Dan Rather, CBS veteran of 44 years, was bid adieu yesterday long before his contract was set to expire in November as CBS News President Sean McManus said, "Basically, there wasn't a situation that we could come up with where there was enough meaningful work for Dan to do at CBS News that made sense for both him and us: I had to make the decision of what to do in that situation, and that was the decision that I came up with." "You never expect for someone who's been the face of the network for so long to just be given an office which is essentially a closet . . . and then not to be given air time and then to have it be leaked to the press that he's being booted: it's jarring" added Ken Auletta, New Yorker critic. Today CBS Corp. CEO Leslie Moonves concluded, "I'm sorry it ended the way it did." Unlike the time Rather infamously walked off the air in a snit after CBS preempted his opening of CBS Evening News in favor of coverage of the US Open, very few noticed (or even seemed to care) when he sang his lonesome swan song.
Cf. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13436656 and http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13348523.
5 comments:
I heard Rather's swan song! He sang it thinking the cameras were off the air. It was a "Rather" eloquent, yet understated version of "Man of Constant Sorrow." Both Dan Tyminski and of course, the great Ralph Stanley, do it better, but Rather's was good nonetheless.
Rather's former co-host Connie Chung made Dan look good as she sang her self-piting goodbye after the cancellation of her and her hubby Maury Povich's show on MSNBC. When you get canned on that network, you really can't get ratings!
Hey, James, so what's going on in Newellton? Anything exciting?
I'll tell you what's going on in Newellton. Buddy is still betting on the Celtics and Anthony is still betting on the Lakers. The Philco sign is still there. And the Dixie Dandy sang its' swan song long ago.
George, you indeed have the mind of an elephant. I had forgotten those factoids from my moments in Buddy's Grocery on Main Street after school. I'd Rather forget! :-) jk
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