Enough time has apparently passed for CBS to allow one of its most famous disgraces to come back on its air.
Over the weekend, Dan Rather appeared on CBS to hawk a documentary nearly two decades after he tried to rig a presidential election by running what some have called the first “fake news” story meant to swing an election.
MarketWatch wrote:
Dan Rather returned to the CBS News airwaves for the first time since his bitter exit 18 years ago, appearing in a reflective interview on “CBS Sunday Morning” days before the debut of a Netflix documentary on the 92-year-old newsman’s life.
After 44 years at the network, 24 as anchor of the “CBS Evening News,” Rather left under a cloud following a botched investigation into then-President George W. Bush’s military record. Rather signed off as anchor for the last time on March 9, 2005, and exited the network when his contract ended 15 months later.
With continued enmity between him and since-deposed CBS chief Leslie Moonves, Rather essentially became a nonperson at the news division he dominated for decades.
“Without apology or explanation, I miss CBS,” Rather told correspondent Lee Cowan in the interview that aired Sunday. “I’ve missed it since the day I left.”
Rather, who first came on the national news scene by incompetently passing on an unsourced rumor that John F. Kennedy had died, he was forced to step down from his role as CBS Evening News anchor in 2005 after blasting out a discredited story about then-President George W. Bush, using faked documents as evidence.
“Rather,” a documentary about the longtime journalist, will appear on Netflix on May 1.
