Post by Skaggs on Jun 17, 2006 9:08:29 GMT -5
From: NYTIMES.com
June 17, 2006
Moving Ahead, Rather Throws Sad Look Back
By JACQUES STEINBERG
The 74-year-old man with the Mets cap pulled far down on his forehead slid into a booth at a diner on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and ordered a glass of milk without so much as turning a head — so quietly, in fact, that it was hard to believe it was Dan Rather.
In place of the swagger that had served him so well throughout his 44-year career at CBS News was an obvious sadness that his tenure at the network was ticking down to an inglorious end. Mr. Rather complained that since stepping down as anchor of the " CBS Evening News" last year, in the aftermath of a reporting scandal, he had been ill used as a correspondent on "60 Minutes" and had been given virtually nothing at all to do for the previous six weeks.
Among the places he had sought solace, he said on a recent afternoon, was in "Good Night, and Good Luck," George Clooney's homage to Edward R. Murrow and the CBS News of old, a film that Mr. Rather said he had seen five times in theaters, most recently alone.
Mr. Rather's contract with CBS, and "60 Minutes," is not scheduled to expire until late November. But he said yesterday that he and the network were close to an agreement that would end his tenure early, and that he was seriously mulling a new venture that, at least initially, relatively few viewers would be able to see: he would develop and be the host of a weekly interview program on a high-definition television channel known as HDNet.
The offer, he said, had come directly from Mark Cuban, the unbridled owner of the National Basketball Association's Dallas Mavericks, who was a co-founder of HDNet in 2001.
Mr. Rather said he had been weighing several other offers for work, including two from what he described as major broadcast or cable networks. But as of yesterday, Mr. Rather said, "what I expect to do, what I hope to do, is bring this HDNet thing to fruition."
Mr. Rather, who was anchor of the "CBS Evening News" for nearly a quarter-century and who, at one point also served as a correspondent on the news magazines "60 Minutes II" and "48 Hours," acknowledged that it would "take some adjustment" for him to get used to being seen by perhaps tens of thousands of viewers in a week, as opposed to millions.
But he added that "the opportunity to build something from the ground up, I think, will have its own satisfactions."
Mr. Rather also said that in April, in anticipation of what seemed to be his imminent departure from CBS, he had formed a company — he named it News and Guts, in a nod to what he considers the pillars of his professional life — through which he plans to create several other journalism ventures, including, perhaps, a blog. (Though he has not yet settled on a title, he says he has ruled out one: "I'd Rather Say This.")
Mr. Rather said he first met earlier this year with Mr. Cuban, who made hundreds of millions of dollars in the high-tech boom of the 1990's. Mr. Cuban's team is now tied, two games to two, with the Miami Heat in the National Basketball Association finals.
When a reporter joked about whether Mr. Rather would also weigh in on the management of the Mavericks, Mr. Rather responded, seriously, that he had already provided Mr. Cuban some unsolicited advice during the team's recent playoff run, suggesting that one particular player be given more minutes on the court. "I'm not going to tell you who he is," Mr. Rather said. "But they're using him more."
Mr. Rather also recounted that Mr. Cuban, a producer of "Good Night, and Good Luck," had told him that as part of the deal he expected to ask Mr. Rather for informal advice on future film projects. There, too, Mr. Rather said he was game.
In addition to the one-hour interview program, which could eventually include "60 Minutes"-style investigative reports that he would prepare, Mr. Rather said he had been asked to commit to deliver at least two documentaries a year to HDNet. The channel is available to subscribers with high-definition access — it was available in about three million homes last year, according to Kagan Research, an independent firm — either on a handful of cable systems, including Time Warner, or through satellite operators, including DirecTV and Dish. The channel currently carries both original news and music programming, as well as reruns of series like "Hogan's Heroes" and "Charlie's Angels."
Asked in an e-mail message yesterday to confirm Mr. Rather's description of the offer, Mr. Cuban sent back the following response last night: "All I can tell you is that we have had some conversations to do some very exciting things. Unshackled from the talking head world where earnings per share mean more than finding the truth, the opportunities for HDNet and Dan are unlimited."
Mr. Rather said he had been given assurances by Mr. Cuban, should he accept the offer, that he would have complete, unfettered control of his program. "It's a situation," he said, "where there are not very large — let me put it this way — corporate and political complexities."
In those comments, and others, Mr. Rather was referring, however obliquely, to his displeasure with the leadership of CBS. He appeared, for example, to fault the network for eventually withdrawing its support for the "60 Minutes II" report that would, in turn, unravel his career. In the segment, he had sought to raise new questions about President Bush's Vietnam-era National Guard service, using memorandums that the network, and later a panel of outside investigators, said they could not authenticate.
Asked yesterday about Mr. Rather and his status at the network, a CBS News spokeswoman, Sandra Genelius, said she had no comment.
Mr. Rather expressed some disappointment with Leslie Moonves, the president and chief executive of CBS. In late 2004, Mr. Rather announced he would step down as anchor in March 2005. In the interim, Mr. Moonves told a gathering of television critics in California that he hoped to blow up the program's "voice of God, single anchor" format. (After exploring the notion of an ensemble, CBS announced this spring that it was hiring Katie Couric as the program's sole anchor.)
Asked in the interview about Mr. Moonves's remarks, Mr. Rather said, "My problem with the 'voice of God' thing was that it was meant disrespectfully."
"They talk about wanting a break with the past," he added. "Look at the Murrow film. I don't want to break with that past."
Mr. Rather said that the 15 months since he had left the evening news, and joined "60 Minutes," had been among the most frustrating periods of his career. To an outsider, the eight segments he had had broadcast on the program since November — including reports that had taken him to North Korea, China and Beirut — would appear to represent a good year's work.But Mr. Rather said that other correspondents had more than twice as many reports appear on the program, and that two reports he had been particularly proud of (those originating in Beirut and China) had been effectively buried, on the program's Christmas and New Year's Day telecasts.Of being kept idle these last two months, Mr. Rather said, "Anybody who knows me knows that's not the way I like to work."
Asked if the network had sought to marginalize him over his role in the disputed Guard report — including his spirited defense of the segment, for more than a week after it was broadcast — Mr. Rather said, "There's a lot I have yet to figure out."
Mr. Rather, who has been employed by CBS since he was 30, said that his first choice would have been to remain a correspondent on "60 Minutes." But the network, he said, was uninterested, offering him only a contract that would have entitled him to an office and assistant, but no affiliation with any CBS program.
"I am as hungry for important stories as I've ever been," he said. "In fact, I think my hunger might be, if anything, greater. I guess I'd like to think that's saying something."
Once it was made clear to him that there was no longer a role for him, he said, he began to warm to the idea of working for someone seeking to explore television's next frontier, in much the way William S. Paley had blazed the trail of the modern CBS, and as Ted Turner had done for CNN.
"I may not have found them," Mr. Rather said of Mr. Cuban and a partner, Todd Wagner. "But I found as close as I think anyone is likely to find. And I like the chances."
It was not possible yesterday to determine which other outlets may have had conversations with Mr. Rather about future work. Representatives from Fox News, CNN and NBC said their organizations had made no offers to him, and an ABC executive said he knew of no discussions with Mr. Rather.
When asked if there was any advice he would give to Katie Couric — who, in September, succeeds Bob Schieffer, the interim anchor of the "Evening News" since Mr. Rather stepped down — Mr. Rather said: "If she comes to CBS and demonstrates that she loves the news, and demonstrates leadership skills — and I do think both those things are true — then I think she will do well."
Asked if he might be tempted to change the channel and root for one of Ms. Couric's chief competitors, Charles Gibson on ABC and Brian Williams on NBC, Mr. Rather was unequivocal in his response.
"I'm always pulling for CBS News," he said.
June 17, 2006
Moving Ahead, Rather Throws Sad Look Back
By JACQUES STEINBERG
The 74-year-old man with the Mets cap pulled far down on his forehead slid into a booth at a diner on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and ordered a glass of milk without so much as turning a head — so quietly, in fact, that it was hard to believe it was Dan Rather.
In place of the swagger that had served him so well throughout his 44-year career at CBS News was an obvious sadness that his tenure at the network was ticking down to an inglorious end. Mr. Rather complained that since stepping down as anchor of the " CBS Evening News" last year, in the aftermath of a reporting scandal, he had been ill used as a correspondent on "60 Minutes" and had been given virtually nothing at all to do for the previous six weeks.
Among the places he had sought solace, he said on a recent afternoon, was in "Good Night, and Good Luck," George Clooney's homage to Edward R. Murrow and the CBS News of old, a film that Mr. Rather said he had seen five times in theaters, most recently alone.
Mr. Rather's contract with CBS, and "60 Minutes," is not scheduled to expire until late November. But he said yesterday that he and the network were close to an agreement that would end his tenure early, and that he was seriously mulling a new venture that, at least initially, relatively few viewers would be able to see: he would develop and be the host of a weekly interview program on a high-definition television channel known as HDNet.
The offer, he said, had come directly from Mark Cuban, the unbridled owner of the National Basketball Association's Dallas Mavericks, who was a co-founder of HDNet in 2001.
Mr. Rather said he had been weighing several other offers for work, including two from what he described as major broadcast or cable networks. But as of yesterday, Mr. Rather said, "what I expect to do, what I hope to do, is bring this HDNet thing to fruition."
Mr. Rather, who was anchor of the "CBS Evening News" for nearly a quarter-century and who, at one point also served as a correspondent on the news magazines "60 Minutes II" and "48 Hours," acknowledged that it would "take some adjustment" for him to get used to being seen by perhaps tens of thousands of viewers in a week, as opposed to millions.
But he added that "the opportunity to build something from the ground up, I think, will have its own satisfactions."
Mr. Rather also said that in April, in anticipation of what seemed to be his imminent departure from CBS, he had formed a company — he named it News and Guts, in a nod to what he considers the pillars of his professional life — through which he plans to create several other journalism ventures, including, perhaps, a blog. (Though he has not yet settled on a title, he says he has ruled out one: "I'd Rather Say This.")
Mr. Rather said he first met earlier this year with Mr. Cuban, who made hundreds of millions of dollars in the high-tech boom of the 1990's. Mr. Cuban's team is now tied, two games to two, with the Miami Heat in the National Basketball Association finals.
When a reporter joked about whether Mr. Rather would also weigh in on the management of the Mavericks, Mr. Rather responded, seriously, that he had already provided Mr. Cuban some unsolicited advice during the team's recent playoff run, suggesting that one particular player be given more minutes on the court. "I'm not going to tell you who he is," Mr. Rather said. "But they're using him more."
Mr. Rather also recounted that Mr. Cuban, a producer of "Good Night, and Good Luck," had told him that as part of the deal he expected to ask Mr. Rather for informal advice on future film projects. There, too, Mr. Rather said he was game.
In addition to the one-hour interview program, which could eventually include "60 Minutes"-style investigative reports that he would prepare, Mr. Rather said he had been asked to commit to deliver at least two documentaries a year to HDNet. The channel is available to subscribers with high-definition access — it was available in about three million homes last year, according to Kagan Research, an independent firm — either on a handful of cable systems, including Time Warner, or through satellite operators, including DirecTV and Dish. The channel currently carries both original news and music programming, as well as reruns of series like "Hogan's Heroes" and "Charlie's Angels."
Asked in an e-mail message yesterday to confirm Mr. Rather's description of the offer, Mr. Cuban sent back the following response last night: "All I can tell you is that we have had some conversations to do some very exciting things. Unshackled from the talking head world where earnings per share mean more than finding the truth, the opportunities for HDNet and Dan are unlimited."
Mr. Rather said he had been given assurances by Mr. Cuban, should he accept the offer, that he would have complete, unfettered control of his program. "It's a situation," he said, "where there are not very large — let me put it this way — corporate and political complexities."
In those comments, and others, Mr. Rather was referring, however obliquely, to his displeasure with the leadership of CBS. He appeared, for example, to fault the network for eventually withdrawing its support for the "60 Minutes II" report that would, in turn, unravel his career. In the segment, he had sought to raise new questions about President Bush's Vietnam-era National Guard service, using memorandums that the network, and later a panel of outside investigators, said they could not authenticate.
Asked yesterday about Mr. Rather and his status at the network, a CBS News spokeswoman, Sandra Genelius, said she had no comment.
Mr. Rather expressed some disappointment with Leslie Moonves, the president and chief executive of CBS. In late 2004, Mr. Rather announced he would step down as anchor in March 2005. In the interim, Mr. Moonves told a gathering of television critics in California that he hoped to blow up the program's "voice of God, single anchor" format. (After exploring the notion of an ensemble, CBS announced this spring that it was hiring Katie Couric as the program's sole anchor.)
Asked in the interview about Mr. Moonves's remarks, Mr. Rather said, "My problem with the 'voice of God' thing was that it was meant disrespectfully."
"They talk about wanting a break with the past," he added. "Look at the Murrow film. I don't want to break with that past."
Mr. Rather said that the 15 months since he had left the evening news, and joined "60 Minutes," had been among the most frustrating periods of his career. To an outsider, the eight segments he had had broadcast on the program since November — including reports that had taken him to North Korea, China and Beirut — would appear to represent a good year's work.But Mr. Rather said that other correspondents had more than twice as many reports appear on the program, and that two reports he had been particularly proud of (those originating in Beirut and China) had been effectively buried, on the program's Christmas and New Year's Day telecasts.Of being kept idle these last two months, Mr. Rather said, "Anybody who knows me knows that's not the way I like to work."
Asked if the network had sought to marginalize him over his role in the disputed Guard report — including his spirited defense of the segment, for more than a week after it was broadcast — Mr. Rather said, "There's a lot I have yet to figure out."
Mr. Rather, who has been employed by CBS since he was 30, said that his first choice would have been to remain a correspondent on "60 Minutes." But the network, he said, was uninterested, offering him only a contract that would have entitled him to an office and assistant, but no affiliation with any CBS program.
"I am as hungry for important stories as I've ever been," he said. "In fact, I think my hunger might be, if anything, greater. I guess I'd like to think that's saying something."
Once it was made clear to him that there was no longer a role for him, he said, he began to warm to the idea of working for someone seeking to explore television's next frontier, in much the way William S. Paley had blazed the trail of the modern CBS, and as Ted Turner had done for CNN.
"I may not have found them," Mr. Rather said of Mr. Cuban and a partner, Todd Wagner. "But I found as close as I think anyone is likely to find. And I like the chances."
It was not possible yesterday to determine which other outlets may have had conversations with Mr. Rather about future work. Representatives from Fox News, CNN and NBC said their organizations had made no offers to him, and an ABC executive said he knew of no discussions with Mr. Rather.
When asked if there was any advice he would give to Katie Couric — who, in September, succeeds Bob Schieffer, the interim anchor of the "Evening News" since Mr. Rather stepped down — Mr. Rather said: "If she comes to CBS and demonstrates that she loves the news, and demonstrates leadership skills — and I do think both those things are true — then I think she will do well."
Asked if he might be tempted to change the channel and root for one of Ms. Couric's chief competitors, Charles Gibson on ABC and Brian Williams on NBC, Mr. Rather was unequivocal in his response.
"I'm always pulling for CBS News," he said.
