Dan Rather-Blather at CBS (Political Satire/Commentary at PoliSat.Com TM ©)

Media world finds Dan Rather certain he did not have fraudulent relations with that source, Mrs. Maples, so he needs to get back to the work of informing the people on 60 Minutes.

As Dan Rather prepares to formally retire as the CBS News Anchor (and in this case, "Anchor" is literally correct), the media world finds Dan Rather certain he did not have fraudulent relations with that source, Mrs. Maples, so he needs to get back to the work of informing the people on 60 Minutes. Paraphrasing his most beloved political role model, Rather said, "I am not a partisan hack." However, even though Rather adamantly insists he is not a politically biased reporter, most media observers know that for decades he has been a reported political bias. When he began to Anchor CBS News decades ago, many Northeasterners doubted the country could adjust to his accent, but he soon overcame it with his unique way of communicating, which became known as Rather-Blather.

In anticipation of Rather's retirement on March 9, 2005, PoliSat.Com's Washington Bureau Drawer Chief used PoliSat.Com's high-tech, remote-sensing equipment to capture a video clip from Dan Rather's "testimony" before the panel appointed by CBS to investigate the infamous 60 Minutes broadcast of patently fraudulent "documents" from George Bush's National Guard record. (More on that tomorrow.) To view the short video segment, click the "Rather Certain" image to the left (or click the larger image below labeled for video clip with sound).

The doting Walter Cronkite marked the eve of Rather's retirement as an occasion to express amazement that CBS News hadn't replaced rather more than a decade ago. PoliSat.Com was unable to reach Roger Mudd, widely recognized when Cronkite retired decades ago as the most suitable replacement for Cronkite, but, alas, Mudd had alienated the politically correct crowd at CBS News when, during his interview of Ted Kennedy during Kennedy's campaign in the 1980 primaries against Jimmy Carter, he did the unthinkable-- he asked Kennedy to do what any fair-minded reporter would have known to have been a "below the belt" question-- i.e., he asked Kennedy to explain why he wanted to be president. Of course Kennedy's embarrassing inability to answer the question all but destroyed his chances against even the feckless Jimmy Carter, and, of course, Mudd's having deigned to ask such a question planted great anxiety in the minds of the brass at CBS News that Mudd might not be a "team player" or might even be a potentially future red-stater.

The burning question today is whether Rather's parting words will paraphrase another great line from his political role-model: "Well, you won't have Dan Rather to kick around anymore." Or, will he paraphrase Douglas MacArthur: "Old Anchors never die, they just drag the ships to the bottom."

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Mar. 8, 2005 #01 Daily Update at PoliSat.Com, where satire is always commentary, but commentary isn't always satire.™

Title: Rather Certain.

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Rather-Blather at CBS News falsely smears Independent Counsel Robert Ray, Republicans and the Bush Campaign (for a PoliSat Rhyme about this, go here.).
Below is the text of an on-line allegation by Dan Rather for CBS on August 17, 2000, refuted by an Associated Press report on August 18, 2000:

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 17, 2000 (CBS) For all the talk by both parties and major candidates about keeping this presidential campaign on the high road, it seems low-road politics remain very much in fashion. Once again, we are reminded that with politicians, especially, you need to watch their feet as you listen to their words.

All of which comes to mind in light of the leak revealing that Ken Starr's successor, Independent Counsel Robert Ray, has empaneled a new grand jury to look at evidence that President Clinton broke the law while giving testimony on his relationship with Monica Lewinsky in the Paula Jones lawsuit.

You don't have to be a cynic to note that this has all the earmarks of a carefully orchestrated, politically motivated leak. The Republican-backed Robert Ray is sponsored by a three-judge panel that must periodically decide whether Ray's investigation should continue. This panel features two federal judges backed by the Jesse Helms wing of the Republican Party.

Any reporter who's spent time on the police beat learns to look for motive. So you ask yourself - what group has the motive to see that such a leak would occur at such a time, hours before Gore is set to accept his party's nomination in the most important speech of his political life?

None of which is to say that George W. Bush is behind the leak, directly or indirectly. We certainly have no information that he is. But candidates themselves hardly ever are, as their hands must remain clean and their deniability plausible. (You may want to review some of the more unpleasant tactics used by Bush backers against John McCain in South Carolina earlier this year.)

The Gore campaign, of course, is trying to shrug off this latest maneuver - and may even harbor hopes that the leak will engender a backlash against the Republicans. But well-timed leaks and revelations have recently become especially effective weapons for backroom political strategists because they work. And regardless of backlash, they plant seeds of doubts about candidates and their parties. Most of us hope and like to think that they don't work. The record indicates otherwise. They do.

On-line source on 08-19-00:
.http://cbsnews.cbs.com/now/story/0,1597,225854-412,00.shtml.

Associated Press refutation of Rather-Blather:

WASHINGTON –– Independent Counsel Robert Ray confirmed Friday that he has impaneled a grand jury to resume investigation of the Monica Lewinsky scandal as a federal judge said he inadvertently released that information a day earlier.

Appellate Court Judge Richard D. Cudahy, one of three judges on the panel that supervises Ray, said in a statement that it was he who disclosed the information. He said it occurred in a conversation with a reporter who called to ask about the panel's decision to grant an extension to Ray's investigation.

In a statement of his own, Ray said the disclosure was a setback. "The timing of yesterday's disclosure of the existence of a grand jury considering evidence in the Lewinsky investigation undermines our ability to complete this matter in a prompt, responsible, and cost-effective manner," he said.

Judge Cudahy, a veteran jurist appointed to the bench by President Carter in 1979, said that "the timing resulted solely from the press inquiry following on the issuance of the special division's order."

While discussing the extension, which was released Thursday by the three-judge panel, "the judge inadvertently referred to the existence of a newly-empaneled grand jury," Cudahy's statement said. "This fact, previously undisclosed, has led to considerable controversy, based on its timing." Indeed, Democrats criticized the timing of the legal developments involving President Clinton because they were made public on the day Vice President Al Gore was accepting his party's nomination at the Democratic National Convention.

Cudahy on Friday disclosed his role, "with apologies to all concerned," said the statement released by Cudahy's office. He came forward because of "the nature of the controversy," the statement said.

In a statement given to reporters in Lake Placid, where Clinton is vacationing with his family, presidential spokesman Jake Siewert said: "Wherever the information came from, even after $50 million, an 800-page report and proceedings before both houses of Congress, the independent counsel seems to want this investigation to go on and on and on. The American people have put this behind them, and they must be wondering why the independent counsel can't do the same."

The Associated Press first reported the new grand jury on Thursday, citing legal sources. On Friday, the three-judge panel, at Ray's request, authorized to Ray to make public letters to the court that confirmed the existence of the grand jury.

Kelly Smith Tunney, director of corporate communications for The Associated Press, said, "We are aware of the judge's statement, but we don't discuss reporter's sources."

Cudahy was the lone dissenting voice a year ago when the panel decided to let Ray go ahead with the probe, saying "an endless investigation" served no goal and imposed a needless burden on taxpayers. The judge, based in Chicago, agreed with the order issued this week.

On-Line Source on 08-19-00:
.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20000818/aponline203947_000.htm.
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