November 10, 2013, New York Daily News, Dan Rather held out hope that CBS would bring him back for coverage of the anniversary of JFK's assassination, by Don Kaplan,

November 10, 2013, New York Daily News, Dan Rather held out hope that CBS would bring him back for coverage of the anniversary of JFK's assassination, by Don Kaplan, 

The longtime newsman sued the network over his 2006 ouster, but he was instrumental to CBS' coverage from Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963


AP
Dan Rather in Dallas in June 1967. He played a key role in CBS' breaking coverage of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy three and a half years earlier.

It’s the equivalent of suffering through the world’s ugliest divorce — then asking your still-fuming ex-wife for one last quickie.

Dan Rather is many things, but he is not dumb. And yet even after a failed lawsuit against CBS and enough nasty barbs to fill a book, the anchor bizarrely admitted last week he hoped the network would forget seven years of bad blood and let him participate in coverage of the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

“I held off doing anything for anybody else for a while, thinking I may be asked to do something [for CBS],” he told veteran AP reporter David Bauder. “I can’t say I had any reason for that hope.”

He’s right — after a split like this there’s no such thing as hope.

TV networks and the people who run them are not forgiving, especially after such a nasty and public breakup.

Rather, of course, launched himself into the national spotlight on that fateful day in 1963 when CBS sent him to Dallas to coordinate coverage of the President’s visit.

His job was to find locations along the motorcade’s route where network cameramen could film — and until that tragic moment he had no on-air assignments that day.


When Kennedy was shot, it was Rather’s shoe-leather reporting that let CBS broadcast news that Kennedy was dead long before any official confirmation.

Several days later, Rather was also one of the first people to see the famed Zapruder film, in which the fatal shot can be seen.


Dan Rather left CBS in 2006 over a report about President George W. Bush's military record.

Later on live TV, he described in detail what he saw in the film, helping paint the now-familiar vision of horror for millions.

Rather would go on to a 44-year career at CBS, including 24 spent as its highest-profile anchor. Despite his success, he was frequently accused by critics of peppering his stories with left-leaning bias. The newsman was offended by the allegations, and maintains to this day that his reporting was fact-based and middle-of-the-road.

But that reputation added fuel to fire in 2004 when he anchored a “60 Minutes II” segment alleging that then-President George W. Bush got favorable treatment and avoided combat in Vietnam thanks to his family ties.

The piece was based on what turned out to be questionable documents, leading to a humiliating about-face for the network.

Rather got pushed out of CBS in disgrace in 2006, and sued the network and its top executives the following year for $70 million, alleging his ouster from the “CBS Evening News” anchor seat was fallout for that report.

He claimed fraud and breach of fiduciary duty, but a court threw out the fraud claims in 2008. In 2009, the Appellate Division of the state Supreme Court said the complaint “must be dismissed in its entirety.”

That was the end of the road for Rather and CBS — except in Rather’s mind.

But if it’s any consolation to the newsman, he can tune in to CBS knowing he will play some role in the network’s JFK coverage — in archival footage.

“Dan Rather was a big part of the CBS coverage when the assassination occurred ... he’s absolutely in the broadcast,” the JFK programming’s executive producer Susan Zirinsky said.

It’s an ugly divorce, and one where it appears CBS wound up with all the heirlooms.