So Long Dan and all the rest of you HATE America liberals..your day in the sun is gone.
Rather Draws Line from Being Called "N-Lover"
to a "Liberal"
In his Wednesday night prime time special reviewing his career, Dan Rather: A Reporter Remembers, Rather, dismissing bias charges as a just the latest in a series of efforts to "intimidate" him, drew a line from being called "an 'N-lover'" during the civil rights movement to the Vietnam war years when critics tagged him with a "bad name: 'anti-military, anti-American, anti-war,'" and "then, when Watergate came into being was the first time I began to hear this word 'liberal' as an epithet thrown my way." Viewers then saw a montage of video clips and shots of Web sites with text accusing Rather and CBS of being "liberal," including the Media Research Center's logo and a headline over an MRC page on Rather. Without addressing evidence of his liberal tilt on policy, Rather charged that "people who have very strong biases of their own, they come at you with a story: 'If you won't report it the way I want it reported, then you're biased.'" On the memogate affair, the CBS special touted how the review panel found "no political agenda."
Earlier in the 8pm EST/PST hour, Rather described Iran-Contra as nothing more that "another case of people wanting to keep secret things that citizens had a right to know." Without any mention of the effort to bring freedom, Rather outlined the scheme as one to "get the money from these 'death-to-America' mullahs for the weapons, and then use the money for a secret war they were trying to run in Central America."
The MRC's Brad Wilmouth corrected the closed-captioning against the video of what aired and below are two excerpts from the March 9 CBS special matching the sequence in which they aired:
-- Dan Rather: "Iran-Contra was another case of people wanting to keep secret things that citizens had a right to know."
Ronald Reagan in undated video: "America will never make concessions to terrorists."
Rather: "The question was whether the top echelons of the United States government had sent some of our very best advanced weapons to the mullahs in Iran, the same people in Iran who'd taken our fellow citizens hostage, who were committed to our destruction. Get the money from these 'death-to-America' mullahs for the weapons, and then use the money for a secret war they were trying to run in Central America. That's a story. That's something people deserve to know about."
George H.W. Bush at campaign event: "I am proud to have been Vice President, and now I want to be your President."
Rather: "The then-Vice President had some knowledge of getting some of our most technologically advanced missiles to the Iranians."
Bush, on the CBS Evening News: "I thought I was here to talk about my views on education or on getting this deficit down."
Rather: "It disintegrated into, not a good situation."
Rather, to Bush in the infamous 1988 interview: "You said that if you had known this was an arms-for-hostages swap-"
Bush: "Yes."
Rather: "-that you would have opposed it. You also said that-"
Bush: "Exactly."
Rather: "-that you did not know that you-"
Bush: "May I answer that?"
Rather: "That wasn't a question. It was a statement."
Bush: "Yes, it was a statement, and I'll answer it."
Rather: "Let me ask the question."
Rather, back in the present: "I can be faulted for maybe I pressed too hard. Maybe I didn't press in the right way."
Rather, in the 1988 interview: "Iran was officially a terrorist state. You went around telling-"
Bush: "I've already explained that, Dan. I wanted those hostages, I wanted Mr. Buckley out of there before he was killed."
Rather: "But Mr. Vice President, the question is, but you made us hypocrites in the face of the world!"
Sir Howard Stringer, CEO of Sony Corporation of America, and former Executive Producer of the CBS Evening News, in present day footage: "It was an important issue which Dan Rather pursued characteristically-"
Another Stringer soundbite: "I was news president then. Did I think it was disrespectful? Obviously you don't want to be disrespectful."
Bush, the day after the interview: "I need combat pay for last night, I'll tell you."
Rather, on the CBS Evening News the night after the confrontation: "About last night's interview with George Bush, trying to ask honest questions and trying to be persistent about answers is part of a reporter's job."
Stringer at the time: "The tension between administrations and reporters should be acute. It's in the nature of journalism."
-- With a picture on screen of a sign on a telephone pole which proclaimed, "Up Yours Dan Rather," Rather denigrated charges of bias as he held himself up as a martyr for the truth:
"One way a reporter in this country should be judged is how well he or she stands up to the pressure to intimidate. I remember the first time someone accused me of being an 'N-lover.' [video of Rather in the middle of a crowd of black people and video of civil right protests] There was a lot of that during the '60s when I covered the civil rights movement. Then you move forward from civil rights into the Vietnam War."
Rather, in video from Vietnam: "How can so many die in a war that's supposed to be so small?"
Rather, back in present day: "'We're going to hang a sign around you which calls you some bad name: 'Anti-military, anti-American, anti-war.' Then, when Watergate came into being-"
Rather, old footage with White House in background: "How high up in the White House does it go?"
Rather, picking up rest of remark: "-was the first time I began to hear this word 'liberal' as an epithet thrown my way."
Viewers then saw a montage of video clips and shots of Web sites with text accusing Rather and CBS of being "liberal," including shot of the Media Research Center's logo and an MRCs page on Dan Rather:
Pat Buchanan: "He is the quintessence to millions of Americans of liberal bias on the network news."
Unidentified man's voice: "He's the personification of liberal media bias."
Joseph Scarborough clip #1: "Bias."
Scarborough clip #2: "Bias."
Scarborough clip #3: "-bias and CBS and Dan Rather-"
Rather claimed: "People who have very strong biases of their own, they come at you with a story: 'If you won't report it the way I want it reported, then you're biased.' Now, it is true about me, for better or for worse, if you want to see my neck swell, you just try to tell me where to line up or what to think and mostly what to report."
Rather, from old footage with Lyndon Johnson in the Oval Office: "Some of these dissenters, Mr. President, say that the only way they can get your attention is to do something unlawful."
Rather, in the present: "Pull no punches, play no favorites."
Rather, to Colin Powell: "And to those who said, 'Well, there's no smoking gun,' would you argue with that?"
Colin Powell: "What do you mean by smoking gun? How about lots of smoke?"
Rather, narrating again: "You know, one can have too much zeal. One can have too much passion. And sometimes I have. Too much passion, melded to loving the work, lead to making mistakes."
Rather, on the CBS Evening News in September: "The documents purported to show that George W. Bush received preferential treatment during his years in the Texas Air National Guard. Tonight, after further investigation, we can no longer vouch for their authenticity. CBS News President Andrew Heyward has ordered an independent investigation."
Reporter on sidewalk in front of CBS News: "The panel said today, and I'm quoting, 'There was a myopic zeal to be first on the story.'"
Rather, in the present: "We should have been more rigorous in establishing the validity of the documents."
CBS reporter Wyatt Andrews in a CBS Evening News story: "The panel found no political agenda."
Richard Thornburgh: "We didn't find any actual bias."
Rather, narrating: "First and foremost is that four people lost their jobs over it. And I don't have them, I never have them far from my mind."
Rather on the CBS Evening News: "And I also want to say personally and directly, I'm sorry."
Rather, in the present, wrapped up the segment: "I regret every nanosecond when I let anybody at CBS News down, and even more when I let the audience down. It's painful to me."
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