Veteran newsman signs off

LEGENDARY CBS News anchor Dan Rather signed off for the last time last night but tributes to the 73-year-old veteran were mixed with sniping after his final months were marred by a scandal that tarnished his reputation.

One of the three leading US news anchors for the past two decades, Rather described himself as “a big-game hunter” who took on presidents from Richard Nixon to George W Bush.

For conservatives, he was the epitome of liberal media bias. For many viewers, he was a clean-cut Texan with a quirky turn of phrase that bordered on the bizarre.

The Washington Post ran a selection of his election comments over the years including such gems as Texas is “the big enchilada or, if not an enchilada, then a huge taco,” and “If a frog didn’t have long hind legs, he wouldn’t have squat to jump with.”

Rival network ABC paid tribute to Rather on its breakfast show.

ABC carried footage of Rather’s lengthy career, from the assassination of President John F Kennedy and the Vietnam War to Afghanistan and Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

CBS took out a full page ad in The New York Times to promote a one-hour retrospective aired after Rather’s final newscast.

His departure was overshadowed by a discredited report before the 2004 election questioning George Bush’s military service.

CBS News sacked or requested the resignation of four employees in January after an independent report found “myopic zeal” led CBS to disregard basic journalism principles when it aired the story saying the President got special treatment in the Texas Air National Guard. Rather was criticised but escaped disciplinary action.