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.