At the age of 92, former CBS anchor Dan Rather made his first appearance on CBS since leaving the network 18 years ago.
Rather was interviewed on “CBS Sunday Morning” in the lead-up to a Netflix documentary about him, according to the Associated Press.
The interview was the first time Rather had appeared on CBS since he signed off in 2005 amid an uproar over Rather’s 2004 report questioning the service record of former President George W. Bush.
Rather’s report claimed that Bush was able to avoid service in Vietnam by being accepted in the National Guard. The documents upon which he based his report were discredited, leading Rather to be taken off the air by CBS in 2005, according to The Wrap. He left the network in 2006.
“Without apology or explanation, I miss CBS. I’ve missed it since the day I left there,” Rather said during his Sunday interview, according to CBS.
Almost 20 years since Dan Rather, 92, left “CBS Evening News” after 44 years, of covering wars, politics, and JFK’s assassination, he talks with former mentee Lee Cowan. Rather discusses his career, including controversial moments, and his post-CBS years. https://t.co/gpJppsaU9P pic.twitter.com/o8i1dqGawN
— CBS Sunday Morning 🌞 (@CBSSunday) April 28, 2024
During his interview, Rather gave his stamp of approval to the current state of journalism.
Are journalists better today than 20 years ago?
“The people who are practicing journalism today are so much better than those of us who came up at another time. They’re better educated. They’re more knowledgeable about the world. They wanna do the right thing; they’re doing the best they can,” he said.
But a New York Post editorial said Rather gives modern journalists his stamp of approval because they, like him, bend the truth to their preconceptions, writing “seems like the world’s come around to his views now.”
The Post editorial said that for Rather, “Facts were and are irrelevant.”
“Remember, he stuck by the fake story for years and tried to make himself out as a victim of a sinister plot at CBS, when in fact he suffered only thanks to his own partisan rage and midwit hubris,” the Post wrote.
The Post said Rather “ended up writing the law our stenographer class lives by today. That being: Journalism exists to help Democrats, period.”
The Post offered examples that included “trying to suffocate bad stories about Hunter Biden (including his 100 percent real laptop) to fend off the political harm they might do his dad.”
The Post also faulted the media for “greasing the path for the Biden administration to lie about inflation or the border crisis” and “going to bat for the Chinese government’s version of where COVID came from.”
The result, the Post said, is that journalism covers up the truth instead of uncovering it.
“Here we are, almost two decades later, with Ratherism near-triumphant and the actual goals of journalism in near-ruin,” the Post wrote.
“So, great work, Dan. You and your pals helped wreck a key institution of American life. The only casualty was the truth,” the Post concluded.
