boutons_
06-16-2006, 04:26 PM
June 16, 2006
Dan Rather Considering Offer From Mark Cuban
By JACQUES STEINBERG (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/jacques_steinberg/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
Dan Rather (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/dan_rather/index.html?inline=nyt-per), whose agreement to leave CBS News after 44 years could be final as soon as this evening, said in an interview today that he was seriously considering an offer from Mark Cuban (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/mark_cuban/index.html?inline=nyt-per), the unbridled owner of the Dallas Mavericks, to be the host and producer of a one-hour weekly news program for HDNet, a high-definition television channel that Mr. Cuban's company owns.
After being told by CBS News in recent weeks that it would not extend his contract on "60 Minutes" past its expiration date in late November, Mr. Rather and the network have been trying to negotiate a deal that would enable him to leave early.
Mr. Rather, 74, said today that he had already been sifting several offers for future work, including two from what he described as major networks — a group that he defined as including ABC and NBC, as well as CNN and Fox News.
But at least as of today, Mr. Rather said, "What I expect to do, what I hope to do, is bring this HDNet thing to fruition."
Mr. Rather, who stepped down as anchor of the " CBS (http://www.nytimes.com/redirect/marketwatch/redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&symb=CBS) Evening News" last year in the aftermath of a reporting scandal involving President Bush's service in the National Guard, said he was approached earlier this year by Mr. Cuban, who made hundreds of millions of dollars in the high-tech boom of the 1990's but who is probably better known to sports fans as the owner of the Mavericks. Mr. Cuban's team is now tied, 2 —2, with the Miami Heat in the National Basketball Association finals.
Mr. Rather said that in addition to the one-hour interview program, which may eventually include "60 Minutes"-style investigative reports that he would prepare, he had committed to deliver at least two documentaries a year to the HDNet. The channel is available to subscribers with high-definition access on a handful of cable systems, including Time Warner (http://www.nytimes.com/redirect/marketwatch/redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&symb=TWX), and satellite operators, including DIRECTV and Dish.
He said he had received a contract from Mr. Cuban's company, in which he would commit to work for HDNet for at least three years, but had not yet signed it. HDNet currently carries both original news and music programming as well as reruns of series like "Hogan's Heroes" and "Charlie's Angels."
Mr. Cuban did not immediately respond to messages left for him early this afternoon at the Mavericks' front office, as well as sent to him directly via e-mail.
Mr. Rather also said that in April, in anticipation of what seemed to be his imminent departure from CBS, he had formed a company — he named it News and Guts, in a nod to what he considers the pillars of his professional life — through which he plans to create several other journalism ventures, including, perhaps, a blog. (Though he has not yet settled on a title, he says he has ruled out one: "I'd Rather Say This.")
Mr. Rather, who has been employed by CBS since he was 30, said that he was sad to be leaving CBS, and that his first choice would have been to remain a correspondent on "60 Minutes." But the network, he said, was uninterested, offering him only a contract that would have entitled him to an office and assistant, but no affiliation with any CBS program.
"I want to work," he said. "I want to do meaningful work. I worry about sounding self-serving, but I have my health. I am vigorous. I am as hungry for important stories as I've ever been. In fact, I think my hunger might be, if anything, greater. I guess I'd like to think that's saying something."
But he said that once it was made clear to him that there was no longer a role for him at CBS, he began to warm to the idea of working for someone seeking to explore television's next frontier, in much the way William S. Paley had blazed the trail of the modern CBS, and as Ted Turner (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/t/ted_turner/index.html?inline=nyt-per) had done for CNN.
"I may not have found them," Mr. Rather said of Mr. Cuban and a partner, Todd Wagner. "But I found as close as I think anyone is likely to find. And I like the chances."
Mr. Rather, who was anchor of the CBS News for nearly a quarter century and who, at one point , also served as a correspondent on the news magazines "60 Minutes II" and "48 Hours," readily acknowledged that it would "take some adjustment" for him to get used to being seen by, perhaps, thousands of viewers in a week, as opposed to millions.
But he added that "the opportunity to build something from the ground up, I think, will have its own satisfactions."
He also said he had been given assurances by Mr. Cuban that, should he accept the offer, he would have complete, unfettered control of his program. "It's a situation," Mr. Rather said, "where there are not very large, let me put it this way, 'corporate and political complexities.' "
In those comments, and others, Mr. Rather was referring, however obliquely, to his displeasure with the leadership of CBS. He appeared, for example, to fault the network for eventually withdrawing its support for the "60 Minutes II" report that would, in turn, unravel his career. In the segment, he had sought to raise new questions about President Bush's Vietnam-era National Guard service, using memorandums that the network and, later, a panel of outside investigators, said it could not authenticate.
Mr. Rather said that the 15 months since he had left the Evening News, and joined "60 Minutes," had been among the most frustrating periods of his career. To an outsider, the eight segments he had reported for the program since November — including reports that had taken him to North Korea, China and Beirut — would appear to represent a good year's work.
But Mr. Rather said that other correspondents had more than twice as many reports appear on the program, and that two reports he had been particularly proud of (those originating in Beirut and North Korea) had been effectively buried, on the program's Christmas and New Year's Day telecasts.
"I've done virtually nothing for six weeks," he said. "Anybody who knows me knows that's not the way I like to work."
Asked if the network had sought to marginalize him over his role in the disputed Guard report — including his spirited defense of the segment, for more than a week after it was broadcast — Mr. Rather said: "There's a lot I have yet to figure out."
Copyright 2006 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)
Dan Rather Considering Offer From Mark Cuban
By JACQUES STEINBERG (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/jacques_steinberg/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
Dan Rather (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/dan_rather/index.html?inline=nyt-per), whose agreement to leave CBS News after 44 years could be final as soon as this evening, said in an interview today that he was seriously considering an offer from Mark Cuban (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/mark_cuban/index.html?inline=nyt-per), the unbridled owner of the Dallas Mavericks, to be the host and producer of a one-hour weekly news program for HDNet, a high-definition television channel that Mr. Cuban's company owns.
After being told by CBS News in recent weeks that it would not extend his contract on "60 Minutes" past its expiration date in late November, Mr. Rather and the network have been trying to negotiate a deal that would enable him to leave early.
Mr. Rather, 74, said today that he had already been sifting several offers for future work, including two from what he described as major networks — a group that he defined as including ABC and NBC, as well as CNN and Fox News.
But at least as of today, Mr. Rather said, "What I expect to do, what I hope to do, is bring this HDNet thing to fruition."
Mr. Rather, who stepped down as anchor of the " CBS (http://www.nytimes.com/redirect/marketwatch/redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&symb=CBS) Evening News" last year in the aftermath of a reporting scandal involving President Bush's service in the National Guard, said he was approached earlier this year by Mr. Cuban, who made hundreds of millions of dollars in the high-tech boom of the 1990's but who is probably better known to sports fans as the owner of the Mavericks. Mr. Cuban's team is now tied, 2 —2, with the Miami Heat in the National Basketball Association finals.
Mr. Rather said that in addition to the one-hour interview program, which may eventually include "60 Minutes"-style investigative reports that he would prepare, he had committed to deliver at least two documentaries a year to the HDNet. The channel is available to subscribers with high-definition access on a handful of cable systems, including Time Warner (http://www.nytimes.com/redirect/marketwatch/redirect.ctx?MW=http://custom.marketwatch.com/custom/nyt-com/html-companyprofile.asp&symb=TWX), and satellite operators, including DIRECTV and Dish.
He said he had received a contract from Mr. Cuban's company, in which he would commit to work for HDNet for at least three years, but had not yet signed it. HDNet currently carries both original news and music programming as well as reruns of series like "Hogan's Heroes" and "Charlie's Angels."
Mr. Cuban did not immediately respond to messages left for him early this afternoon at the Mavericks' front office, as well as sent to him directly via e-mail.
Mr. Rather also said that in April, in anticipation of what seemed to be his imminent departure from CBS, he had formed a company — he named it News and Guts, in a nod to what he considers the pillars of his professional life — through which he plans to create several other journalism ventures, including, perhaps, a blog. (Though he has not yet settled on a title, he says he has ruled out one: "I'd Rather Say This.")
Mr. Rather, who has been employed by CBS since he was 30, said that he was sad to be leaving CBS, and that his first choice would have been to remain a correspondent on "60 Minutes." But the network, he said, was uninterested, offering him only a contract that would have entitled him to an office and assistant, but no affiliation with any CBS program.
"I want to work," he said. "I want to do meaningful work. I worry about sounding self-serving, but I have my health. I am vigorous. I am as hungry for important stories as I've ever been. In fact, I think my hunger might be, if anything, greater. I guess I'd like to think that's saying something."
But he said that once it was made clear to him that there was no longer a role for him at CBS, he began to warm to the idea of working for someone seeking to explore television's next frontier, in much the way William S. Paley had blazed the trail of the modern CBS, and as Ted Turner (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/t/ted_turner/index.html?inline=nyt-per) had done for CNN.
"I may not have found them," Mr. Rather said of Mr. Cuban and a partner, Todd Wagner. "But I found as close as I think anyone is likely to find. And I like the chances."
Mr. Rather, who was anchor of the CBS News for nearly a quarter century and who, at one point , also served as a correspondent on the news magazines "60 Minutes II" and "48 Hours," readily acknowledged that it would "take some adjustment" for him to get used to being seen by, perhaps, thousands of viewers in a week, as opposed to millions.
But he added that "the opportunity to build something from the ground up, I think, will have its own satisfactions."
He also said he had been given assurances by Mr. Cuban that, should he accept the offer, he would have complete, unfettered control of his program. "It's a situation," Mr. Rather said, "where there are not very large, let me put it this way, 'corporate and political complexities.' "
In those comments, and others, Mr. Rather was referring, however obliquely, to his displeasure with the leadership of CBS. He appeared, for example, to fault the network for eventually withdrawing its support for the "60 Minutes II" report that would, in turn, unravel his career. In the segment, he had sought to raise new questions about President Bush's Vietnam-era National Guard service, using memorandums that the network and, later, a panel of outside investigators, said it could not authenticate.
Mr. Rather said that the 15 months since he had left the Evening News, and joined "60 Minutes," had been among the most frustrating periods of his career. To an outsider, the eight segments he had reported for the program since November — including reports that had taken him to North Korea, China and Beirut — would appear to represent a good year's work.
But Mr. Rather said that other correspondents had more than twice as many reports appear on the program, and that two reports he had been particularly proud of (those originating in Beirut and North Korea) had been effectively buried, on the program's Christmas and New Year's Day telecasts.
"I've done virtually nothing for six weeks," he said. "Anybody who knows me knows that's not the way I like to work."
Asked if the network had sought to marginalize him over his role in the disputed Guard report — including his spirited defense of the segment, for more than a week after it was broadcast — Mr. Rather said: "There's a lot I have yet to figure out."
Copyright 2006 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html) The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)