Posted on 06/12/2007 6:21:56 PM PDT by mdittmar
NEW YORK (AP) - entertainmentminute Former CBS news anchor Dan Rather escalated a feud with his former employer Tuesday, saying CBS Corp. 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.
Rather wont be satisfied until he completely destroys himself
It is tough to choose sides, They are both full of clinton.
Rather knows about “news.” You make it up as you go along. I remember Rather on the air trying to gather a lynch mob to go after General Walker in the Kennedy shooting. He hasn’t changed in all his years. News is what you can get the fools to believe when you pontificate. He learned that from Walter Crankcase.
Yeah, I had to chuckle over this one, too. Maybe Dan-O should show Moonves how to gen up some government documents using MS Word....that could get things rolling.
Ironic that Rather is blaming Couric for their low ratings. I never watched much, but stopped completely after the Rathergate fiasco. Good job, Dan.
Pop some popcorn. This is gonna be great!
Theres nothing like a fool but an old fool.
They could hire ANY slightly attractive woman who speaks and reads reasonably well.
They could pay her $50K a year.
They would double their ratings, solidly.
It’s fun to watch the MSM eating their own (especially SEE-BS).
The MSM “news” is mostly fake and so is, in effect, entertainment.
I want to hear from Connie Chung on whether Rather is a sexist.
Her ridiculous salary would be a good place to start.
Who was the one fired in disgrace?
Hey, Les, just a thought here... the reason you're having trouble reaching a younger audience isn't because you need an anchor that looks like their girlfriend's mother's midlife crisis. It's got something to do with younger people not falling for your insipid BS. You piss on their leg while a smiley face tells them it's really happy rain.
The only time you hear Truth from Leftists is when they’re using it to fight each other. When they get into an internal ‘Ratfight, you hear every last bulls-eye criticism we’ve been firing at each of them for years - but which were routinely denied and ignored by them and the MSM.
Speaking as an over 60, I don't see how the evening news is going to survive anyway.
It's a thing of the past, geared to a world where everybody got home at five, dinner was on the table and you settled in with John Cameron Swayze or the "trusted" talking head of the day giving one what they chose to report, telling you what was important..
Now it's news on demand, cross references galore and you decide what's important. The evening news will eventually head the way of all old media.
If Les Moonves and Dan Rather fell off the stern of a boat and were both drowning, and you could only save one of them, which one would you choose to save?
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