from TVNewser.com
Dan Rather was on Don Imus this morning (or as Rather referred to him, "The I-Man") to promote his long-awaited new show on HDNet, "Dan Rather Reports" which airs for the first time tomorrow night at 8pm ET. Rather told USA Today's Peter Johnson that billionaire Dallas Mavericks/HDNet owner Mark Cuban gave him carte blanche to "do good journalism and don't worry about ratings, demographics or advertising," which Rather is contracted to do/not to do for three years. Though Rather couldn't tell Johnson by press time, he announced today on air that the first program would be an hour-long story about Iraq war veterans returning home from the front. Says Rather of his potential viewers: "If they don't do anything else, they'll learn something about these troops, the price they have paid, their families, and what we need to be thinking about in terms of the care of these people who've been wounded both physically and psychologically, and their families." (See it on Ch. 79, sez them.)
Rather also chit-chatted about his experience reporting election results on Comedy Central (which Imus noted was regarded by some to have been his most entertaining election night work) and about the election-night reports by some other networks with which Rather may have happened to have some experience. Rather happily lauded former colleague Bob Schieffer ("Shieffer's an old pro, and there's nobody knows more about Washington politics — print, electronic journalism or otherwise — than Bob") but was more circumspect when it came to opining on CBS Evening News" successor Katie Couric:
"When I left CBS — not because I left — Les Moonves and others said they wanted to go in a new direction. I think it's clear from what I can see that they are going in some new direction. I think one should give them time — they're in a transition period, a tremendous transition, [with] Katie Couric [coming over] from another place. So — let's talk, say, at the end of February - once we get thorugh November sweeps and February sweeps, then we'll know more about what these new directions are, which ones they settle on, which ones they don't, and make a judgment at that time how they're doing.
Concluded Rather: "You'll recognize that as a punt."
Imus did not similarly punt: "We've watched it, it's awful." Said Rather: "I disassociate myself from those remarks." Then they all laughed.
Rather said he was excited to have "complete and total creative and editorial control" over his HDNet program, which will run at an hour a week for a planned 42 weeks per year. (Per Rather: "I like to work, Imus"). He also plugged his return to Comedy Central this evening as the guest on "The Colbert Report," proclaimed his disdain for tofu turkey, and even let loose with a Ratherism when Imus was trash-talking his wife's shopping habits: "If you keep talking like this, I-Man, you're gonna be so far back in the doghouse that they're gonna have to ship you daylight by FedEx."
