CBS Cuts Off Bush Address
2003-12-15 05:26:47 ET
- Football Interrupts Rather's Coverage. Dan
Rather experienced another bizarre moment Sunday as CBS technicians
momentarily interrupted CBS's live coverage
of a speech by President Bush to show an empty football stadium.
A screenshot of the video feed showing CBS News graphics over an NFL game.The disruption occurred while Bush was congratulating the Iraqi people on the capture of their former dictator Saddam Hussein. He was interrupted by a live shot of the St. Louis Rams football field, which ran for six seconds. The game had yet to start, and the stadium was only partially filled. Background noise could be heard, and through it all, the bottom of the screen said: "CBS News Special Report: Saddam Hussein Captured."
When it became clear after six seconds that something was wrong, the feed went back to Rather. Before he spoke, two women (presumably producers) could be heard in a stage-whispered conversation. Only one voice was discernible but the message was clear to both Rather and his viewers: "We lost it!"
A flustered anchor apologized, "Unfortunately, we have lost the audio and video from--"
But Rather's attempt to cover was interrupted as someone brought back the White House feed.
"--congratulate," said Bush.
But Rather had to finish his sentence: "--from the White House. We pick it up now."
At the end of the presidential address, the anchor was embarrassed: "We do apologize for the technical difficulty, uh, that we had."
He ended the coverage, as he was forced to make room for football:
"This has been CBS News continuing live coverage of the capture of Saddam Hussein. Dan Rather in New York. Right now we're turning things over to our friends at CBS Sports for NFL Today. But we'll be back with updates throughout the afternoon."
What made the whole television event even more peculiar was that the CBS feed switched to the St. Louis Rams, an NFC team. The Rams were scheduled to play the Seattle Seahawks, another NFC opponent. But CBS Sports is not allowed to carry games featuring two NFC opponents, only AFC. The game was set for the Fox network. What CBS was doing showing a Fox game is not exactly clear.
But one thing is certain: This wasn't the first time Rather has been embarrassed by CBS Sports. Much earlier in his career on September 11, 1987--yes, September 11--CBS decided to preempt Rather's news coverage in favor of another sporting event, a Wimbledon semi-finals match between Steffi Graff and Lori McNeil. The decision so irked Rather that he walked off the set and refused to come back on the air. The CBS screen went black for six minutes as producers frantically searched for the anchor, who finally made his way back to the chair.
The snafu was the product of the hectic circumstances produced by the capture of Hussein said a source close to Rather.
"During that time of day, many of the various feed lines that come into the Broadcast Center in New York are controlled by CBS Sports," the source said. "But yesterday was no normal day at CBS -- or at any TV network or news channel. We were all shocked when we saw the football stadium instead of Bush. [...] Dan was just as confused as the rest of us."
- Dan Rather could have been in Iraq during the capture of Hussein but unfortunately for him, he has declined the military's repeated requests that he travel there. Oddly enough, Rather was afraid of missing a big news event in this country while overseas.
2003-12-14 10:53:11 ET
2003-12-14 09:34:30 ET
- Another live television booboo. CBS accidentally tried to interview Senate Democrat Joe Biden while he was being interviewed by NBC's Tim Russert. Dan asked him a question, but Biden didn't respond, Rather asked again, "Can you hear me, Senator?" Was waived off irritatedly. Asked again. Biden responded "Well Tim..." CBS cut transmission.
2003-12-14 08:58:52 ET
- CBS Reporter Worries About Falling Gunfire.
Long known as one of CBS's most negative reporters in Iraq, correspondent
Kimberly Dozier continued her behavior, worrying that Iraqis may be killed by
ammunition fired by ecstatic Iraqis:
"I imagine tonight across Baghdad that we might see a lot more of this celebratory gunfire when the sons of Saddam were killed, Ouday and Qusay, several people were injured and killed by falling gunfire when celebrations broke out throughout the city. So we'll wait, watch and listen."
2003-12-11 06:12:20 ET
- Rather Fixates on Bad Iraq News. With the
economy now improving, Democratic presidential hopefuls, as well as Democrats
in general, are now looking to the situation in Iraq as the weak point that
could bring down President Bush. How well the occupation is going in Iraq, or
at least the perception, could very likely decide the election. Although those
in the CBS News political team are not the brightest bulbs in the Beltway,
they still are aware that it's the perception of Bush's handling of Iraq that
could make or break his presidency.
The anchor had been invited repeatedly to visit Iraq by Paul Bremer, U.S. civilian administrator for the country, in order to get a broader perspective of events there. As one government spokesman put it, "In order to capture that story, you have to travel and invest time." If he had known Dan, though, he would have not even bothered to ask.
Unsurprisingly, the anchor turned Bremer down, and it was a matter of priorities: "If you are in Iraq and there is an attack in America, you're going to look out of position, and no one wants that, particularly during a sweeps month."
Rather showed his priorities again on Tuesday, as he said at the top of the program: "More U.S. troops wounded, more civilians killed in the latest violence in Iraq, and the Iraqis say it's only getting worse."
Thalia Assuras backed up the anchor's words: "The military command here in Baghdad says that overall things are getting better. But ordinary Iraqis will tell you they don't feel safe and say the security situation is getting worse."
There's another place where the residents say the security situation is getting worse, but unfortunately to highlight it will not score political points. "It's really a scandal that places like New York City, with 5 million more people, have fewer homicides [than Chicago]," said one Windy City community activist. Despite over 540 murders this year so far and last year's highest nationwide homicide rate--mostly the result of black-on-black violence--Chicago's plight has been ignored by CBS News. In fact, stories of blacks down on their luck are deliberately avoided. One liberal activist described a CBS News producer's instruction to avoid poor blacks for a story. "She said she didn't want the report to further the stereotype that only African-Americans are on welfare or are the only ones who need it." The problems many face in Chicago's worst neighborhoods also seem to be a "stereotype" worth avoiding.
2003-12-10 09:34:33 ET
- Iraq Away from the Cameras a Different
Reality. We've long wondered to what extent the American media in Iraq are
allowing their desire to stay around their cushy hotels stops them from
getting the real story in Iraq.
Occasionally, though, some reporters do venture out. One such journalist was Tara Copp of the Scripps Howard News Service. She discovered that things are much less dire than TV networks like CBS often portray them as.
"It's a little-known footnote in postwar Iraq that an unassuming Army Civil Affairs captain named Kent Lindner has a bevy of blushing female fans.
"Every time Lindner checks in on the group of young, deaf Iraqi seamstresses at their factory here, the women swarm him with admiration. "I love you!" one of them writes in the dust on Lindner's SUV.
"Such small-time adoration is not the stuff of headlines against the backdrop of a country painfully and often violently evolving from war. So on this day, when Lindner and his fellow soldiers were cheered as they fired the deaf workers' boss, a woman who had been locking the seamstresses in closets, holding their pay and beating them, the lack of TV cameras on hand was no surprise.
"But later that night, mortars hit nearby. Cameras were rolling, and 15 minutes later folks back home instead saw another news clip of Baghdad's latest violence. It's a soda-straw view that frustrates soldiers, like those in Lindner's Civil Affairs unit, who are slowly trying to stitch together the peace while the final stages of the war play out on television."
"What Iraq looks like on TV, and what Iraq is like for the 130,000 troops living here, sometimes feel like two different realities."
"Despite the violent news images seen most often at home, these soldiers say it's more common to see boys selling jugs of gasoline to passing cars than it is to see a roadside bomb.
"In the cities, the convoys pass through marketplaces where women walk, arm in arm, to shop for trendy beaded skirts that sparkle in the sun. They pass blocks of electronics stores where men carry home boxes of MP3 players and satellite TV dishes. On busier streets, hundreds of roadside "money exchanges," where Iraqis trade dollars for dinars, pop up like lemonade stands." Continued...
2003-12-04 18:23:20 ET
- Ratings-worried Rather Declines Invitations to
Iraq. Afraid of being forced out because
of his bad ratings, Dan Rather is resisting U.S. officials' requests that he
travel to Iraq.
The military and the Bush Administration have been displeased with Rather and his colleagues' predominantly negative reporting on the American-led effort to rebuild Iraq and have repeatedly asked Rather and other anchors to visit Iraq to get a fuller picture of what's going on beyond the confines of cushy Baghdad hotels.
"Ninety-five percent of this country is returning to normal," coalition spokesman Dan Senor told USA Today television writer Peter Johnson. "In order to capture that story, you have to travel and invest time."
But Rather doesn't appear to be moved by such entreaties. With fresh talk that CBS may shunt him over to 60 Minutes after his decade-plus ratings slump, the anchor seems more concerned about preserving his status than getting the story right.
"If you are in Iraq and there is an attack in America, you're going to look out of position, and no one wants that, particularly during a sweeps month," Rather told USA Today.
Rather's remarks were printed in the paper's Dec. 1 editions.
2003-12-03 05:00:45 ET
- Only Critics of U.S. Firefight Survive CBS's
Cut. Dan Rather decided to make as the top story on Monday's CBS
Evening News the dispute between some Iraqis and the U.S. military over a
battle that occurred the day before. Some locals claimed that innocents were
killed as the U.S troops fired indiscriminately. It was clear from the report
which side Rather and CBS correspondent Allen Pizzey believed, as no one from
the American side was shown on the air or paraphrased by Pizzey to counter the
charges.
The anchor said, "Dozens of Iraqis were killed. Whether or not all the Iraqis were involved in attacks on US troops is a matter of some question now." Pizzey said the battle "left behind piles of twisted, burned-out cars and buses and a firestorm of anger."
"The Americans showed no mercy on the streets here," one local policeman said.
The Baghdad correspondent reported that residents were "accusing them of firing indiscriminately."
Then the producer or producers decided putting the report together went on a soundbite binge, with three remarks from locals in a row, all without providing anything from the other side:
"When the Americans came down here they were firing wildly."
"The truth matters little now."
"They attacked us, so we have to attack them in return."
- Rather, CBS 'Out of Tune' With Majority Of Iraqi Citizens. Another
Iraq report that aired that night was about the spate of deaths experienced by
U.S. allies who also have a presence in Iraq. Rather said that despite the
violence affecting various countries, "most maintain they will continue to
support the US operation" and leave their troops in Iraq. But then the anchor
got into the partisan mode: "But just as in the run-up to the invasion, the
governments of those countries may or may not be in tune with the majority of
their citizens."
Correspondent Richard Roth followed by claiming that in countries such as Spain, which currently has 1,600 troops in Iraq, the public opinion is against stationing troops in Iraq.
Nowhere in the report were any numbers to back up the claims, but a month earlier, there were numbers on the public's desire to station troops. This poll, though, was of Iraqis. Though Rather said the allied governments could "not be in tune with the majority of their citizens" on the prospect of placing troops in Iraq, it appears that Rather and his colleagues in Iraq have been out of tune with public in opinion in Iraq. Despite the repeated CBS airing of clips of Iraqis declaring such things as "Death to America" and "Long live Saddam," a poll released on November 20 found that 71.5 percent of Iraqis wanted coalition troops to stay in Iraq
2003-11-30 03:06:00 ET
- Rumors of Rather Retirement Resurface.
Following Dan Rather's historically low ratings at the 2000 political
conventions, speculation abounded in the television industry that CBS wanted
to replace its 72-year-old anchorman.
Those rumors have continued to swirl about as Rather's ratings have declined and CBS's entertainment division has seen impressive gains. The No. 1-ranked entertainment network is having trouble getting someone to boost its perennially last-place Evening News out of the cellar.
But CBS's predicament is partly of its own making. At this point, there is not really anyone at CBS News in whom network execs and market researchers have confidence. Younger correspondents like John Roberts and Scott Pelley are said to be jockeying for position behind the scenes but seemed to have failed in their attempts gain traction. Neither has scored well with viewers and aside from an exclusive interview Pelley scored with President Bush on the first anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, neither aspirant has managed to snare any memorable scoops.
Some within CBS believe the current situation is partly due to Rather's efforts to escape being forced out in a fashion similar to the way in which he ousted his predecessor Walter Cronkite. By preventing younger colleagues from acquiring any real power or notoriety, Rather has managed to remain in the anchor's chair.
"The most masterful thing he's done at CBS over the years is to convince one news director after another not to bring along a successor," argues one producer.
Bill Carter, television reporter for the New York Times agrees:
"If [CBS's] news division was stronger, I think he'd be gone. But right now nobody could point to a single person who is of a similar stature."
"Their audience has dropped to under seven million - some of the lowest numbers they have ever seen. There is a crisis at their news division."
But removing the long-serving anchor may prove difficult. Rather has said repeatedly that he has no intention of quitting and corporate brass have had little help in their quest to replace him from the likes of news president Andrew Heyward who is known for his fealty to Rather and a status-quo approach to management.
Speaking of a similar situation at 60 Minutes, one producer argued to the New York Observer that Heyward and his underlings are fecklessly procrastinating the inevitable:
"As a manager, how could you take that kind of a trademark and allow yourself to get this point?"
"Imagine you were running the world and you suddenly discovered everybody was 85 and you hadn't made plans for next year? Everybody's taking their long summer vacation and pretending it's business as usual."
But the dynamics of the succession struggle appear to be changing, though not due to actions of anyone at CBS. The impending retirement of NBC's Tom Brokaw (who has led the ratings race for most of the past 15 years) is causing everyone at CBS to wonder what kind of impact it may have on the Eyemark network's Evening News.
On the one hand, keeping Rather on while Brokaw successor Brian Williams settles in may boost CBS out of last-place but it also might give a new CBS anchor room to breathe. Or it may have little effect at all.
When CBS will decide to show Rather the door is not clear at present but it is apparently giving serious consideration to replacing the Texan following the 2004 election, one which Rather had earlier said he did not intend on covering.
"After the election, we are looking at changes," the Web site DrudgeReport.com quoted a "top network source" as saying.
A spokeswoman for CBS News denied that the network is thinking about appointing a new anchor.
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