"Rather Outspoken" is a remarkable book. While the book resembles an autobiography, it becomes clear early on that Rather's real purpose is to set the record straight--as he sees it--on the September, 2004 CBS 60 Minutes Wednesday program that purported to detail President George W. Bush's record in the Texas Air National Guard. Rather's view is that the story that was told, i.e., that Bush used his father's influence to get into the Guard (to avoid Vietnam) and that he didn't complete his required amount of military service was accurately reported. He claims that the CBS duet of Viacom chief Sumner Redstone and CBS honcho Les Moonves had too many corporate interests at stake in Washington and had to find a way to walk back the Guard story. According to Rather, they hired former Attorney General (under President George H.W. Bush) Richard Thornburgh to investigate where the 60 Minutes Wednesday story went wrong. Rather's view is that Thornburgh had figured out his main conclusions before he started his work and that there really wasn't an investigation--it was just a ruse to let CBS walk away from the broadcast and to ease Rather out of the Company.
What makes this book remarkable is that first-class investigative reporter Dan Rather (in part through facts he secured by spending hundreds of thousands of his own dollars on unsuccessful litigation against CBS) makes an extremely strong case for his point of view. According to Rather, Redstone and Moonves used (now deposed) CBS News President Andrew Heyward to do most of their bidding. Clearly, if there is a goat in this book, it is clearly Heyward who was eventually "bought off" in Rather's view with a $2,000,000 severance package. Rather ties it all together by indicating that modern day journalism--in general--is in peril by the commercial interests of people such as Redstone and Moonves, claiming, in effect, that they are the opposite of what CBS founder William Paley and long-time CBS president Frank Stanton stood for. Rather can't believe that the CBS News presidency evolved from Richard Salant to Andrew Heyward.
Rather, now 80, still works and has worked since 2006 (when he left CBS) for Mark Cuban's HDNet. Rather equates Cuban as almost a modern day Bill Paley since Cuban, according to Rather, shares his vision of what investigative journalism has to be. I found the praise of Cuban to be somewhat self-serving but the fact is that a lot of Dan's work at hardly seen HDNet has won awards.
My personal favorite part of this book (and there are many) is Rather's description of what it was like to walk into the CBS Broadcast Center on 57th Street for the first time in 1962 and what it was like on that day to meet such CBS legends as Charles Collingwood (dressed immacuately, of course) and then nightime news anchor Douglas Edwards.
Rather has been in journalism for 60 years and is still working in the year that he will turn 81 because he is dogged, enthused, courageous, prepared, passionate and determined. I hope this book goes a long way to helping him bring his reputation back to where it surely belongs.
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It is very detailed but easy to read
Reviewed in Canada on May 25, 2017
