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Don't underestimate Newt Gingrich, warns Dan Rather during an MSNBC roundtable discussion today. "Anyone who has covered Newt Gingrich over the years knows better than to underestimate him," said Rather, referencing his political comeback. "Newt Gingrich on the move politically is as dangerous as a wounded wolverine." Rather added that Jon Huntsman was the best candidate for the GOP in the 2012 general election, but would have a hard time winning the Republican primary.

Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather, who refused to go silently into retirement after the network dumped him in 2005, spoke last week to a group of students at American University about the future of journalism. Rather, who held the anchor job for 24 years, told the students that the increasingly biased media will threaten the U.S. and that “A free and independent press is the red beating heart of democracy and freedom.” He went on to remind the audience that shows that feature the likes of Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews are opinion and not news and that the...

RATHER: "That's in their political interest, that's what they'll be trying to do in 2012"

Longtime CBS News broadcaster Dan Rather came to The Poynter Institute this week to talk about what it was like to cover some of the world's biggest stories throughout the past half-century. I sat down with him to hear his thoughts on the state of the news industry and how to improve it. Rather shared his take on the untold stories in politics; the effectiveness of sites that fact-check the news; and the ways in which his experience with bloggers during the Killian documents controversy still shapes his view of them today. Big businesses' negative impact on political news coverage...

Rather gives his 2 cents on Palin.

Washington, D.C. (Reuters) – In bold bid to preserve the nation’s access to free and unfiltered information, President Barack Obama has named Dan (Kenneth, what is the frequency?) Rather to head the administration’s “Newspaper Relief Agency.” Mr. Obama introduced Rather as America’s first “Dead Tree Press Czar” at an unannounced 2:00 a. m. briefing last night in the White House sub-basement. As DTPC, Rather will dispense no-string grants to failing liberal newspapers, assisted by his deputy, Lucy Ramirez, who was not present at the impromptu press conference and could not be reached for comment.

Link only - Watermelons, Washington, and What We Call News Today

HDNet's Dan Rather, in a piece for the Huffington Post, apologized for his use of the word "watermelons" during a segment about Barack Obama's ability to pass health care, that was aired on the March 8 Chris Matthews Show. In his explanation Rather offers his Texas background as an excuse saying, "I used the analogy of selling watermelons by the side of the road. It's an expression that stretches to my boyhood roots in Southeast Texas" but then goes on to plead "I'm sorry people took offense." The following is the most relevant portion of the statement, from the...

In an effort to spare Dan Rather further imbroglios when discussing President Obama's pathologically inadequate salesmanship skills, the commenting community at iowntheworld.com held an emergency brainstorming session which lasted throughout the night. Their input was boiled down to 40 safe alternatives to watermelon, with its apparent connotations to racist stereotypes (Who knew -- apparently Dan Rather didn't) In the future, it is recommended that Mr Rather says something along the lines of "Listen, he's a nice person, he's very articulate, this is what is going to be used against him. But he couldn't sell - stretch pants to Rosie O'Donell...

Chris Matthews tries to save Dan by interrupting, here is Rather's remark regarding President Obama: "He couldn't sell watermelons if you gave him a state trooper to flag down the traffic..."

Dan Rather: 'Articulate' Obama Couldn't Even 'Sell Watermelons' By Geoffrey Dickens Created 03/08/2010 - 14:41 HDNet's Dan Rather stepped on one mine after another in the racial minefield that exists when talking about the nation's first black President as the former CBS anchor, on the syndicated Chris Matthews Show on March 8th, uttered the following take on the President's ability to get health care passed and how the GOP and independents would view it. DAN RATHER: Part of the undertow in the coming election is going to be President Obama's leadership. And the Republicans will make a case and a...

... The mainstream media had won their control over the news because they owned the means of reaching vast numbers of people. Suddenly, advances in Internet software and network technologies made it possible for just about anybody to publish to a worldwide audience. Grassroots journalism was born. With the rise of the Internet as a resource for news and information, skepticism over the accuracy and reliability of mainstream reporting grew, and by the middle of the decade bloggers and Internet news websites had cut significantly into the MSM’s influence. But from the perspective of January 2010 it’s clear. At the...

Reporting from New York - Dan Rather's protracted legal fight with CBS ended Tuesday when New York state's highest court declined to hear the anchor's motion to reinstate his $70-million lawsuit against his longtime employer. Rather was hoping the court would breathe new life into his suit alleging breach of contract and fraud against CBS that a state appellate court had dismissed in September. But the Court of Appeals denied Rather's motion without comment

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - New York's top court Tuesday rejected Dan Rather's bid to reinstate his $70 million breach-of-contract lawsuit against CBS Corp.

New York's top court Tuesday rejected Dan Rather's bid to reinstate his $70 million breach-of-contract lawsuit against CBS Corp. Rather's motion was denied without comment Tuesday by the Court of Appeals. CBS spokeswoman Shannon Jacobs said the network was pleased with the outcome. Rather, who now produces an hourlong news program for cable channel HDNet, issued a statement calling the ruling "a grave miscarriage of justice."

Dan Rather says he's spent over $2 million of his own money in his ongoing lawsuit with CBS. Rather, in an interview on tvnewser.com, was cagey about the exact amount. "Respectfully I'm not going to tell you . . . I would say a whole lot," he said. "It's a lot more than I thought going in." When pressed, Rather relented a bit. "More than 2 [million]," he said about how much he's spent on the suit.

Headline at CBS News:Sarah Palin Almost Gets Tomato in Face, but Jeremy Olsen Has Terrible AimLede:NEW YORK (CBS) Maybe Jeremy Olson should have practiced with a target first before attempting to pelt Sarah Palin with tomatoes at a book signing in Minn. Dec. 7.The above was written at the CBS News page CRIMESIDER: The True Crime Destination From the Producers of 48 Hours MysteryThe article was posted by Carlin DeGuerin Miller.

Disgraced CBS anchorman Dan Rather continues to make the rounds, trying to rehabilitate his image and paint himself as a man wronged by an overcorporatized, politically neutralized media structure. That's no longer surprising. But why would schools of journalism gloss right over his embrace of fabricated National Guard records in 2004? Viviana Aldous at The Daily Texan reported on Rather's Thursday appearance at the University of Texas in Austin: “Journalism continues to weather its profound changes as it transits into its digital future,” said Tracy Dahlby, director of the School of Journalism. “Rather has spent six decades getting the job...

Former CBS news anchor Dan Rather urged American news consumers Thursday to take action to address the declining state of the journalism industry. More than 750 Austinites, including students, professors and journalists, attended the fifth annual Mary Alice Davis Distinguished Lecture in the Union Ballroom to hear Rather reflect on his more than 60 years as a journalist, including 24 years with CBS Evening News as an anchor and managing editor. “When we speak of the future of journalism, let us fully understand that quality journalism of integrity is currently in decline and in peril,” Rather said. He cited corporatization,...

Dan Rather's legal wrangling slogs into its third year: His lawyer vows he will appeal a New York court ruling Tuesday that tossed out the former evening news anchor's $70 million breach-of-contract suit against CBS Corp. The complaint "must be dismissed in its entirety," ruled the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court, saying there was no breach of contract because CBS had honored the "pay or play" clause in Rather's contract. That is to say the company had continued to pay Rather his annual salary -- $6 mil -- even after he left the "CBS Evening News"...

NEW YORK – A New York court on Tuesday dismissed Dan Rather's $70 million breach of contract lawsuit against CBS Corp., noting that the network continued to pay the anchor $6 million a year even after he left the evening news broadcast.

Breaking: The New York State Supreme Court's Appellate Division has thrown out Dan Rather's $70 million lawsuit against his former employer, CBS Corp. "We find the complaint must be dismissed in its entirety," reads the decision. The Appellate court found that the motion court "erred in denying the defendants' motion to dismiss the claims for breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty."

More than two years after Dan Rather filed a $70-million lawsuit against CBS for breach of contract and fraud, a New York Supreme Court appellate division has tossed out his claim. The ruling, handed down today, dismissed Rather's claims that CBS News broke his contract and committed fraud by sidelining him in the wake of a controversial story he reported about President George W. Bush's Vietnam-era service in the Texas Air Guard. The anchor alleged that CBS sought to curtail reporting on the story because of pressure from its then-parent company, Viacom. But in its ruling, the appeals panel found...

A New York judge on Monday rejected CBS Corp's bid to dismiss former TV news anchor Dan Rather's $70 million lawsuit claiming he was fired over a controversial election-year report on former President George W. Bush's Vietnam War-era military service. New York State Supreme Court Justice Ira Gammerman set a December 22 hearing in the case and directed that testimony be taken from witnesses, including Sumner Redstone, the chairman of Viacom Inc, which controlled CBS at the time. "Let's get this case moving," Gammerman said. "I would really like to get this case ready for trial." Rather, 77, sued CBS,...

"His lead is as thin as turnip soup." "This race is humming along like Ray Charles." "The presidential race is swinging like Count Basie." "He swept through the South like a tornado through a trailer park." "Don't bet the trailer money yet."

Media Bias: Veteran reporter, author and commentator Bernard Goldberg reports that when CBS News did its fake National Guard story on George W. Bush avoiding service in Vietnam, it knew it was a lie.It's a liberal urban legend that Bush used the influence of his father and his father's friends to land a cushy position in the Texas National Guard to avoid service in Vietnam. The Democrats would run John Kerry as a hero in the war, and CBS News was all too eager to help with Mary Mapes producing a "60 Minutes II" segment in September 2004 charging exactly...

The year 2005 is ending as it began, with another successful election in Iraq and a liberal media still flapping around trying to find other controversies to submerge it. It does not matter to them that a Gallup poll found that 74 percent of Americans express confidence in their military, but only 28 percent express confidence in their newspapers or TV news outlets. The "mainstream" media excels in excoriating the performance of nearly everyone else, but acts as if nothing they do should be held up as ineffective, inaccurate or just plain absurd. That's why the Media Research Center and...

What seems like a long, long time ago Dan Rather was a very powerful force in American journalism. He not only was the anchorman of the CBS Evening News, he was also the face of the network’s renowned news division — the “Tiffany” network of bigger-than-life legends like Ed Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Eric Sevareid, Mike Wallace and many, many others.

We all know what happened in Rather Gate. Dan Rather went on 60 minutes with documents that were fake. These documents were obviously not properly vetted prior to them being aired because they were fake and they wound up on the air. These documents purported to show that Bush used political influence to get into the guard to avoid serving in the Vietnam War. They also showed him to be lazy. Of course, none of it was true. Dan Rather wound up losing his job and so did Mary Mapes.

Live on O'Reilly Factor

Dan Rather is wrong. Barack Obama should stay out of it. We don't need no stinkin' presidential commission. It's not that the former CBS anchor has delivered a flawed diagnosis. The news business, as Rather wrote in a Washington Post op-ed, is in deep trouble, particularly the print side. But his prescription -- that only high-level White House involvement can draw sufficient attention to the media's plight -- badly misses the mark. This president may be able to bring Henry Louis Gates and James Crowley together for a beer. Obama might even figure out how to get Congress to cough...

You don't have to care about media companies or reporters to care about the state of the news, because if it's in trouble -- and it surely is -- this country is in trouble. That's why, while speaking recently at the Aspen Institute, I called upon President Obama to form a commission to address the perilous state of America's news media. Some might scoff at the notion that a president and a country occupied by two wars and a recession should add the woes of the news media to an already crowded plate. But the way the news is delivered,...

Former TV news anchor Dan Rather sued CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves and former CBS News President Andrew Heyward on Monday in a bid to have them reinstated as defendants in his $70 million lawsuit against the network. In a lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court, Rather accused the two men of fraud relating to his claim that CBS made him a scapegoat in a scandal over a 2004 report on then-President George W. Bush's military record.

Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather called on President Barack Obama to form a White House commission to help save the press Tuesday night in an impassioned speech at the Aspen Institute. “I personally encourage the president to establish a White House commission on public media,” the legendary newsman said. Such a commission on media reform, Rather said, ought to make recommendations on saving journalism jobs and creating new business models to keep news organizations alive. At stake, he argued, is the very survival of American democracy. “A truly free and independent press is the red beating heart of democracy...

As if the relationship between the Obama Administration and the news media weren't cozy enough already, former "CBS Evening News" anchor Dan Rather is calling on President Obama to "make recommendations" for the media on how to survive the economic downturn. Rather spoke at the Aspen Institute in Aspen, Colo. on July 28 and addressed challenges to the news industry, which he described as challenges to the "very survival of American democracy," and insisted the president should step in. "I personally encourage the president to establish a White House commission on public media," Rather said, according to the July...

Former CBS anchorman Dan Rather issued a call for the government to intervene to save the media. From the Aspen Times Former CBS anchorman Dan Rather told an Aspen audience Tuesday that journalism has declined to such a point that it is time for the government to intervene. Appearing at the Greenwald Pavilion as part of the Aspen Institute's McCloskey Speaker Series, Rather said “traditional journalism is under siege” and called for media reform to become an “immediate national priority.”

Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather called on President Barack Obama to form a White House commission to help save the press Tuesday night in an impassioned speech at the Aspen Institute. “I personally encourage the president to establish a White House commission on public media,” the legendary newsman said. Such a commission on media reform, Rather said, ought to make recommendations on saving journalism jobs and creating new business models to keep news organizations alive. “A truly free and independent press is the red beating heart of democracy and freedom,” Rather said in an interview yesterday afternoon. “This is...

Return to the Article July 18, 2009Peggy Noonan: Sarah Palin JealousBy Stuart Schwartz You're Peggy Noonan and you're jealous. But it's not the normal kind of jealous, the kind reserved for girlfriends who can squeeze into size 2 jeans. No, it's the kind of jealous that hurts, that grabs your gut and twists, that has you howling with rage into your pillow in the middle of the night, screaming "It's not fair" like a two-year-old denied another piece of cake. It is Sarah Palin jealous...and it is consuming you. You're Peggy Noonan and you're jealous. You are a card-carrying...

The Media Research Center's Annual Gala and Dishonors for 2009 were held on March 19, 2009. The link above is to the inimitable Great One's presentation of the Half-Baked Alaska Award for Pummeling Palin. Mark also presented the Dan Rather Award for The Stupidest Analysis.Levin is THE bomb. God bless him. Other presentations from the event are also included HERE

Sitting in a Washington bar with the Morning Joe crew on MSNBC Tuesday morning, former NBC anchor grew emotional remembering the 1960s. "I get very emotional. It has been hard for me to walk through the streets. And I think that the day is going to be very emotional." Brokaw even grew bold enough to tell the "bigots and rednecks" he met in the Sixties "when we were evolving as a country" to suffer through the Obama inauguration: "Take this. You know?" The Morning Joe crew was discussing how Barack Obama was so different than past administrations in their lack...

"After an outcry from the White House and conservative bloggers who claimed that the report had been based on falsified documents, CBS retracted the story, saying that the documents' authenticity could not be verified. Rather, who had been with CBS for decades and was one of the most familiar faces in American journalism, was fired by the network the day after the 2004 election."

Appearing on Friday's "Morning Joe," former CBS anchor Dan Rather chided President Bush for not doing enough during his lame duck period and argued for moving Inauguration Day up to December 1. And although Rather didn't explain specifically what Bush wasn't doing enough about (The financial crisis? The terrorist incident in India?), he did hyperbolically fret, "But, we're in possibly, possibly the biggest crisis we've been in since December 7, 1941 and maybe since the time of the Civil War." (As big a calamity as slavery and the dissolution of the Union?) Addressing the past practice of inaugurating presidents in...

When Dan Rather filed suit against CBS 14 months ago -- claiming, among other things, that his former employer had commissioned a politically biased investigation into his work on a "60 Minutes" segment about President Bush's National Guard service -- the network predicted the quick and favorable dismissal of the case, which it derided as "old news." So far, Mr. Rather has spent more than $2 million of his own money on the suit. And according to documents filed recently in court, he may be getting something for his money. Using tools unavailable to him as a reporter — including...

Full Headline: Juicy Bits Surfacing in Rather Case: In 2004, CBS Considered Matt Drudge, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter Independent Panel This week, Dan Rather's legal team submitted a memorandum to the judge overseeing Mr. Rather's $70 million civil lawsuit against his former employers, which for the first time made public some of the thousands of documents that CBS has already turned over in the ongoing discovery process. The Media Mob is still making its way through the thick stack of emails, internal memos, and transcripts included in this stash. But we were kind of amazed by one document. First the...

A New York state Supreme Court judge Monday limited the scope of Dan Rather's $70-million lawsuit against CBS Corp., tossing out his claims that the network committed fraud and unlawfully interfered with his contract in his final months at the news division. But Justice Ira Gammerman allowed Rather to proceed with his claims that CBS broke the terms of his contract and breached its fiduciary duty by sidelining him in the wake of a controversial story about President Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard. The ruling "allows us to prove everything we need to prove to a jury,"...

IT’S been more than eight years since “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” made its first foray into presidential politics with the presciently named Indecision 2000, and the difference in the show’s approach to its coverage then and now provides a tongue-in-cheek measure of the show’s striking evolution. In 1999, the “Daily Show” correspondent Steve Carell struggled to talk his way off Senator John McCain’s overflow press bus — “a repository for outcasts, misfits and journalistic bottom-feeders” — and onto the actual Straight Talk Express, while at the 2000 Republican Convention Mr. Stewart self-deprecatingly promised exclusive coverage of “all the...

Monday, July 21, 2008A Rathergate Movie? Rather -- Ready for his closeup?If they’re really going to make a movie about the Rathergate scandal, and base it on the ludicrous book by moonbat pseudo-journalist Mary Mapes, it’s going to be a bad joke.==================================================== "The Media Mob has learned that a team of Hollywood insiders is currently working on a screen adaptation of Truth And Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power—the 2005 book by former CBS News producer Mary Mapes, in which she defends the 60 Minutes II story by Dan Rather about President George W. Bush’s time...

The Media Mob has learned that a team of Hollywood insiders is currently working on a screen adaptation of Truth And Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power—the 2005 book by former CBS News producer Mary Mapes, in which she defends the 60 Minutes II story by Dan Rather about President George W. Bush's time in the Texas Air National Guard, which ran on CBS in September 2004 and eventually led to her ouster from the network. Who would want to turn "Rathergate" into a feature-length film? According to sources familiar with the situation, Producer Mikkel Bondesen,...

On this morning's "Morning Joe" on MSNBC, co-host Tiki Barber asked guest Dan Rather about his feelings regarding the recent Jesse Jackson imbroglio -- his "off mike" comments about Barack Obama. In the middle of praising Jackson, Rather referred to Barack Obama as "Osama bin Laden" -- and none of the four "Morning Joe" co-hosts reacted (nor did Rather). Question: Will the media pick this up? That one of America's longest-serving network news anchors referred to one of the two presidential candidates as the world's most wanted terrorist -- and no one in the room seemed to notice? While you...

MINNEAPOLIS -- There are thousands of journalists and others taking part in a convention in the Twin Cities this weekend. Among the major names in town is former CBS News anchor and "60 Minutes" contributor, Dan Rather. The aim of the convention is to reform the media. Attendees ultimately want to hold the media accountable for serving the public interest. "I have a lifetime of believing the red, beating heart of free and democratic people is a free and independent -- truly independent -- press," said Rather. One of their main goals is to make large national ownership groups and...