Not witty and clever and satirical.

Now compare that with Danny putting Clinton on “tough alert” during an interview with Bill and Hillary – Read -

> [@](#):
>
> \*\*RATHER: Mr. President, if we could be one one-hundredth as great as you and Hillary Rodham Clinton have been together in the White House, we’d take it right now and walk away winners.
> 
> As you know, Mr. President, I pride myself on trying to ask the tough questions. So I’m not going to apologize in advance for this question, but I do want to put you on tough question alert.\*\*

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**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-gives-a-fuck-about-dan-rather/293416/37 "2005-03-09T18:00:15Z")

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I should say that he doesn’t really bug me as much as some of you.

I kind of like that he seems a little crazy at times. He’s no clone.

He’s not a great anchor, IMO. I never watch the CBS evening news. On “60 Minutes II”, he’s clearly the weakest link as an interviewer. Personally, I think his “home spun” expressions sound contrived and are mostly groaners.

So, he’s not telegenic. He’s not a great investigator. He’s not very witty. What is he? A little entertaining just because he seems a little on the edge. He built his reputation by plopping himself into the middle of things, bravely. Supposedly he was the first guy to go stand in a hurricane and report, the first anchor to do anchoring from the field.

I heard (on Don & Mike?) that Walter Kronkite said he’s going to feel bad for the next anchor because it’s going to be a tough act to follow. . .a tough act to follow Bob Schaefer, that is. . .Rather’s interim replacement. I haven’t found a cite, though.

I DO think that Rather is biased, but not so bad that it bugs me. That’s not my complaint with him at all. That wasn’t the point of my Nixon story.

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**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-gives-a-fuck-about-dan-rather/293416/38 "2005-03-09T18:11:48Z")

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Bye, Dan. Don’t let the door hit you…

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**Author:** ![Tigers2B1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc29f/32.png) [@Tigers2B1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tigers2B1)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-gives-a-fuck-about-dan-rather/293416/39 "2005-03-09T18:32:49Z")

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> [@Trunk](#):
>
> …I heard (on Don & Mike?) that Walter Kronkite said he’s going to feel bad for the next anchor because it’s going to be a tough act to follow. . .a tough act to follow Bob Schaefer, that is. . .Rather’s interim replacement. I haven’t found a cite, though…

You might be thinking of this —

> [@](#):
>
> \*\*BLITZER: Bob Schieffer, as you know, is going to be the interim anchor of “The CBS Evening News,” a good friend of all of ours, an outstanding journalist.
> 
> Who do you think should emerge as the next anchor, the main anchor of CBS, after Bob Schieffer’s interim period?
> 
> CRONKITE: Well, I think it’s going to be hard to find anybody who is going to be as much liked and appreciated and does such a job as Bob Schieffer. I think he’s one of the great television journalists of our time. And he was a good journalist when he came to television from Fort Worth.
> 
> He is, to my mind, the man who, quite frankly, although Dan did a fine job, I would like to have seen him there a long time ago. He would have given the others a real run for their money.
> 
> BLITZER: Better than Dan Rather would have done? Because he was perennially in third place in the ratings behind Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings.
> 
> CRONKITE: Well, that’s certainly true. And it’s quite a tribute to him that he – that CBS held on to him so long under those circumstances. It surprised quite a few people at CBS and elsewhere that, without being able to pull up the ratings beyond third in a three-man field, that they tolerated his being there for so long.
> 
> BLITZER: So, you would have been happier if Bob Schieffer would have replaced Dan Rather a while ago?
> 
> CRONKITE: I would have thought so, certainly, if not Bob, someone else.
> 
> BLITZER: Well, what about after Bob Schieffer? Is there anybody inside CBS News right now that you think has the caliber, the experience, the style that could emerge as the chief anchor for CBS News?
> 
> CRONKITE: I think there are several, but I wouldn’t like to go into that right now. It would be a mistake, I think, to try to single them out in public.
> 
> They’re going to find it’s going to be tough not to follow Dan so much as to follow Schieffer. He’s not going to be there very long. I’m not sure he wants to be there. I’m not sure that daily journalism is what he wants at this time. He’s got that wonderful “Face the Nation” broadcast on Sundays, which ranks right up alongside of all of the talk shows from Washington. He does a superb job with that.\*\*

[http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0503/07/wbr.01.html](http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0503/07/wbr.01.html)  
Now ------ I’ve heard that Daddy Bush once verbally took it to Rather on the Evening News - was angered by Rather and showed it - I wonder if there’s a video –or- if not, a transcript. Anyone recall that? What happened --?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\
**Post date:** [March 9, 2005, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-really-gives-a-fuck-about-dan-rather/293416/40 "2005-03-09T18:41:50Z")

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> [@Tigers2B1](#):
>
> You might be thinking of this —
> 
> [http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0503/07/wbr.01.html](http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0503/07/wbr.01.html)  
> Now ------ I’ve heard that Daddy Bush once verbally took it to Rather on the Evening News - was angered by Rather and showed it - I wonder if there’s a video –or- if not, a transcript. Anyone recall that? What happened --?

Thanks for that transcript. Clearly what I was getting at.

I’ve also seen clips of this bush senior thing you mentioned. It was when he was veep. Dan was badgering him about something he wanted to talk about and bush was saying “that’s not what we’re here to talk about.”

Kind of a meaningless confrontation, like the Rather/Nixon thing. More interesting just for the fact that a “confrontation” happened rather than anything that came out of the confrontation.

That probably sums Rather up half decently. Confrontations that are all feathers and squawking, but you still don’t know who the Cock of the Walk is after it’s done. Contrast to something like, I don’t know, maybe Jon Stewart laying into Tucker Carlson and really saying something meaningful. Or anything Tim Russert does on a weekly basis.

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