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"CBS Reports" Harvest of Shame (1960)

1 article from 2005

3 June 2005 | Studio Briefing - Film News | See recent Studio Briefing - Film News news »

With some reports noting that Dan Rather had been put out to pasture following his retirement as anchor of the CBS Evening News and the cancellation of 60 Minutes Wednesday, Rather himself augmented the metaphor Thursday by remarking that he felt recently that "I was rode hard and put to bed wet." Rather's comments came during an interview with CNN's Larry King and they appeared to underline the opinion of an investigative panel that observed that Rather's suspect 60 Minutes report questioning President Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War had culminated in a whirlwind (literally) of activity by the 73-year-old newsman who had just covered the Florida hurricanes and the Republican National Convention and had barely vetted the report. Nevertheless, he stated, "I'm not a victim of anything except my own shortcomings. It didn't feel terrific." Rather still refused to disavow the report, however, saying, "The last line of this hasn't been written." He acknowledged that while the authenticity of the documents used in the report has yet to be established, "the facts were supported by all kinds of things other than the documents." Asked by King how he developed the image of a left-leaning anchor, Rather replied that part of the answer is the reputation that CBS News developed from the time of Edward R. Murrow's report on Senator Joseph McCarthy to its Harvest of Shame report on migrant workers to Walter Cronkite's opposition to the Vietnam War. "Part of it is CBS. Part of it is myself [for believing] that news is what somebody, somewhere, doesn't want you to know and that the public needs to know. All the rest is just advertising." »

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1 article from 2005