NYT: Future of '60 Minutes Wednesday' in Doubt

[DeepModem Mom]

Future of '60 Minutes Wednesday' in Doubt
By BILL CARTER

Published: January 14, 2005


As much as he would like to recover from the blows his reputation has suffered recently, Dan Rather may not have a chance to work very long on the program that he expected would be his next professional address.

The future of CBS's "60 Minutes Wednesday" - the program that broadcast Mr. Rather's report, now discredited, about President Bush's National Guard record - is in doubt, both the top CBS executive and the program's new executive producer acknowledged yesterday.

Leslie Moonves, the chairman of CBS and co-president of the network's parent company, Viacom, said in a telephone interview that Mr. Rather was expected to continue his career at CBS on the Wednesday edition of "60 Minutes" after he steps down as the network's primary anchor in March. But Mr. Moonves added the phrase, "provided the show continues."

The program is guaranteed to be on the air through May, when the current television season ends, Mr. Moonves said, but "they are not exactly tearing it up in the ratings over there."

The fate of the program that broadcast the report on Mr. Bush's Guard record - relying on documents that an independent panel concluded had not been authenticated - is one of several unresolved issues at CBS News. Already, in the wake of the scandal, four top CBS News executives have lost their jobs....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/14/business/media/14cbs.html

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Moonves...

Seems quite ready to get rid of any semblance of investigative journalism. Musta ate the lotus.

[SHRED]

2. The corporate media run amuck

Bastards.
Capping on Dan while FAUX gets a free ride for non-stop airing of the ShrimpBoat Liars Club.

This Rather thing resurfacing is a smokescreen for the Armstrong Williams debacle and anything but talking about Iraq.

Some "liberal" media eh?

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. and the so called liberal media takes down

one of the few remaining liberals, even if he never wore it on his sleeve.

Is that the final nail on real reporting and the rise of the stenography corp?

Oh and remeber, nobody critize the boy king, or they will kill your profesional career too... that shooosh you hear is... the last remaining gasp of freedom of the press... whatever it remained

[SoCalDem]

4. And...PBS cut NOW to a half hour, choosing to

re-run Tavis Smiley's 1/2 hr show..

Investigation of people who can hurt you = dangerous
solution = no investigation

[Bono71]

5. I think we're headed towards the way politics is covered in the

UK and other countries in Europe...you'll have a left wing paper and a right wing paper and neither will try to hide "bias."

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. that was the way it was in this country

throughtout the 19th century, difference was... there was a left wing and a right wing... apart of AAR how many truly left wing are in the so called Mainstream Media... my foopah, the crack stenography corp?

[TxRoadHawg]

8. The old media is dead

whether you think it leans left or right, no one will truly trust the MSM because there is always that shadow of a doubt in the back of your mind.
Finding your own news sources, blogging, searching, and you will find the news that fits your reality.

[DeepModem Mom]

9. Right on, TxRoadHawg -- welcome to DU!

[DBoon]

11. No we will be wingless

The press will be a compilation of press releases and advertisements.

The media will add no content, certainly no analysis.

[AndyTiedye]

14. More Like The Way Politics Was Covered in the Soviet Union

[PsN2Wind]

7. So four people at CBS lose their jobs

for failing to investigate adequately the documents that say what everyone knows to be true. Meanwhile Colin Powell is all over the place with "it was the best intelligence available at the time" on Iraq's possession of WMDs, that is costing the country billions of dollars and thousands of lives. How many lives lost because of Rather............zero. How many lives lost because of Powell..........a hundred plus thousand and still counting, In this administration, The buck stops nowhere.

[meppie-meppie not]

10. ain't that the pathetic truth!!!!

:mad: :grr:

[otohara]

12. But, Rathergate is So Much More Important Than Silly WMD's

story. Four people get fired at CBS, zero people get fired for WMD's in media or D.C.

[mitchum]

13. I rember reading in repub. henchman Ed Rollins' book...

where Rollins was amazed that Pat Buchanan was demonizing Rather as a flaming liberal. Rollins told Buchanan that Rather was actually quite moderate. Buchanan replied that he was aware of the fact, but he was also aware that the USSR was on its last legs and that the conservative movement always NEEDED bogeymen. Rather and "the liberal media" would help fill the bill. This has been in the works for a long time.
I wonder if Rather regrets his tearful loyalty to "his president"

[Ironpost]

15. Dan I feel for you

In the vein of jerry jones to Randy Moss, He carries to much baggage

[Gloria]

16. Well, let him do what Tom Brokaw is doing....fawning "specials"

about inaugurations....

Except I don't think Rather would want to stoop that low. I'd rather have him out of CBS and working independently, writing for the internet!!!

[Snellius]

17. 60 Minutes jumped the shark years ago

Remember when Mike Wallace used to hide a concealed camera to ensnare some used-car scammer in his own con or expose the injustice of the conviction of some poor guy in Mississippi who rotted in jail for 20 years for a candy bar he stole when he was a kid. Now it's just a string of feel-good, inspirational human interest stories about idiot savants who play piano, or dwarfs who sing opera, or the poor girl from Uganda who struggled to go to Yale.

60 Minutes is just as mindless and crass and shallow and Orwellian as the rest of TV these days.