Dan Rather's animus toward working with those linked to
Republicans goes back to the Diane Sawyer days, she revealed on Wednesday's Larry King Live. As reported in Thursday's New York Times, the appointment of Richard Thornburgh to be one of two investigators to look into why CBS used forged memos in a hit job on President Bush, "upset Dan Rather" who "considers Mr. Thornburgh a confounding choice in part because he served two Republican Presidents, Mr. Bush's father, and Richard M. Nixon..."

Sawyer confided on King's show that Rather told her that "'I
didn't think you should be hired. I fought your being hired and I wanted you to hear it from me before you heard it from anybody else,' because I had worked in the Nixon administration." Sawyer also recalled that Rather regularly pressed her: "Have you checked the facts?" That's some advice he could use himself. 

Ed Lasky   9 24 09