tunaplanet 0 #1 September 14, 2004 I found a great website describing Dan Rather's career. You can find everything you wanted to know in regards to his biased career as a news anchor. The site has a lot of nice content. Here is something I pulled from it. Very long but very good. Be Wary of Rich Cabinet Members? On January 27, 1993, the Associated Press reported that nine of President Bill Clinton's cabinet appointees were millionaires. On January 23, 2001, the AP reported that President George W. Bush's nominees were "mostly millionaires." Dan Rather decided to follow the AP's lead in the Bush story, but not with the Clinton story. Rather never mentioned--throughout all eight years--that there were millionaires in Clinton's cabinets: Dan Rather #1: "Financial disclosure reports today show many in the Bush Cabinet and other top posts have two things in common: they're multimillionaires and many hold stock in companies affected by federal action. Some examples: Commerce Secretary Donald Evans, at least $ 5 million in stock options in the oil and gas industry company that he headed; Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, at least $5 million in stock options from his old company, Alcoa; and Secretary of State Colin Powell, at least $ 24 1/2 million in assets." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, January 23, 2001. Dan Rather #2: "The Clinton Cabinet is installed minus an attorney general." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, January 22, 1993. "The Clinton Cabinet is now complete." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, March 11, 1993 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hard and Soft Interviews During and after his interviews with Republican politicians, Rather prides himself on a take-no-prisoners approach but when it comes to Democrats, Rather's skepticism disappears. For an extended version of this argument, see our Arnold Schwarzenegger section. Dan Rather #1: "I strongly believe that in our system no citizen has to face any leader on bended knee. He is not standing before a monarch, or a descendant of the sun god." --Dan Rather in his 1977 book The Camera Never Blinks. "Do powder puff, not probing interviews. Stay away from controversial subjects. Kiss ass, move with the mass, and for heaven and ratings' sake, don't make anybody mad -- certainly not anybody you're covering, and especially not the Mayor, the Governor, the Senator, the Vice President, or the President, or anybody in a position of power. Make nice, not news." --Dan Rather complaining to the Radio and Television News Directors Association, September 1993. Dan Rather #2: "Of all the allegations, accusations, charges made, what do you consider to be the most unfair attack?" --Dan Rather interviewing Hillary Clinton on 60 Minutes II, May 26, 1999. New president Bill Clinton congratulated Dan Rather on his on-air partnership with Connie Chung: "Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you. 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." --Dan Rather at a meeting for CBS affiliates, May 27, 1993. Quoted in Columbia Journalism Review Sept./Oct. 1993. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rather Versus His CBS Colleagues Dan Rather Denies Bias: "Now respectfully, when you start talking about a liberal agenda and all the, quote, 'liberal bias' in the media, I quite frankly, and I say this respectfully but candidly to you, I don't know what you're talking about." --Dan Rather to talk radio host Mike Rosen of KOA Denver, November 28, 1995. "I walk out every day trying to have a big ‘I’ for independence stamped right in the middle of my forehead. I try to play no favorites, pull no punches." --Dan Rather at a TV critics meeting in Los Angeles, July 1992. CBS Colleagues Admit Bias: "I think Dan is transparently liberal. Now he may not like to hear me say that. I always agree with him, too. But I think he should be more careful." --CBS 60 Minutes Commentator Andy Rooney on Larry King Live, July 28, 2002 "Everybody knows that there's a liberal, that there's a heavy liberal persuasion among correspondents." --Walter Cronkite, former CBS anchor, at the annual Radio and Television Correspondents Association dinner, March 21, 1996. "I believe that most of us reporters are liberal...we are inclined to side with the powerless rather than the powerful. If that is what makes us liberals, so be it." --Walter Cronkite in his syndicated column, August 6, 2003. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When Abusing Women is Okay Dan Rather #1: "Well, as you say that, Susan, it raises the potential, the potential for a strategy that says, 'Listen, Anita Hill has raised this. In order to save Clarence Thomas's nomination we're going to have to, in effect, tear her apart.' Is that pretty much the strategy as you see it?" --Dan Rather in a CBS Special Report during the hearings, October 11, 1991. "It is related to what women say, and with justification, about rape charges. If you think you've been raped or you know you have and you come forward with charges, then you suddenly are the person who has to pay the price." --Dan Rather in a CBS Special Report during the hearings, October 11, 1991. Dan Rather #2: Rather was asked about the alleged rape of Juanita Broaddrick by Bill Clinton while he was Arkansas's Attorney General: "[E]ven if it...turns out to be true, it happened a long time ago and...they've gotta be figuring maybe, just maybe the American public has heard all they want to hear about this and are saying, you know, 'Next, let's move on to the next thing.'" --Dan Rather on Imus in the Morning, February 23, 1999. Rather was asked why he didn't air any reports on Juanita Broaddrick's accusation: "I don't remember all the details of Juanita Broaddrick. But I will say that -- and you can castigate me if you like. When the charge has something to do with somebody's private sex life, I would prefer not to run any of it." --Dan Rather on FNC's O'Reilly Factor, May 15, 2001. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Polling's Accuracy Rather has always viewed polls with skepticism; during President Clinton's impeachment, however, he revised his opinion: Dan Rather #1: "Journalists should denounce government by public opinion polls." --Dan Rather in The Humanist, November/December 1990. "Those market researchers...are playing games with you and me and with this entire country." "Their so-called samples of opinion are no more accurate or reliable than my grandmother's big toe was when it came to predicting the weather." --Dan Rather speaking at the forty-eighth annual conference of the Radio-Television News Directors Association, September 29, 1993. "[B]y more than two to one Americans do not consider what Kevorkian did, injecting a terminally ill patient with legal drugs at the patient's request, to be the same as murder. You may want to note that laws are not supposed to be enforced on the basis of public opinion polls." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, November 25, 1998. Dan Rather #2: Rather talks about how the American people in polls are 'sick' of the Clinton scandal: "But then a funny thing happened. We the People began to be heard. Poll results started piling up. Candidates went back to their districts and discovered that not nearly everyone was fixated on the Other Woman. Most folks back home cared mainly about Social Security, schools, the world economy, Medicare and HMOs. Congresspeople, senators and the press were obsessed with the sex-and-lies story, but an awful lot of rank-and-file Americans were flat-out sick of the whole sordid mess." --Dan Rather, in his syndicated column, October 28, 1998. "Several poll questions also indicate the American public wants an end to the investigation of the President's private life, including the Ken Starr investigation of the Monica Lewinsky case. But as CBS's chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer reports, Kenneth Starr made it clear today by word and deed that he couldn't disagree more." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, April 2, 1998. "In a CBS News poll out tonight just 29 percent believe Starr is conducting an impartial investigation of President Clinton. And 57 percent want Starr to drop his investigation of the President's personal life." --Dan Rather CBS Evening News, May 8, 1998. "On the Republican agenda for welfare reform, a balanced budget and school prayer, our poll found no public consensus on making these changes. But that isn't stopping anyone in Washington from piping up with proposals to cut government programs and reduce taxes." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, December 14, 1994. See also polls -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When to Worry About Missile Secrets Dan Rather #1: Chris Mathews asked Rather why he was so confrontational with then-vice president George Bush during the 1988 presidential campaign: "[Bush] was at the very least skirting the truth about his involvement in sending some of America's best technology to the Ayatollah Khomeini." --Dan Rather on CNBC's Hardball, June 28, 1999. Dan Rather #2: "[Y]ou know we talk about the Chinese stealing these nuclear secrets and it is, I still think it's still...an extremely important story even if the findings of this most recent committee paper maybe are overstated." --Dan Rather on Imus in the Morning, June 7, 1999. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When Lying's Okay Dan Rather #1: Rather spoke of a new book about Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War: "[O]ne of the things we can learn is how often, how effectively, we the people were lied to about the war and about what the president was and was not doing, as compared to the documented facts." --Dan Rather in Rather Reporting, September 5, 2001. "The man [Oliver North] Presidents Reagan and Bush branded an American hero was portrayed in court today as a liar and a thief." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, April 14, 1989. "Despite these statements [by Nancy Reagan and Al Gore] that North is a documented liar, North, according to the polls, has a strong chance of defeating incumbent Democrat and former Marine in Vietnam, Charles Robb....What's going on here?" --Dan Rather reporting on Oliver North's run for the Senate on the CBS Evening News, October 28, 1994. Dan Rather #2: BILL O'REILLY: And I want to ask you flat out. Do you think President Clinton's an honest man? RATHER: Yes, I think he's an honest man. O'REILLY: Do you really? RATHER: I think -- I do. I think he's an honest man. O'REILLY: Even when he lied to Jim Lehrer's face about the (unintelligible)? RATHER: Listen, who among us have not lied about something? O'REILLY: Well, I didn't lie to anybody's face on national television. I don't think you have. Have you? RATHER: I don't think I ever have. I hope I never have. But look, it's one thing-- O'REILLY: How can you say he's an honest guy, then? RATHER: Well, because I think he is. I think at core, he's an honest person. I know that you have a different view. I know that you consider it sort of astonishing anybody would say so. But I think you can be an honest person and lie about any number of things. --Dan Rather on FNC's O'Reilly Factor May 15, 2001. "[W]hen you boil it down, there obviously was some lying by someone. There obviously was some lying by the President. It was all part of a cover story at base to cover up a sexual relation." --Dan Rather during CBS live coverage of the Senate trial to remove the President, February 6, 1999. "What a comeback for President Clinton! Right after the Monica Lewinsky story broke there was widespread talk of possible resignation or impeachment, but look at this: A CBS News poll out tonight indicates the President with his highest job approval rate ever, 73 percent, that's up 16 points since the State of the Union address." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, January 29, 1998. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shame on the Rich (Some of Them) During the late eighties and late nineties, the economy did well and many new millionaires and billionaires were created. The liberal Economic Policy Institute reported that there was a large gap between the rich and the poor in the eighties and that in the nineties the gap got even larger. During the eighties, Rather blamed the alleged disparity on the Republican president (Reagan) but did not mention it during the Clinton years. Dan Rather #1: "With the economy humming, CBS's White House correspondent Scott Pelley reports, President Clinton was singing his own praises, this time with the facts and figures to back him up." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, March 6, 1998. "[I]t is not partisan to say that during the Clinton years the economy has been outstandingly good. That's a fact." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, May 12, 1999. Dan Rather #2: "In America in the 1980s, what former President Reagan and those who support him call the Reagan Revolution put more money in the pockets of the rich. We already knew that. But a new study indicates that those who did best of all by far were the very richest of the rich." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, March 5, 1992. "Everyone knows the rich got richer in the 1980s. Now a new study shows how dramatic the change was. According to the Economic Policy Institute, more than half of America's new wealth went to the richest one-half of one percent of families. The bottom 60 percent of families in income saw no gain or got poorer." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, October 29, 1992. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Controversial Figures Dan Rather #1: "You know, I don't have any use for you, Rather," --Pat Buchanan to Dan Rather. Dan Rather #2: "I respect you, Dan..." --Hillary Clinton to Dan Rather. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Should We Worry about the People's Business? Dan Rather #1: "Questions such as what to do about Social Security, improving the nation's schools, and the drug menace among America's youth basically are on hold. So is what to do about threats to health of the U.S. economy by what is happening in Asia and Brazil; the threats to U.S. security posed by Iraq, Iran, and North Korea; and the peril represented by a collapsing Russia and an emerging China -- all important parts of the people's business -- all remain pretty much on hold, while the trial drags on." --Dan Rather in Rather's Notebook at the CBS Web site, January 25, 1999. "For his part, what President Clinton did today included trying to re-focus public attention on the economy, on America's own social problems and on a very important international problem. Not on his problems." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, September 24, 1998. Dan Rather #2: In 1988, Dan Rather attacked Vice President George Bush in an interview and dwelt exclusively on one subject, Iran-contra. Despite Bush's repeatedly expressed desire to talk about issues and policy, Rather adamantly refused. GEORGE BUSH: "I thought I was here to talk about my views on education, or on getting this deficit down..." DAN RATHER: "I don't want to be argumentative, Mr. Vice President." BUSH: "You do, Dan." RATHER: "No -- no, sir, I don't." BUSH: "This is not a great night, because I want to talk about why I want to be president, why those 41 percent of the people are supporting me. And I don't think it's fair to judge my whole career by a rehash of Iran. How would you like it if I judged your career by those seven minutes when you walked off the set in New York [sic]?" RATHER: "Mr. Vice President, the question is -- but you made us hypocrites in the face of the world. How could you sign on to such a policy? And the question is what does that tell us about your record?" BUSH: "When a CIA agent is being tortured to death, maybe you err on the side of a human life. But everybody's admitted mistakes. I've admitted mistakes. And you want to dwell on them, and I want to talk about the values we believe in and experience and the integrity that goes with all of this, and what's -- I'm going to do about education, and you're--there's nothing new here. I thought this was a news program. What is new?" RATHER: "Mr. Vice President, I appreciate you joining us tonight. I appreciate this straightforward way in which you engaged in this exchange. Clearly, some unanswered questions remain." See Attack on Bush. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When Leaks are Okay All reporters love leaks from knowledgeable sources. Dan Rather is no exception--but only as long as they don't harm Democrats. Dan Rather #1: The day before Al Gore's speech to the 2000 Democratic National Convention, the Associated Press printed an anonymously sourced story which shifted media attention from Gore back to one of the Clinton scandals. Dan Rather immediately blamed the "Republican-backed" and suggested the whole affair was a Republican plot to sabotage Gore's big day. As it turned out, the leak's source was a Carter-appointed judge who had inadvertently revealed the information. Rather never apologized or issued a correction. "Timing is everything. Al Gore must stand and deliver here tonight as the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. And now Gore must do so against the backdrop of a potentially damaging, carefully orchestrated story leak about President Clinton. The story is that Republican-backed special prosecutor Robert Ray, Ken Starr's successor, has a new grand jury looking into possible criminal charges against the president growing out of Mr. Clinton's sex life." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, August 17, 2000. "You don't have to be a cynic to note that this has all the earmarks of a carefully orchestrated, politically motivated leak. [...] Any reporter who's spent time on the police beat learns to look for motive. So you ask yourself -- what group has the motive to see that such a leak would occur at such a time, hours before Gore is set to accept his party's nomination in the most important speech of his political life?" --Dan Rather in a "Rather's Notebook" column posted on CBS News's Web site but since removed. "The Clintons have accused Starr of illegal, false and self-serving leaks of grand jury testimony in a campaign to get the Clintons at all costs, as they see it." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, February 24, 1998. "First Lady Hillary Clinton targeted by leaks in the Republican Whitewater offensive..." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, June 17, 1996. Dan Rather #2: Someone on the Senate Judiciary Committee had leaked information damaging to Clarence Thomas: "Would you agree, or would you not agree, that one person's leak is another person's public service?" --Dan Rather to Bruce Fein during the Clarence Thomas hearings, October 12, 1991. President Bush denounced the leak and the Senate decided to investigate the leak to see who was responsible. Rather speaks of the Senate's decision: "A process has been set in motion that leads from one first amendment violation to another, like falling dominos." --Dan Rather speaking at the National Press Club, March 16, 1992. Four days before the 1992 elections, Iran-contra prosecutor Lawrence Walsh leaked some information damaging to George Bush's reelection bid, but instead of denouncing the (illegal) leak, Rather merely relayed it: "There is new written evidence tonight concerning what President Bush knew -- and when he knew -- about the secret deal that sent some of America's best missiles to Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini. The grand jury evidence raises new questions about whether Mr. Bush is telling the truth." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, October 30, 1992. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prosecutor or Persecutor? Dan Rather #1: "Today marks the end of four years of the Ken Starr investigation, and still counting. Cost to taxpayers so far: 40 million dollars, and counting." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News August 5, 1998. "Ken Starr relentlessly pursues Bill Clinton and his presidency," --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, August 19, 1998. "So he slogs on." --Dan Rather, speaking of Kenneth Starr, Rather Reporting, April 22, 1998. Dan Rather #2: The Lawrence Walsh investigation into Iran-contra lasted seven years: "And the special prosecutor, Lawrence Walsh, kept digging tirelessly, seeking convictions and, when convictions weren't to be had, seeking justice.... If crimes are committed in the government, then someone ought to be held accountable--that's the American way. So Walsh kept pressing." --Dan Rather in The Camera Never Blinks Twice, 1994. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I Don't Do Editorials" Dan Rather #1: "I don't do editorials. And about that perhaps you and I will just -- I hope in good humor -- agree to disagree that we don't do editorializing. And I'm either famous or infamous, depending on your point of view, saying we don't editorialize; we don't want to editorialize, in no way, shape, or form..." --Dan Rather on Larry King Live, March 11, 1996. "I do believe in what's become an archaic word for journalists, objectivity. You know my job is to be accurate, be fair, and in so far as it's humanly possible, to keep my feelings out of every story." --Dan Rather to Tim Russert on CNBC, September 20, 1997. "[I]t's not my job to agree or disagree, outrage or otherwise." --Dan Rather to George W. Bush on CBS News, 1992, quoted in Bush's 1999 book, A Promise to Keep. Dan Rather #2: President Reagan submitted his budget plan: "It contains more for guns, less for butter, and it is out of balance and will add to the deficit." -Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, Jan 9, 1989. "President Bush said last night our first obligation is to the most vulnerable: infants, poor mothers, children living in poverty. Those sentiments clash with the reality of a decade which has found the federal government offering school children less food for thought." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, February 1989. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adopting the Lexicon Rather unqualifiedly adopts the word usage of groups and people favoring additional campaign finance laws but always qualifies his usage of the term "partial birth abortion." Rather's treatment of dilation and extraction abortions is value-neutral and journalistically correct; his treatment of campaign finance is not. Dan Rather #1: "For the third time in four years, the U.S. Senate is voting tonight on a measure to ban a type of late-term abortions. President Clinton says he will veto it just like the others. Supporters of the ban refer to these abortions as, quote, 'partial births.'" --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, October 21, 1999. "Medicine, morality and politics also figure prominently in the latest fight in Congress over abortion law. Big political trouble is building here. At issue again, mid- and and late-term abortions that anti-abortion groups call, quote, "partial-birth abortions."" --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, March 12, 1997. "In Washington, the stage is set now for President Clinton's latest veto showdown with Congress over abortion policy. The flashpoint again: A U.S. Senate vote today to ban one type of later-term abortions, what anti-abortion groups call, quote, "partial-birth abortions." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, May 20, 1997. Dan Rather #2: "In the U.S. Senate, a big shot in the arm tonight for the McCain-Feingold campaign funding reform bill, which is designed to put serious limits on special-interest money." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News March 28, 2001. "The U.S. Supreme Court today agreed to decide a case involving money and politics. At issue: the constitutionality of some federal limits on money spent by political parties to help candidates. This comes at a time when the unlimited shoveling of cash into political parties by special interests is a growing concern, and as CBS's Anthony Mason reports, even some corporate givers are saying enough's enough." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, October 10, 2000. "Much of what the conventions today are about is money, big special interest money, money that buys influence, buys financing in conventions and campaigns. Ed Bradley's going to report on the big-money core of this convention in a moment, so stay with us." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, August 2, 2000. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Political Labeling is Bad (Sometimes) Dan Rather #1: I hate "to be tagged by someone else's [political] label. I try really hard not to do that with other people, particularly people who are in public service and politics." --Dan Rather to Denver-based radio talk show host Mike Rosen on November 1995. Dan Rather #2: President Bush's selection for Chief-of-Staff is a "champion of the hard-Right." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, December 1988. "Long-time Republican activist Ken Starr..." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, January 22, 1998. "The Bush forces went into federal court trying to stop the hand count. And at the same time, the Republican secretary of state, working under the Governor George Bush's brother, Jeb Bush, the governor of Florida, Republican secretary of state, trying to say anything past 5:00 tomorrow is illegal. That's her judgment." --Dan Rather during a CBS News Special Report, November 13, 2000. See also Florida Controversy. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When to Identify a Judge's Appointer Two federal courts issued rulings. One ruling was favorable to Oliver North and the other favorable to Bill Clinton. The judges who ruled favorably for Oliver North were quickly identified by Rather as Reagan appointees. Not so in the other case, where the judge was a Clinton appointee. Dan Rather #1: "Believed to be the lead, or guiding judge in this particular case [Oliver North appeal]: Lawrence Silberman, named to the court by Ronald Reagan. Siding with Silberman for North, David Sentelle. Sentelle also named to the appeals court by Ronald Reagan. Sentelle is a long-time supporter of Jesse Helms, and it reportedly was Helms who got Reagan to appoint Sentelle to the appeals court." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, July 20, 1990. Dan Rather #2: "In Washington a federal judge today bluntly described special prosecutor Ken Starr's tactics as, and I quote, 'really scary.'" --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, June 26, 1999. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Political Groups Dan Rather #1: "I've always tried to be fair, even-handed, not an advocate for any group." --Dan Rather, June 1992. Dan Rather #2: The NAACP filed a lawsuit against the gun industry: "It was launched by one of the nation's most respected and largest civil rights organizations." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, July 12, 1999. "There was another ruling with possible far-reaching impact, this one issued by the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS notified the powerful lobbying group calling itself the Christian Coalition that it is not entitled to the tax exempt status of a religious group. The reason given: Too much partisan political activity." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, June 10, 1999. See also Interest Groups. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Who's Legitimate? Many political groups have all-inclusive names. Two such are the Christian Coalition and the National Organization for Women. The CC's name sounds as if it is to represent all Christians, NOW's sounds as if it is to represent all women. Dan Rather calls the CC the, "quote, 'Christian Coalition'" because he does not think they speak for all Christians, but never says the, "quote, National Organization for Women." Dan Rather #1: "The head of the Republican political lobbying group that calls itself, quote, 'the Christian Coalition' said today he's leaving to start a political consulting business." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, April 23, 1997. See also Religious Right. Dan Rather #2: "Paula Jones's lawsuit was rejected by a federal court judge. And today the National Organization for Women said it will not support Jones's appeal. The organization says it's not a good test case and its members don't want to work with quote, 'disreputable right-wing organizations and individuals,' unquote." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, April 22, 1998 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rather-approved Farm Help Both President Clinton and the Republicans in Congress attempted to help farmers by subsidizing the prices of their goods. Dan Rather #1: "President Clinton is giving some election year help to America's ranchers and farmers. The President took action today to try to boost cattle prices, which have fallen to their lowest level in ten years." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, April 30, 1996. Dan Rather #2: "The hush-hush plan afoot in Congress [by Republicans] that could make your milk prices soar. CBS News has been told that a secret deal is making its way through Congress that would increase the additives in your milk and increase the retail price of milk about 40 cents a gallon." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, February 2, 1996. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Who's the Good Prosecutor? It Depends... Dan Rather #1: "New disclosures are fueling questions about whether or not Starr is an ambitious Republican partisan backed by ideologically motivated, anti-Clinton activists and judges from the Reagan, Bush, and Nixon years. Correspondent Eric Engberg has tonight's CBS Evening News reality check." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, August 12, 1994. "In Washington there are new indications tonight at just how wide, deep, and aggressively special prosecutor Ken Starr is pushing to make the Secret Service tell what it knows about the President's personal life." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, July 13, 1998. "...Starr, (who despises Clinton)..." --Dan Rather in his syndicated column, August 12, 1998. (See many more like these in our section on Starr.) Dan Rather #2: "The record shows that whatever his political label, his integrity is oak-solid." --Dan Rather during a 1973 radio interview, speaking of Watergate prosecutor Leon Jaworski. "[Elliot Richardson] had the example of Archibald Cox...to remind him that there was an alternative to compromising one's conscience." --Dan Rather in Palace Guard, 1974. "And the special prosecutor, Lawrence Walsh, kept digging tirelessly, seeking convictions and, when convictions weren't to be had, seeking justice. He had the proof that wrongs had been committed--but by the time the trials began, the whole country had heard some of the confessions of the guilty parties, which helped to tangle up the judicial process. If crimes are committed in the government, then someone ought to be held accountable--that's the American way. So Walsh kept pressing." --Dan Rather in The Camera Never Blinks Twice, 1994. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When Taped Phone Calls are Legitimate Dan Rather #1: "In Maryland a county judge ruled today that Linda Tripp did not have federal immunity protection when she turned over the tapes she secretly made of Monica Lewinsky to special prosecutor Ken Starr. Today's ruling is a victory for Maryland prosecutors who want Tripp to stand trial for illegally wiretapping Lewinsky. --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, December 14, 1999. Dan Rather #2: "There's an added ethics allegation [today] based on what Gingrich said, in what he thought was a secret telephone call, which Democrats say is proof that Gingrich violated a promise to the House ethics committee not to mount a political damage control effort. But Republicans tried to shift the focus today away from what Gingrich actually said." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, January 13, 1997. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nobody's Lapdog Dan Rather #1: "I'm proud to say I've never been anybody's lapdog..." --Dan Rather in The Camera Never Blinks Twice, 1994. Dan Rather #2: "If we could be one-hundredth as great as you and Hillary Rodham Clinton have been in the White House, we'd take it right now and walk away winners..." --Dan Rather to President Bill Clinton via satellite during CBS's annual affiliate meeting, May 27, 1993. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How to Treat Presidential Scandals Dan Rather #1: "Good evening. Congress had its say today about President Reagan's secret sale of US arms to Iran and who got the money. A year after Mr. Reagan's weapons to Iran debacle exploded the House and Senate select committees put out their assessment of what went wrong and who was responsible. For President Reagan the words sting. The 700 page report is filled with words such as deception, dishonesty, and cover-up." --Dan Rather in a CBS Special Report, November 18, 1987. "Special Prosecutor Lawrence Walsh said today that his investigation of the Iran-Contra criminal case is over." "Still unanswered, questions about the role of then-Vice President Bush." --Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, September 17, 1992. Dan Rather #2: "Senator, when you talk to other Senators, particularly older Senators -- those who've been around for a bit -- is or is there not some concern of the public, concern in some quarters, not all of them Democratic, that this is in fact a kind of effort at a quote 'coup,' that is you have a twice-elected, popularly elected President of the United States and so those that you mentioned in the Republican Party who dislike him and what he stands for, having been unable to beat him at the polls, have found another way to get him out of office?" --Dan Rather to former Senator Warren Rudman during CBS coverage of the impeachment trial swearing in, January 7, 1999. "As this is written, President Clinton is facing yet another year of intensive scrutiny of his conduct in and out of office. A battery of special prosecutors (along with some private attorneys and much of the press) has pried into his business dealings, and his administration of government, even his private life. Some of the charges leveled against Bill Clinton have appeared legitimate, serious enough to drive him from office, then diminished on closer inspection. Others have appeared frivolous, prurient, tawdry - yet they don't go away." --Dan Rather in Rolling Stone: The Seventies, 1998. Forty-two Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sinkster 0 #2 September 14, 2004 if this was fark.com this article would get the /obvious tag. :) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jimbo 0 #3 September 15, 2004 Does the name Bernie Goldberg ring a bell? - Jim"Like" - The modern day comma Good bye, my friends. You are missed. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
peacefuljeffrey 0 #4 September 15, 2004 "But I think you can be an honest person and lie about any number of things. --Dan Rather on FNC's O'Reilly Factor May 15, 2001. " I love it. If I didn't love Jonathan Livingston Seagull more, I'd make this my new sig line. Blue skies, -Jeffrey --Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!" Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
