Rather's loss could become CBS's gain

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My own Dan Rather story - many people who covered TV for any length of time have one - is relatively simple.

In New York to preview Bryant Gumbel's return to morning TV on The Early Show, I stopped by an impromptu press meeting arranged with reporters from 60 Minutes II, then a new clone of the network's most successful newsmagazine.

Bob Simon, Vicki Mabrey, Charlie Rose and the big man himself were all wedged into an office at CBS News' W 57th Street headquarters. (They seemed to take an almost masochistic glee in working at offices with 20-year-old carpeting and furniture older than octogenarian correspondent Mike Wallace.) And the subject had turned to Jimmy Tingle, a topical comic hired to close the show with Andy Rooney-style humor, whose thick Boston accent and apparent lack of substance had turned 60 Minutes II's closing into an awful coda for a promising program.

Rather, summoning up every bit of his anchor's authority and Texas charm, placed his hand on my arm and talked in a folksy way about how Tingle was a top-flight talent who just needed some time to warm up to viewers.

Not long after, Tingle was fired and producers handed the spot to actor and talk show host Charles Grodin, whose self-obsessed quirks made for a different kind of show-closing embarrassment.

What does this have to do with Rather's exit from The CBS Evening News on Wednesday?

For me, it was an example of two important things: Rather's impulse to show loyalty to fellow CBS News staffers, even when evidence of their incompetence is staring him in the face, and CBS News' inability to find or groom talent for its marquee news shows.

Forced out by his support of the Bush National Guard story, which was built on seriously suspect evidence, Rather ends with a 43-year career capped by the biggest blunder of all: not knowing when to leave.

Small wonder his former co-workers have taken to criticizing him through others' journalism, with talents such as Wallace, 60 Minutes creator Don Hewitt and legendary anchor Walter Cronkite all taking potshots at Rather in a recent New Yorker profile.

"If you're in a three-network race and you come in third, then the public is against you," Hewitt told legendary media writer Ken Auletta. Given the comments from some of his friends, it seems the public sphere isn't the only place Rather is having trouble finding support.

The backstory is telling. CBS News president Andrew Heyward, as Auletta's piece noted, is widely viewed as a political smoothie who owes much of his tenure to a longstanding support of Rather, who recruited him to the network from a job at New York's CBS station.

Under Heyward's tenure, the news division hasn't groomed a successor to Rather or figured out how to make the tightly wound anchor more attractive to viewers. The network's promotions department even sends out news releases featuring "Danisms," those oddball phrases Rather drops during extended coverage stints in what he seems to think is a burst of folksy wisdom (my fave head-scratcher: "If a frog had side pockets, he'd carry a handgun.")

Such news releases may seem like a nod to Rather's unorthodox style. But all they really do is give a legion of TV writers ample material to further lampoon an already awkward figure - who just happens to be the news division's lead face.

And amid increasing questions of credibility, effectiveness and accountability at CBS News, it doesn't help that the top two guys in the division emerged largely unscathed in a supposedly independent report on the biggest journalism scandal of the year.

As talented as CBS TV president Les Moonves is, he and Heyward have an awful track record when it comes to programming news. The longstanding success of 60 Minutes has camouflaged a network that plunged from first to worst in the evening news race and has been unable to create another successful prime time newsmagazine franchise.

So far, the ideas that have leaked about a possible revamping of The CBS Evening News - particularly the multiple anchor format tried by ABC years ago - are not inspiring. The network's smartest move so far has been hiring as interim anchor Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer, who was originally a contender to replace Cronkite along with Rather 24 years ago.

With a genuine folksy charm and razor-sharp reporting skills, Schieffer will be the kind of stabilizing, authoritative influence that might prove more durable than network executives expect. In the same way that Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer got stuck anchoring Good Morning America when their interim stint raised ratings, don't be surprised if a viewership boost for a Schieffer-led Evening News translates into a longer tenure for him.

My suggestion for revamping the Evening News is much more modest than those spitballed in public by network showman Moonves: Move the show to 7:30 p.m.

One problem with today's network news shows is that they air too early to catch an American workforce working longer hours and stuck in significant commutes. These days, many workers are greeted by Jeopardy or reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond in the 7:30 p.m. "access" time period leading to network prime time.

Why not give viewers something substantive instead: a real news show that highlights all the significant issues of the day at a time when most Americans can watch it?

Local CBS affiliates, who count on those access shows to funnel significant viewers into prime time programming, may holler at first. But hand them the 6:30 p.m. half-hour for local programming - which gives them a chance to take all the advertising revenue from that time period - and that may pacify some.

Bottom line: CBS News needs more than a flashy new formula for its evening news. It needs a bold strategy for saving a severely demoralized news operation, an approach that melds an unexpected strategy with undeniably credible journalism.

For too long now, CBS News has been its own worst enemy in the struggle to stay relevant in an ever-expanding media universe.

Here's hoping the minds who have inherited the legacy of Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow are smart enough to realize their salvation doesn't lie in trying to cop the pop culture heat of Internet Web logs or entertainment programs.

It lies in old school, reliable journalism. And as the network's best-known reporter gets his walking papers, the biggest danger facing the place he leaves behind is that it will take the wrong lessons from his downfall.

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