Dan Rather: CBS 'Airbrushed' Me From History, 'Like Kremlin'
Thursday, 14 Nov 2013 03:30 PM
"They are trying to airbrush me out of their history, like the Kremlin," he told a TV Newser columnist. "I had hoped that whatever animus was there, as time goes by, would fade, and maybe they would change their minds. What's next — I'm airbrushed out of Watergate coverage? Vietnam? Tiananmen Square? 9/11? Where does this lead?
Rather and CBS famously parted ways in 2006 after 44 years, 24 of those with Rather in the anchor's chair, after he aired a segment on "60 Minutes II" alleging that family connections kept then-President George W. Bush from seeing combat in Vietnam.
Rather's report relied on falsified documents supplied by a retired Texas National Guard official who had been a vocal Bush critic. Rather later sued the network for $70 million, accusing its top brass of using the scandal to force him from his position. In 2009, a New York State appeals court tossed the suit.
Huffington Post reports that CBS will air footage that includes Rather — he was a young reporter instrumental in CBS' coverage when Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas in 1963 — but snubbed him by not extending an invitation for Rather to appear in the network special.
The 82-year-old told The Associated Press that he "held off doing anything for anybody else for a while, thinking I may be asked to do something [for CBS]." He instead will offer his insights on rival network NBC.
Rather, long criticized for having a liberal bias that he purportedly weaved into his reporting, is no stranger to controversy. In 1987, he angrily walked off the set just before a remote "Evening News" broadcast from Miami. Rather was upset about a U.S. Open tennis match bleeding into the newscast. And he engaged in a heated exchange with then-Vice President George H.W. Bush over the Iran-Contra affair.
He has also been part of some bizarre encounters, including getting sucker-punched in the stomach during the 1968 Democratic National Convention and being taken on a wild goose chase in 1980 by a Chicago cab driver as Rather screamed out the window for help.
In 1986, Rather got mugged in Manhattan as the attacker repeatedly yelled: "Kenneth, what is the frequency?" The phrase became part of the American vernacular used to describe a confused person. Rock group R.E.M. later released a song titled "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?"
Rather now works with AXS TV, a high-definition cable TV station.
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