Dan Rather unrepentant:
Story on Bush ‘accurate’

September 27, 2005

More than a year after his controversial report calling into question President Bush’s National Guard service – a story based on forged documents – former CBS news anchor Dan Rather is standing by the broadcast.

“I believed in the story. The facts of the story were correct,” Rather told former newsman Marvin Kalb in an interview broadcast on C-SPAN last night. “One supporting pillar of the story, albeit an important one, one supporting pillar was brought into question. To this day, no one has proven whether it was what it purported to be or not.”

To be sure of what he was just told, Kalb responded, “I believe you just said that you think the story is accurate.”

“The story is accurate,” Rather reiterated.

Rather, who stepped down from his chair as anchor of the CBS Evening News, but remains a reporter for “60 Minutes,” was then asked if he would continue to pursue the story to prove its accuracy.

“Straight-up, no chaser, no,” he said. “One, CBS News doesn’t want me to do that story. They wouldn’t let me do that story.”

When asked why, Rather said, “That’s a question you’d have to ask them. But I’ve moved on from it. And I’ve done my best to put it behind me. I’ve taken my licks, taken my shot.”

Kalb and Rather also discussed the impact that bloggers had on questioning the veracity of the CBS story, even before the program went off the air.

“What I learned is there are bloggers who have as much integrity as I or the most integrity-filled people I know have, and who feel that it’s their mission in life to ask questions and keep on asking questions,” Rather said. “There are other bloggers, and I’ll go ahead and say it, that some of the quote, ‘mainstream press’ seemed to take, if not delight in our dilemma, uh, they picked up pretty quickly on those bloggers who were partisan, politically affiliated and/or had [an] ideological axe to grind with us.”

“Dan Rather defines ‘stuck on stupid,'” writes one Internet poster in reaction to Rather’s comments. “He blurs the line between dishonesty and idiocy.”

A report by former Republican Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and retired Associated Press president and CEO Louis Boccardi concluded CBS News failed to follow basic journalistic principles in the preparation and reporting of the controversial Sept. 8, 2004, “60 Minutes Wednesday” segment.

Sept. 20, after defending the story for 11 days amid widespread criticism, Rather finally relented and issued a statement saying he no longer would back the authenticity the documents.

“We made a mistake in judgment, and for that I am sorry,” he said. “It was an error that was made, however, in good faith and in the spirit of trying to carry on a CBS News tradition of investigative reporting without fear or favoritism.”

But the independent report says: “Rather informed the Panel that he still believes the content of the documents is true because ‘the facts are right on the money,’ and that no one had provided persuasive evidence that the documents were not authentic.”

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