Dan Rather has a case of what might be termed situational journalism. Whenever he interviews a Republican, Dan plays it tough. But he gives Democrats the kid-glove treatment. This page compares his interviews with former president Bill Clinton to one he conducted with actor-turned-California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Both men came under fire from their opponents for sexual misconduct. Rather apologized for Clinton while attacking Schwarzenegger.
2003-10-09 15:18:22 ET
Dan Rather prides himself on being a tough interviewer. He said as much after his questions to presidents Nixon, Reagan, and Bush 41 generated controversy. But they also brought him prominence within CBS News. His confrontational questioning of Richard Nixon established him as a premiere correspondent in the eyes of the CBS brass. The "are you running for something?" confrontation gave him wide name recognition among Americans.
Though his altercations with Republican presidents brought him admiration inside his network and fame outside it, they also brought criticism of bias. Rather always vehemently denied them. He was simply being a tough journalist who owed no fealty to political leaders.
"I strongly believe that in our system no citizen has to face any leader on bended knee," Rather wrote in his 1977 book, The Camera Never Blinks. "He is not standing before a monarch, or a descendant of the sun god."
In his 1994 book The Camera Never Blinks Twice, Rather argued that reporters must ask questions about difficult subjects, insisting upon the answers in order to be ethical.
"Journalists of integrity ask questions. We don't come to conclusions before getting what can be considered reasonably honest answers. Especially when an interview subject is involved with allegations of serious wrongdoing in public office, it is the responsibility of an ethical journalist to ask direct questions--and keep on asking them until the subject answers, or until it is clear he refuses to answer."
All that changed, though, when Bill Clinton became president. The previously tough-as-nails Rather became a lapdog for Clinton in his interviews. The Texan's sudden obeisance was widely noticed by his colleagues and rivals. Asked about whom Clinton would chose to grant his post-presidency interviews to, Don Hewitt, the founder of 60 Minutes hinted that the two men were quite friendly with each other:
"He's going to do something with somebody," Hewitt said during an April 2001 appearance on C-SPAN's Booknotes. "I'm guessing he'll do it with Dan Rather. He--he likes Dan. And Dan likes him, I think."
And Hewitt was not just speculating, either. Rather has defended both Clintons' characters over the years, calling him an "honest man" and repeatedly asserting that impeachment was mainly about the president's "personal life." Rather also has publicly proclaimed his admiration for Hillary Clinton and even went so far as to say that he and his co-anchor Connie Chung "respect her and we're pulling for her."
Back when he was under fire for going easy on Clinton, Rather rejected the idea that he should have asked the president about lying under oath and to his advisers since Clinton had already been asked those questions. But repeating questions hadn't bothered Rather before when he grilled George Bush in 1988 with questions about the very-much discussed Iran-contra.
And it didn't bother him yesterday, either.
Keeping with his inconsistent pattern of suppressing charges of sexual assault against Clinton while promoting them against Schwarzenegger, Rather asked the governor-elect what he would do about if his wife was sexually harassed by someone:
"You've been through a lot with these accusations about your past," Rather asked in an excerpt run on last night's CBS Evening News. "I want to ask you a hypothetical question. If your wife came to you and said that some man had groped and grabbed her, and she used words like 'disgusted,' afraid, 'humiliated' to describe how she felt, as a husband, as a man, what would you do?"
In his interviews with Clinton, Rather struck a decidedly different tone, never once asking him about any of the charges of infidelity, sexual harassment, or rape. He did ask some questions about Clinton's family life, though:
Last night, Rather also reprised his prior role as the "no-spin" reporter, deriding Schwarzenegger's response to a question about California's budget deficit:
RATHER: I recognize you said all through the campaign that you would turn the state around economically, but you know the facts. You s--say you're not going to raise taxes. Eighty percent of the current spending is mandated by law. So how can you possibly do what you said you'd do in the campaign?
SCHWARZENEGGER: I know I will be able to do those kind of things. I know we will be able to bring the economy back. I know that we will be working on a budget deficit and try to cut that down. You know, the thing is--is that as you get into this whole thing, you realize, of course, that it is much worse than it really was set out to be. Senator Feinstein told me today that it could very well be that within the next month or two we will find out that it will be actually $20 billion. So, I mean, this is--you know, you have to deal with those kind of issues as they come along. There's a lot of hidden things right now going on. That's why I always said, you know, there's--there are more--there are more special effects in our budget than in Terminator 3.
RATHER: Nice soundbite. On the other side, one of the more favorite soundbites is 'Listen, Arnold Schwarzenegger does not have any idea of a detailed plan, so therefore he's running, quote, "voodoo economics,"' which is something that's left over from the Reagan years, as you know.
It's probably safe to say that Schwarzenegger will not be giving the CBS Evening News any more interviews, much like the current president has never done so after Rather ambushed his father in 1988. All three have learned first-hand that Dan Rather only tries to terminate Republicans.
For further reference, we have provided transcripts of Rather's 1988 interrogation of George Bush, his 1993 interview with Bill Clinton, a 1999 chat with Clinton, as well as the 2003 session with Arnold Schwarzenegger. print_file('footer'); ?>