Where, Oh Where, Is Dan Rather?

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After shopping himself around a bit in 2006–the year CBS decided not to renew is contract–long-time anchor Dan Rather found himself without a home and without many takers within the ranks of the mainstream due to a story he had done on President Bush’s National Guard service. Unwilling to go quietly into the night in what would have amounted to a forced retirement, Rather went looking for an independent station that might take him in.

He found an unlikely ally in Mark Cuban, the noisy owner of the Dallas Mavericks–an NBA franchise–and billionaire from the dot com era. Cuban, the owner of HDNet, home to an odd combination of programming that includes ultimate fighting and Girls Gone Wild shows, said that he “liked the fact that [Rather] was a lightning rod” in those days following his exit from CBS.

In the March/April Issue of Mother Jones, Jim Rendon tells readers how this strange marriage came to be. In a profile that is as much about Cuban as it is about Rather, Rendon shows two men driven by their own interests and just where such drive can lead today when it comes to hard-hitting journalism. As Mother Jones puts it, “the former CBS anchorman is still kicking ass and winning Emmys. But with his exposés sandwiched between pro wrestling and Girls Gone Wild, is anybody watching?”

Source: Mother Jones

Image by NASA Goddard Photo and Video, licensed under Creative Commons.

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