Word: dan
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...walked off the set just before the network switched to the news, inadvertently forcing the CBS nationwide signal to go black for six minutes. The incident renewed dark suspicions that Rather is too high- strung and emotionally unstable to be running a network newscast. Asked the London Times: "Is Dan Rather, bishop of the nation's news business, losing his marbles...
...shock waves set off by the interview seemed magnified simply because Rather was involved. "Dan leaps out like a tiger, and some people don't like that," says ABC Correspondent Ann Compton. "He is a lightning rod for the American people who believe the press is rude." CBS stations around the country were besieged by phone callers criticizing Rather (though pro and con opinions became more evenly divided as the week went on). A Times-Mirror Gallup poll conducted Wednesday showed that Rather's favorable rating among viewers -- already lower than that of either of his two network rivals -- dropped...
Buoyed by the midweek backlash in Rather's favor, CBS executives stood by their man. "There is no question that what Dan portrayed on the air was not the sort of gracious Southern gentleman that he is in person," said News President Howard Stringer. "What we got was a journalist in pursuit of a story." CBS Chairman Lawrence Tisch, who was traveling in the Far East on business when the episode occurred, was briefed on it by telephone and, according to Stringer, was "very supportive." CBS staffers, though shaken by the initial barrage of criticism, were also upbeat by week...
...answers, but I did not get mad." Aides who briefed Rather before the interview say the anchor was fully prepared for a heated exchange. "We knew Bush would attack, and we knew he wasn't going to answer the questions," says Producer Martin Koughan. "The trick was, How does Dan keep control of the line of questioning? Better rude than cowed...
Colleagues agree that Rather is intense and fiercely competitive. But few have many more clues to his elusive personality. "Dan is a man of many moods, a complicated man, hard to figure," says one who has worked closely with him. Rather, who lives with his wife Jean in an East Side Manhattan co-op, avoids the city's social scene. A workaholic who usually gets by on four hours' sleep a night, he spends his spare hours reading, watching sports on TV and fly- fishing in the Catskills during summer vacations...