Dan Rather meltdown soap opera

[pumpster]

Dan please STFU and go away you were a lucky bastard to hold on for so long without a shred of greatness.

Rather Attacks Couric: 'Dumb It Down, Tart It Up'
 
Former CBS anchor Dan Rather appeared on Monday’s edition of "Morning Joe" and lobbied for a "a strategic withdrawal from Iraq." He also found time to twice bash his "Evening News" successor Katie Couric for dumbing down and "tarting up" the news. After giving the standard caveat that Couric is a "nice person," he went in for kill. Speculating on the program’s declining ratings, Rather complained to MSNBC host Joe Scarborough that "the mistake was to try to bring the ‘Today’ ethos to the evening news and to dumb it down, tart it up in hopes of attracting a younger audience."

Rather vociferously derided the media’s obsession with celebrities, in particular the hyperbolic coverage of the Paris Hilton affair. (This is a fair point, but it’s a little odd to be making it on MSNBC, one of the worst offenders in Hilton overkill.) For a second time in the 7:30am hour, he attacked the "superficial changes" made in his absence:
Dan Rather: "You know, she tried to change networks, which is always difficult and change the programs at the same time. They've done all of the usual things. They changed the set. They changed the executive producers. They changed the graphics person, lately, forced out a guy who had been there, Ned Steinberg, for many, many years. They make all those kind of the superficial changes. I do want to say that, I think, under Rick Kaplan, that they have tried to harden up the broadcast in recent days, but that is a relative phrase, harden it up. That you know, the trend line continues, as I say, dumbing it down, tarting it up, going to celebrity coverage rather than war coverage."

[pumpster]

NEW YORK (AP) - CBS Corp. Chief Executive Leslie Moonves shot back at former CBS news anchor Dan Rather on Tuesday, saying his characterization of the network "tarting" up its newscast with anchor Katie Couric was "sexist."
 
Rather, speaking by phone on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program with Joe Scarborough Monday, said CBS had made the mistake of taking the evening news broadcast and "dumbing it down, tarting it up," and playing up topics such as celebrities over war coverage. The comments subsequently appeared in blogs and in a story published Tuesday in the New York Daily News and the New York Post.

While referring to his successor, Couric, as a "nice person," Rather said "the mistake was to try to bring the 'Today' show ethos to the 'Evening News,' and to dumb it down, tart it up in hopes of attracting a younger audience."

Moonves, asked about the remarks at an appearance in New York sponsored by the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, called the remarks "sexist" and said he was surprised at the amount of negative coverage Couric was receiving. Couric, the first solo female news anchor, has been struggling in the ratings.

"She's been on the air for nine months," Moonves said. "Let's give her a break."

Couric started strong but has settled into a distant third in the evening news ratings race. Last month her "CBS Evening News" set a record for its least-watched broadcast for at least two decades, then broke it the very next week.

Rather left as "CBS Evening News" anchor in March 2005 and cut ties to the network a year later. He continued to be dogged by controversy surrounding his role in a discredited story about President Bush's Vietnam-era military service.

Moonves said he "absolutely" had confidence in Couric and the direction that CBS's evening was going, saying it was imperative to reach younger audiences. Evening news broadcasts couldn't continue to have audiences that are mainly over 60, Moonves said, otherwise "the evening news will die."

Meanwhile, Moonves said the network's decision last week to reinstate a canceled show called "Jericho" following an outpouring of viewer e- mails and other protests spoke to the growing influence of the Internet on broadcasters.

"It was a campaign that couldn't be ignored," Moonves said of the mobilization of "Jericho" fans, saying it was "astonishing and well- organized."

As part of the campaign, disgruntled viewers delivered thousands of pounds of peanuts to CBS's corporate offices, a reference to a scene in the season finale where a character replies, "Nuts!" to a demand that the town in Kansas, which had been isolated by a nuclear attack, surrender

[pumpster]

NEW YORK (AP) - Former CBS news anchor Dan Rather escalated a feud with his former employer Tuesday, saying CBS Corp. (CBS) (CBS) Chief Executive Leslie Moonves "doesn't know about news."

Moonves had said earlier Rather's remarks that the network was "tarting" up its newscast with Katie Couric, Rather's successor, were "sexist."

The spat started Monday when Rather, speaking by phone on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program with Joe Scarborough, said CBS had made the mistake of taking the evening news broadcast and "dumbing it down, tarting it up," and playing up topics such as celebrities over war coverage.

While referring to Couric as a "nice person," Rather said "the mistake was to try to bring the 'Today' show ethos to the 'Evening News,' and to dumb it down, tart it up in hopes of attracting a younger audience."

Moonves, speaking at an event in New York Tuesday morning sponsored by the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, called the remarks "sexist" and said he was surprised at the amount of negative coverage Couric was receiving.

"She's been on the air for nine months," Moonves said. "Let's give her a break."

Couric started strong but has settled into a distant third in the evening news ratings race. Last month her "CBS Evening News" set a record for its least-watched broadcast for at least two decades, then broke it the very next week.

Later Tuesday, Rather said during an appearance on Fox News Channel's "Your World with Neil Cavuto" program that he didn't regret making his earlier remarks, but insisted he was referring to CBS's management of the newscast, not to Couric personally.

"It doesn't have to do with Katie, it doesn't have to do with gender," Rather said. "It has to do with the corporate leadership. ... Les Moonves knows about entertainment, but he doesn't know about news."

Rather left as "CBS Evening News" anchor in March 2005 and cut ties to the network a year later. He continued to be dogged by controversy surrounding his role in a discredited story about President Bush's Vietnam-era military service.

CBS's corporate office referred questions about Rather's latest remarks to Rick Kaplan, the executive producer of "CBS Evening News," who said: "We are very much a hard news program."

"I wish Dan was watching more closely," Kaplan said, adding: "A lot of people here are very disappointed with him ... They went through some very dark days with Dan, and they don't like hearing that they're not doing the news. They damn well are."

Moonves said earlier that he "absolutely" had confidence in Couric and the direction that "CBS Evening News" was taking, saying it was imperative to reach younger audiences. Evening news broadcasts couldn't continue to have audiences that are mainly over 60, Moonves said, otherwise "the evening news will die."

Meanwhile, Moonves said the network's decision last week to reinstate a canceled show called "Jericho" following an outpouring of viewer e-mails and other protests spoke to the growing influence of the Internet on broadcasters.

"It was a campaign that couldn't be ignored," Moonves said of the mobilization of "Jericho" fans, saying it was "astonishing and well-organized."

As part of the campaign, disgruntled viewers delivered thousands of pounds of peanuts to CBS's corporate offices, a reference to a scene in the season finale where a character replies, "Nuts!" to a demand that the town in Kansas, which had been isolated by a nuclear attack, surrender.

[bmacsys]

Dan Rather has melted down how many times now? He also had his time at CBS when it was third in the network ratings. Bring back Walter Cronkite.

[rockyfortune]

sure..he melted down..but where is he wrong? has anyone ever watched katie couric? it's like watching chrissy snow read shakespeare.

[pumpster]

sure..he melted down..but where is he wrong? has anyone ever watched katie couric? it's like watching chrissy snow read shakespeare.

Not that he's wrong-what he's saying isn't rocket science. But after being allowed 25 years in a prime position including getting rid of Connie Chung even though she was helpful, because he wasn't that good by himself and after that last little political fact-checking problem before he left, why not just STFU, keep quiet and go away? Classless

[rockyfortune]

Maybe he's going through a midlife crisis again..like he did when he went from stodgy, old man haircut to california surfer dude look...if this gets paris hilton and the fat broad rant out of the headlines i can live with that.

[pumpster]

"CBS Evening News" executive producer Rick Kaplan is mad as hell at Dan Rather.

Rather's criticism isn't surprising. He was an unpopular figure at CBS News during his tenure and was credited with keeping his predecessor, Walter Cronkite, from ever appearing on CBS again.

Now, Kaplan has some advice for Rather.

"This is someone who should go through his life quietly," Kaplan told me.

"We had to build back from when Dan left," Kaplan said. "What's really upsetting is that the same people are still here doing the news as when Dan left; those are the people he's criticizing. A lot of people at CBS are disappointed that he said that."

Kaplan cited female reporters Lara Logan and Kimberly Dozier — the latter having been injured in Iraq — for falling under Rather's sexist "tarted up" depiction. Recently, Kaplan added the excellent Nancy Cordes from ABC to his stable of reporters.

Rather, of course, may be feeling the brutal change of generations as more women rise through the ranks of network news.

On Tuesday, when the story of his quotes broke, Rather was all over the place giving interviews about how much he admired female reporters. Of course, the subject of his short-lived partnership with Connie Chung never came up.

Kaplan told me that despite the weekly barbs lobbed against Couric, CBS is standing behind Couric.

"We are very proud of Katie. I'm sure she's feeling beat up, but all that's going to change," he said. "We're rolling out a new ad campaign soon. There's a great deal of support here for her. Other networks have much bigger problems concerning their numbers."