Show Get him a rewrite quick Mary McNamara Los Angeles Times If Dan Rather is going to set himself up as our last defense against corporate corruption of news organizations hes he's going to have to get better writers Fielding softball questions from old pal Larry King about his 70 million wrongful dismissal law suit against CBS on Larry King Live on Thursday night Rather dutifully trotted out enough boilerplate to raise the eyebrows if not the suspicions of much less seasoned journalists than he Its not about the money he said as so many ticket big-ticket litigants have before him its about getting at the truth The story that started the chain of events that led to Rathers Rather's departure from CBS concluded that strings had been pulled to get a young George W. W Bush into the Texas Air National National Or Guard where he was protect protected d' d from J serving in Vietnam and had hada a spotty record of service It relied on documents allegedly from Bushs Bush's late commander When critics suggested these documents were forged the story was discredited and Rather apologized on national television Three years later a subdued and Rather looking strangely like Kings King's doppelganger is now ready to stand by his story which he repeatedly told King was true The facts of the story were true he told King No one has proved those documents were a forgery What really happened he seemed to say was that the pro-Bush pro leaders of CBS and its parent company Viacom angry over the piece as a well as asa asa asa a 60 Minutes look at Abu put Rather on the chopping block to appease the White House Not that he lie quite came out and said this Rather came off at times too choked b by br r indignation to be clear and at other times as if he were reading from a legal brief Positioning himself mostly as a longtime loyal CBS employee rather than iconic news anchor Rather said he had been persuaded to take one for the team The corporation did not back us up he said Rather al though verbose seemed at a loss for real talking points lapsing instead into self- self indulgent and maddening asides rather than sticking to the story Youre saying that the network copped out on you in trying to appeal to the Bush White House King offered helpfully Yes said Rather That is the short answer t a Alas he was not content with the short answer continuing What Im I'm trying to do in my wee small way is to say to people big government and big corporations have far too much influence and andare andare are intimidating ting i |