Newsgroup: italia.firenze.discussioni
Titolo: Altro che tg e giornali italiani: in USA chi le spara viene cacciato

 November 23, 2004
Rather to Step Down After 24 Years as CBS Anchor
By JACQUES STEINBERG
Two months after acknowledging that he could not authenticate documents
central to a broadcast report that raised fresh questions about President
Bush's National Guard service, Dan Rather announced today that he would step
down as anchor and managing editor of the "CBS Evening News" on March 9, on
what will be his 24th anniversary behind the anchor desk.
"I have been lucky and blessed over these years to have what is, to me, the
best job in the world and to have it at CBS News," Mr. Rather said in a
statement issued by the network. "Along the way I've had the honor of
working with some of the most talented, dedicated professionals in the
world, and I'm appreciative of the opportunity to continue doing so in the
years years ahead."
Mr. Rather will continue to work full time at CBS News, as a correspondent
for the Sunday and Wednesday editions of "60 Minutes." There was no word
from CBS News on a successor as anchor, although the front-runners in the
view of network reporters and producers have long been John Roberts, the
chief White House correspondent for CBS News, and Scott Pelley, a
correspondent for the Wednesday edition of "60 Minutes." But neither is
considered to have strong name recognition among viewers, and the network
has not ruled out looking beyond its own news division.
Mr. Rather's decision represents an abrupt, somewhat ignominious end to the
nearly quarter of a century that he spent in one of the most visible jobs in
journalism. In announcing his decision now to quit the anchor desk, Mr.
Rather, 73, is seeking to act ahead of an independent panel investigating
the journalistic breakdowns that led CBS News to broadcast and then
vigorously defend the Guard segment, which it later acknowledged to be based
on documents whose genuineness and origins it could not substantiate.
But Mr. Rather is also choosing to depart at a moment of generational
transition atop the network news divisions, as their flagship programs
continue to lose viewers. On Dec. 1, Tom Brokaw, 66, will deliver his last
broadcast as anchor of the "NBC Nightly News," the highest rated of the
three evening newscasts. He will be succeeded the next night by Brian
Williams, 45. Among the emotions that had long kept Mr. Rather from
announcing his own retirement was his hope that in the wake of Mr. Brokaw's
departure, he might pick up enough of Mr. Brokaw's nearly 10 million viewers
to lift his program out of third place, where it has lagged behind "World
News Tonight" on ABC for nearly a decade.
At least until recently, Mr. Rather had told colleagues that he hoped to
remain behind the CBS anchor desk until March 2006, when he would mark the
25th anniversary of the day he succeeded Walter Cronkite. But even before
the broadcast of the discredited Guard report, executives of the network,
which is owned by Viacom, had begun to discuss an earlier end date with Mr.
Rather's representatives. Among the scenarios being discussed was one in
which he would depart the anchor chair next May, but continue to report for
CBS News, most likely on "60 Minutes."
But for Mr. Rather, all that calculus was apparently erased by the strain
and scrutiny of the investigation.
The inquiry's two panelists, Louis D. Boccardi, the former chief executive
of The Associated Press, and Dick Thornburgh, a former United States
attorney general, have interviewed dozens of people - from the highest
echelons of CBS News to its rank and file, as well as outside it - and are
expected to submit their report to senior network executives early next
month. Among the central questions they are examining is why Mr. Rather, who
anchored the segment, and Mary Mapes, the producer who shepherded it, were
so convinced of the authenticity of four memorandums purportedly drawn from
the personal files of Mr. Bush's Vietnam-era squadron commander.
In the documents, which were dated in the early 1970's, Mr. Bush's
commander, Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, now deceased, appeared to describe the
pressure he was under to "sugar coat" the record of Mr. Bush, then a young
lieutenant, who was said to have disobeyed a direct order to take a
physical. Surfacing less than two months before the presidential election,
the documents were presented by CBS as filling gaps in Mr. Bush's official
record, including questions about why he had failed to take his pilot
physical.
Immediately after the report was first broadcast, on the evening news on
Sept. 8 and later that night on the Wednesday edition of "60 Minutes,"
intense criticism arose from the purveyors of Web logs and other
commentators who contended that the documents - all apparently copies, none
on official letterhead stationery and two without signatures - appeared to
have been typed on a modern computer, not a typewriter in typical use in the
early 1970's. For nearly two weeks, Mr. Rather - sometimes speaking from
behind the anchor desk - asserted that the wide questioning of the records
was coming, in large measure, from Republican partisans.
But on Sept. 20, Mr. Rather and his bosses reversed course. Speaking again
from the anchor desk, Mr. Rather told his viewers that a former Texas
National Guard officer had misled him and his producers about how the
officer had obtained the documents and that relying on them to buttress the
report had been a "mistake in judgment."
"I want to say personally and directly I'm sorry," Mr. Rather said, before
adding, "This was an error made in good faith."
Mr. Rather's apology represented an unlikely low point in a year in which,
despite the clock's ticking down on his career, he had notched some of the
more memorable achievements of his more than four decades at CBS News. Just
a few months before the Guard report, he joined forces with Ms. Mapes, one
of the most respected producers at the network, for a segment on the
Wednesday edition of "60 Minutes," then known as "60 Minutes II," which
reported in detail on the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.
In a statement from CBS News today, senior CBS executives made no mention of
the controversy over the documents and instead hailed Mr. Rather's longevity
at the anchor desk and the record he has compiled throughout his entire
career.
"Dan's 24 years at the CBS 'Evening News' is the longest run of any evening
news anchor in history and is a singular achievement in broadcast
journalism," the chairman of CBS, Les Moonves, said. "He has been an
eyewitness to the most important events for more than 40 years and played a
crucial role in keeping the American public informed about those events and
their larger significance."
The president of CBS News, Andrew Heyward, who began working with Mr. Rather
as a producer two decades ago, said that Mr. Rather "has symbolized the CBS
'Evening News' for nearly a quarter century," and noted that Mr. Rather
would "continue to apply his talents to everything he does at CBS News."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/23/business/media/23WIRE-RATHER.html?ei=5094&en=f5e43319328f2c36&hp=&ex=1101272400&oref=login&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print&position=
-- 
Saluti dal,
Dott. Mag. Uno Qualunque (fu: Fil),
di padre Qualunque e madre Qualsiasi,
"...sono un numero e nulla più..." (P.F.M.)

 By JACQUES STEINBERG
...Il che testimonia una volta di piů che in itaglia vengono malamente
scopiazzati solo gli aspetti peggiori e piů frontebassisti della vita
americana, confermando la centralita e l'importanza di un sano e motivato
antiamericanismo nella mia weltanschauung.