Disgraced former CBS News anchor Dan Rather returns to network after 18 years for interview

Rather left CBS in 2006 after fallout from his discredited report disparaging then-President Bush's military service

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Disgraced former CBS anchor Dan Rather is appearing on the network for the first time in nearly two decades for an upcoming interview about his time at the network and his career in journalism.

Rather, who stepped down from his role as CBS Evening News anchor in 2005 and eventually left the network the following year after reporting a discredited story about then-President George W. Bush, will be interviewed for an upcoming episode of CBS Sunday Morning, USA TODAY reported Thursday.

The network announced the 92-year-old former anchor’s new interview in a recent statement, which said, "Lee Cowan talks with former CBS News anchor Dan Rather about his work at CBS and his life in news."

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Dan Rather at SiriusXM Studios on November 05, 2019 in New York City.

Dan Rather will be returning to CBS for the first time in 18 years for an interview on CBS Sunday Morning. (Getty Images)

The anchor will be interviewed about the film "Rather," a documentary about his rise to prominence in media and his swift fall from grace. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and hits Netflix on May 1, according to USA TODAY. 

Rather’s exit came after he reported on fake documents purportedly about Bush’s military career.

Just ahead of the then-president’s re-election, the anchor ran a "60 Minutes" special citing forged memos disparaging Bush’s behavior while he served in the National Guard in the 1970s allegedly written by his commanding officer at the time.

Critics charged that these documents were forged as part of a naked attempt to make Bush look bad two months before the 2004 election.

After initially defending the memos, Rather and CBS eventually acknowledged the authenticity of the documents was never verified and shouldn't have been used.

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Dan Rather arrives on the red carpet for the film "Truth" during the 40th Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto, Canada, September 12, 2015. REUTERS/Mark Blinch

Dan Rather arrives on the red carpet for the film "Truth" during the 40th Toronto International Film Festival in Toronto, Canada, September 12, 2015. REUTERS/Mark Blinch (Reuters )

Rather apologized for the scandal ahead of a CBS investigation into the allegations of journalistic malpractice. He stepped down from his role as anchor of "CBS Evening News" months after the scandal. He eventually parted ways with CBS in 2006.

The disgraced anchor’s downfall was the subject of the 2015 film "Truth" starring Cate Blachett and Robert Redford, who played Rather. 

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter about the film that year, Rather maintained, "We reported a true story. We didn’t do it perfectly. We made some mistakes of getting to the truth. But that didn’t change the truth of what we reported."

Despite his controversial exit, Rather has still been a fixture in the media, making regular appearances on left-wing and anti-Trump media outlets. He has been a frequent guest on CNN and MSNBC during the Trump presidency and is a prolific anti-Trump tweeter.

He also was invited to speak about "misinformation" on "PBS NewsHour Weekend" in 2021, warning on-air how "misinformation, outright lies, propaganda, all of this gets loose on the internet."

Fox News Digital's Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.

Gabriel Hays is an associate editor for Fox News Digital. 

Authored by Gabriel Hays via FoxNews April 25th 2024