Jennings and Brokaw Speak Up for Rather

Dan Rather may be under attack from bloggers, political conservatives and some of his fellow journalists, but on Saturday the CBS News anchor got an outpouring of support from a public audience that brought tears to his eyes.

Two of his prominent peers also jumped to his defense, with NBC News’ Tom Brokaw decrying the “kind of political jihad” against Rather and CBS News as “highly outrageous.” It was a poignant moment at a time when some have speculated Rather, 72, could lose the job he has held for more than two decades as anchor of “CBS Evening News” because of mistakes in a Sept. 8 report on “60 Minutes.”

Rather, and his NBC and ABC counterparts, agreed to participate in a panel discussion about campaign coverage, held by the New Yorker magazine, long before CBS News became embroiled in the scandal over documents it used to substantiate the “60 Minutes” broadcast. The report, anchored by Rather, alleged that President Bush received favorable treatment and shirked responsibilities while in the Texas Air National Guard in the 1970s.

Immediately, bloggers pointed out technical problems with the documents -- concerns, as it turns out, that were shared by some of the experts CBS had consulted before airing the report. Other sources came forward to call the documents fake, even as Republicans and Democrats tried to mine the controversy for political advantage. In particular, some conservatives have used the report as evidence of their long-held belief that Rather has a liberal bias.

CBS News and Rather apologized, and the network launched an independent investigation, asking employees not to discuss the matter until the report was concluded in the next several weeks. Rather hasn’t gone before the investigators yet.

But Saturday, at one of Rather’s first major public appearances since the scandal broke, the topic was clearly on the minds of the audience of about 500 at the New York Public Library. Audience member Chris Bock, 47, a purveyor of fresh chickens to restaurants in Boston, attended because “Dan is the hottest thing going. He is the medium and the message.” When moderator Ken Auletta brought up the issue shortly into the discussion, Rather said he couldn’t comment. So ABC News’ Peter Jennings jumped in.

Whatever the outcome of the investigation, Jennings said, “You don’t ever judge a man by one event in his career.” The room broke out in such sustained applause that Jennings quipped, “So now we know that this is a Blue room,” referring to the Red/Blue Republican/Democrat divide that many commentators have used to characterize this highly polarized political cycle.

Brokaw, too, had words of support for Rather, noting, “The rest of us owe it to CBS News to let the investigation play out.” He called CBS’ error “a big mistake,” but criticized the “attempt to demonize CBS News” by some conservatives, who he said were “assigning to [the report] a [political] motivation that I don’t think can be supported by the facts.”

Rather himself never addressed the issue. But during a discussion about whether all the networks had been critical enough in their reporting in the lead-up to the Iraq war, Rather indirectly signaled his state of mind. “I care deeply about this country,” he said, calling himself a “patriotic journalist.”

Rather added that he had struggled with finding a balance, when the “flag waving and the Sousa music playing” competed with the urge to ask tough questions, knowing that to do so as a journalist, “you might get hammered into dog meat.” He said it took “tremendous strength” to stand up to those who would label a journalist “unpatriotic” for asking difficult questions.

It was the questions from the public that got Rather choked up. One woman called Rather her inspiration during her career. She admonished him to heed the advice in his early autobiography, “The Camera Never Blinks,” which she quoted as saying, “Don’t let the bastards scare you.” Another young man told him to “Keep fighting the good fight.”

Rather appeared appreciative but didn’t stick around to bask in the favorable aura in the room, signing an autograph after the panel discussion, then leaving. Asked by a reporter how he felt about the support he had received, Rather didn’t break stride, answering, “See you.”