Anchors Rather, Jennings Join Pickets in Support of Writers in Network Strike

CBS News anchor Dan Rather joined a picket line outside the network’s studios Monday to show solidarity with members of the Writers Guild of America, who are on strike against CBS and ABC in a dispute over job security.

A smaller demonstration also was held outside ABC studios, where anchor Peter Jennings marched.

“I’m sad about what’s happening,” Rather said. “I’m for every person who works for CBS News and I want us to hold together and I think that’s possible. It’s not a happy time.”

Rather was joined by a dozen on-air personalities who walked the picket line and talked to several hundred strikers and their supporters.

“It was very good to see people at that level supporting us,” said Lou Palisano, a graphic artist with CBS for 20 years. “It was very uplifting,” he said, echoing the feelings of many strikers.

After four consecutive days of talks, negotiators took a break Monday, the eighth day of the strike by 525 writers and editors against the two networks and seven network-owned radio and television stations in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington.

Talks were to resume today under the auspices of federal mediator Timothy Germany.

The union targeted CBS for the larger demonstration because in addition to the announcement Sunday that strikers’ medical benefits would be terminated, CBS News on Friday laid off 214 people.

“We’ve been through quite a convulsion over the weekend,” said Diane Sawyer, the “60 Minutes” correspondent who joined the noon demonstration. “We need these people.”

Correspondent Charles Osgood said he was unsure of the impact of the newest cutbacks announced by CBS Chairman Laurence Tisch and CBS News President Howard Stringer.

“All I know is an awful lot of very fine people, able and professional journalists, who thought they had lifetime careers . . . now find themselves out here,” Osgood said. “When you have this many good people released at one time, it’s bound to have an effect and it can’t be good.”

CBS correspondent Douglas Edwards read a letter from Richard Salant, former president of CBS News, who said: “If I were not on my way out of the country, I’d be there with my friends at CBS News to demonstrate my sadness and concern about the unhappy events which are occurring. My best wishes to all at CBS News who are leaving as well as to those who must continue to try to uphold the news tradition in these most trying circumstances.”

CBS Capitol Hill correspondent Ike Pappas, who was laid off Friday, said, “The quality, the integrity and the standards that we had are being compromised by . . . the accountants, the bean counters, the Tisches of the world.”

Judy Muller, a correspondent for the CBS radio network, said: “In radio, where the written word is the picture, our writers are sorely missed. In radio, where the wrong word or even the right word in the wrong place can get you in trouble, our editors are sorely missed. . . . They cannot be replaced by part-timers.”

On Sunday, the networks told the guild it must pay for health insurance retroactive to the start of the strike and gave it until March 15 to come up with $150,000 for a month of coverage.

Tisch sent a memo to the news division Monday taking some of the heat for last week’s firings and apparently aimed at heading off a resignation by Stringer.

Tisch had been quoted in the New York Times as saying the firings were all Stringer’s idea. Stringer had said the layoffs were part of a belt-tightening demanded by Tisch.

“I never said to Howard, ‘We have to cut the budget at the news division.’ That’s the truth,” Tisch was quoted as saying over the weekend. “Howard called me a month ago and said, ‘Larry, I’ve got some ideas on restructuring the news division. It’ll take me about 30 days to put them together.’ I said, ‘Fine, Howard, I’ll be happy to go over them with you.’ ”

The New York Times quoted Tisch as saying he deleted the names of six correspondents due to be pink-slipped March 6.

Sources at CBS suggested Stringer might be considering resigning, but a spokeswoman would only say, “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”