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Mar. 7, 2005 Before the proliferation of cable into my neighborhood, we had to rely on a good pair of rabbit ears to pull in television signals from the Charlotte stations. Just so happens that I literally lived under the most powerful transmitter in the market, which belongs to our CBS affiliate, WBTV. And that meant, more often than not, we watched the CBS Evening News. It wasn’t the same when Dan Rather took over from the venerable Walter Cronkite in March of 1981. I had grown up watching Cronkite every night, even practicing his signature signoff, “And that’s the way it is…” in the bathroom mirror. I also enjoyed watching Roger Mudd and Morton Dean, who usually filled in for Cronkite whenever he needed a little R-and-R. I always thought Rather was good at what he did, though he always seemed to be more comfortable out in the field than behind an anchor desk. But he was his best whenever there was some sort of crisis. Like in 1983, when suicide bombers killed nearly 200 Marines at a compound in Beirut. Or in 1986, when the space shuttle Challenger exploded less than two minutes into its tenth flight, and again in 2003, when Challenger’s older sister, Columbia, broke apart just minutes from touchdown. Or in 2001, when the entire world stopped what it was doing to follow the devastating terror attacks on New York and Washington. Even through the professionalism, the tell-it-like-it-is aura he projected, you could hear and see the man’s emotions. He didn’t come off smug like Tom Brokaw or aloof like Peter Jennings. I could tell in those moments of tragedy and trial that he felt like most of America did--like I did. “Memogate” has cast a pall over Dan Rather’s lengthy tenure at CBS News, and I’d dare say that if William S. Paley were still alive and in charge of the network, both he and CBS News president Andrew Heyward would have been gone by now, as they should have been. But in an era where employee loyalty seems to have hit an all-time low, and in a news operation that has seen more drama than “Dallas”, “Falcon Crest” and “Knots Landing” combined, Dan Rather did a heck of a job at the desk and in the field. When he leaves the anchor desk on March 9, a fellow Texan, Bob Schieffer, will take over until CBS News decides the future of its hallmark franchise. And that, my friends, is the way it is… ------------ About the author: Claxton Graham has written a number of articles for Useless Knowledge. He works as a business systems analyst. Email: scifiwriter8502@email.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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