Saturday, September 25, 2004
STAFF/WIRE REPORTS
NEW YORK -- Station managers at several CBS affiliates said this week they appear to be a target of a national e-mail campaign placing pressure on the network to oust Dan Rather as anchorman of the "CBS Evening News."
The anger stems from Rather's role in a "60 Minutes" report on President Bush's service in the National Guard. CBS has apologized for reporting on documents critical of Bush's service, widely assumed now as fakes, and appointed a panel to investigate what went wrong in the report.
Bob Lee, president and general manager of WDBJ-TV in Roanoke, Va., and head of the CBS affiliate board, said many e-mailers offer the same message: I will not watch CBS News again until Rather is gone.
"To be honest, I'm most concerned when the e-mail is coming from a local viewer," said Gary Gardner, vice president and general manager of WINK-TV in Fort Myers, Fla.
Lee said he can't recall any other issue getting such a big response from viewers.
Station managers take such a response very seriously. They are, in effect, Rather's constituency and several said they're eager to see what former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and former Associated Press chief executive Louis D. Boccardi turn up in their probe of CBS News operations.
Youngstown station
Locally, about 95 percent of Rather-related e-mails that have been sent to WKBN-TV Channel 27 came from outside the Youngstown market, general manager David Coy said Friday. The remaining 5 percent -- which number "more than a few, but less than a ton" according to Coy -- are from viewers who either are demanding Rather's dismissal or simply expressing their opinions.
Coy believes the controversy is a reflection of the heated political campaign between President Bush and his Democratic rival, Sen. John Kerry. "It's because of the content of the mistake that people are reacting," he said. Coy also wonders if the outcry would be the same if the subject of Rather's report had been a tobacco company executive instead of President Bush.
The campaign appears to originate from a blogger on the Web site Rathergate.com who is forwarding e-mails to stations around the country.
"The buck has to stop," said Mike Krempasky of Falls Church, Va., who works for a political advertising company and set up Rathergate.com.
XCONTRIBUTOR: Vindicator entertainment editor Debora Shaulis.