He made no mention of the National Guard story in announcing the change, saying he had agreed with CBS executives last summer to leave sometime after the Nov. 2 election. But he was forced to fight for his professional life after anchoring a September “60 Minutes Wednesday” story about Bush’s service that turned out to be based on allegedly forged documents.
Yeah, right. "Allegedly forged" nothing. They were outright fabrications, as was the entire story, and Rather did nothing less than lie to the American people. When he was called on it, instead of evaluating the situation and admitting the story was based on bogus evidence, he showed his true partisanship and bias and tried to peddle the line that the story was true even though the evidence "may be" false. What a crock. The fact that he wasn't demoted or fired immediately by CBS shows that their leadership is just as biased as he is.
I'm also taking the bit about him agreeing to leave as early as last summer with a grain of salt. Despite their bias, CBS may still be considering that he's now a liability and may have "encouraged" him to step down soon. This allows them to move him away from center stage while not betraying thier bias by smacking him down.
In addition, contrast the MSNBC article with this article at Fox News. They say pretty much the same thing, and the byline in both is the Associated Press, but there are differences at the beginning. For example, the first paragraph of the MSNBC article is:
Dan Rather, whose nearly 24-year tenure as anchor of the “CBS Evening News” was clouded by a recent questionable report on President Bush’s National Guard service, said Tuesday he will step down in March.
The first paragraph of the Fox News article is:
Dan Rather, embattled anchor of the "CBS Evening News," announced Tuesday that he will step down in March, on the 24th anniversary of taking over the job from Walter Cronkite.
The Fox article has these two paragraphs in the following order, while the MSNBC article has them in the reverse order and the second one is somewhat different:
He made no mention of the National Guard story in announcing the change, saying he had agreed with CBS executives last summer that after the Nov. 2 election would be the right time to leave.
"I have always been and remain a 'hard news' investigative reporter at heart," he said. "I now look forward to pouring my heart into that kind of reporting full time."
The impression I get is that they both used the AP report as the basis of their respective articles (A practice that, if I remember correctly, is common) but tailored them a bit to put a subtle bit of spin on it. MSNBC's soft-pedals a bit more than Fox's.
Update: Yeah, I know it's a stretch to think that Rather is not necessarily stepping down of his own volition. Spoons has some comments to that effect. However, I maintain that there is a non-zero probability, albeit close to zero, that this is being done not just because Rather doesn't want the job anymore but also because wants to get a new face in that spot in an attempt to restore or maintain their credibility and keep their biases somewhat hidden. At the very least, this is a convenient opportunity for them to do so.
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