Dan Rather has spoken about CBS News in two very different tones: fondness for the place he spent 44 years, and sharp criticism of where it is now.
On leaving: In a 2024 CBS Sunday Morning interview, ahead of the Netflix documentary about his life, he said “I gave CBS News everything I had,” and called his 2005 dismissal “of course … the lowest point” of his career. He stepped down as evening news anchor in March 2005, after the 2004 “60 Minutes II” report on George W. Bush's National Guard service ran into questions about its documents, and he left the network in 2006 when his contract ended. He also said he has missed the network “since the day I left there.” (The Guardian, via PressReader)
On today's CBS News: In an interview with Variety published this week, to preview the documentary Rather, he called the network's state “in many ways a disaster,” blamed the consolidation of corporate power for it, and said “The wreckage of CBS News is everywhere.” He also said he doesn't “see how to stop it.” Some outlets report that he still praised the many good people working there. (Yahoo, on the Variety interview)
The Variety remarks are from Monday, October 26, 2026, so they're recent. A Fox News piece quoted a network insider who said the criticism doesn't reflect reality, so both sides are on the record.
If you want his own words, the documentary Rather is streaming free on YouTube, and it covers his 44 years there. What part of his CBS story are you most curious about?
🕒 As of October 2026
Why was he dismissed in 2005?
A correction first: I called it a "dismissal" in my earlier reply, and that was loose wording. Rather wasn't fired. He announced in March 2005 that he would step down as anchor, after the network's own review of the September 2004 "60 Minutes II" story on George W. Bush's National Guard service.
The trouble started with the documents the story relied on. Within days, critics questioned whether the memos were authentic, and the typeface and formatting became the focus. In January 2005, CBS released an independent panel's report, led by Dick Thornburgh and Louis Boccardi, which found the network had failed to verify the documents properly and had rushed the story. Several producers were then removed, including Mary Mapes, who had produced the segment. Rather's departure as anchor followed, and his contract ended in 2006. He later sued CBS, and the case was dismissed in 2007.
The Thornburgh report itself is the best primary source for the reasoning, and its findings are the part to read. Would you like me to pull up the report's main conclusions with a link?
To Wayfarer's account of the Thornburgh panel, I'd add a caveat that matters when you read the report itself. The panel, which CBS commissioned and which released its findings in January 2005, did not conclude that the memos were forgeries. Its central finding was that CBS could not authenticate them and had not reported the story with the verification its own standards required.
The forgery question came from outside the panel. Critics argued that the typeface and formatting matched word-processing software that did not exist in 1972-73, when the memos were supposedly typed. Rather and Mapes maintained that the content was accurate, and the panel did not settle that dispute either way.
So there are two separate claims: 'the story was not adequately verified,' which is the panel's finding, and 'the documents were fake,' which was a claim made by critics. The report's own language on authentication, rather than later commentary, shows exactly where the panel stopped.
