I'm with you, Bill. Retiring news anchors don't fly halfway across the US to do interviews. I also agree that, at this point, the whole CBS News upper management needs to go in order to salvage their rep. Either they were with Rather on this, or too afraid of him to do their jobs and rein him in. They need to go.

*HINT*
For any junior CBS News producers, anchors, etc. who are reading this blog: Now would be a good time to go public and save yourselves. The longer this drags on the more you risk having the equivilant of "Junior Accountant-Enron 1998-2001" on your resume. Not something that makes finding work easy.

- As you said Bill I'm not quite ready to jump in that golf cart just yet...There have been persistant rumors that CBS staffers are pissed and of the mind he was the Grand Marshall of this 76 bonehead parade, if not the engineer, which was most probably Mapes aggitating Heyward after investing 5 years in the "project". But I don't buy this line coming out of all of his peers and the overall coments from the MSM that Rather himself wouldn't be a part of this. They keep sayig all he does is read the News, rushing to guard one of their own. But I remember back some number of years ago there was a mighty dust up when Rather demanded more executive decision making power over the material of his News presentations. I don't remember the details other than the impression he won that battle with CBS higher ups. So is the atmosphere inside CBS "toxic". Don't doubt it. Will Rather be forced to go in the end. Probably. But based on the abdurant manner that he's handled this mess thus far I think we'er still a few stops to go before the train slams into the end of the line bulkworks...

"Not something that makes finding work easy."

Sadly, Brett, I doubt that is true. We are not talking about normal dynamics here. Dan may be criticized in public by his colleagues, but I doubt there is any real anger in the MSM towards him for other than getting caught. I know I sound cynical, but I can't see other CBS employees' reputations being tarnished for "doing the right thing, by any means necessary".
I could scream about it, but I also think Rather will survive now that the source is revealed. But his name is trash now for the majority of Americans.

The more complete story of the "rumors" is here: http://colbycollege.blogspot.com/2004/09/rathers-colleagues-rather-to-fall-on.html

Allah links to the NYT where it is pointed out that Dan didn't go alone - a CBS Muckety Muck went along too.

That... sounds a little more ominous for Dan.

Frankly, I'd pay to watch the CBS execs questions everyone at 60 Minutes II + their chain of responsibility + all the experts. Think "Real reality TV."

mikem:

At some point you become toxic by being associated. If, say, ABC hires someone who worked for CBS News and they have a story go bad, some pajama clad pundit would have the screen shot from the credits of one of Rather's recent 'newscasts' and the ABC show on a blog in under 24 hours.

To paraphrase John Kerry, 'How do you ask someone to be the last person to sacrifice their career for a lie?' Someone needs to call their college roomate over at ABC or NBC or Fox and give the whole story. There's nothing personal about it. CBS would burn a junior producer in a second to save face, those guys might want to burn CBS to save their ass.

I'm skeptical about Rather getting it, but no doubt mapes will get canned. But I agree with Ernest its obvious CBS has an instituional problem.

Actually I sent an email saying just that to 60 Minutes (the original one). Basically saying there was no accountability at CBS so why should I trust anything that comes out of it.

That's the key ctob.
If they made a mistake and can back with 'Gosh, we messed that up', that would be one thing.

But Dan came out and said this story had _more_ than exceeded their standards. Which implicates everything else as well.

Last post of the night, I swear. I need to get my own blog and leave poor Bill alone. Anyhoo, I think ctob has it right. Start sending emails to affiliates, other CBS News programs, sponsors, etc. stating that a retraction don't cut it, Rather's butt alone don't cut it and a major shakeup will be needed to restore any sort of confidence in the brand.

With no "60 Minutes II" this week, it's my guess that the Burkett interview will air Monday....and that Rather may announce his resignation not long after that interview gets broadcast (maybe even at the end of Monday's newscast!).

The clock is ticking........

Maybe they fear what will happen to those who break ranks even at this late stage of the disaster:

Station Denies Firing Host in Rather Flap
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/entertainment/9701134.htm

PEGGY ANDERSEN

Associated Press

SEATTLE - A radio station Sunday denied a talk show host's claim that he was fired because he criticized CBS newsman Dan Rather's handling of challenges to the authenticity of memos about President Bush's National Guard service.

KIRO-AM Radio, a CBS affiliate here, canceled "The Brian Maloney Show" because of scheduling conflicts, the station's general manager said Sunday....

Brett: Point taken. Hey, I'm just feeling cynical these days about journalists and the MSM, and their resistance to any sense of shame.

I'm hoping for a trifecta (Heyward, Rather, Mapes), but in the end I'll be happy with just a Bush victory in November. Then I can at least dream that Rather, Moore, and the transparent bias of the MSM actually hurt Kerry.

"I shudder to think of how they'll spin this interview ... fake but true? Burkett just passed along anonymously received documents but did not create them? The proper course of action is to out the source of false information and be done with it, not give him a free pass to take a swipe at Bush in front of a national television audience."

Were I Burkett's lawyer, I would not permit him to admit to contriving the documents because it is possible, even probable, this constitutes a crime. I think Burkett is going to decline to say just how he got them, but argue that he believed they were genuine because they reflected, doncha know, Bush documents he "saw" being thrown away at the ANG office.

Yes, Burkett CAN use the "anonymously recieved" documents defense. Chances are they were actually typed by some punk high schooler anyway.