Cowboy Journalism

I've never been a fan of Dan Rather; he always struck me as more than slightly off-kilter with his forced homilies, incoherent partisan on-air rants and fawning desperation to be as beloved as Walter Cronkite.

In his 1990 book, "Flashbacks", Morley Safer tells of his 1966 meeting with Dan in the bar of the Caravelle Hotel in Saigon.

”There were other encounters in the Jerome et Juliet.

This was the place I first met Dan Rather. He had replaced me in London when I was sent to Vietnam at the beginning of 1965. At the end of the year he took over in Saigon, and I returned to the London bureau. In August 1966 we switched places once again. The day I arrive he introduced himself and invited me up to the bar for a drink. He could not have been more friendly.

A stream of admiration poured from his lips. A touch excessive, I thought, nevertheless very nice to hear. The man was trying very hard to be courtly, but the effect was destroyed by the strange way he was dressed. It was not the green army fatigues and combat boots—though it was most unusual for correspondents to be dressed for war in Saigon—it was the leather shoulder holster and nickel-plated Smith and Wesson .38 caliber revolver strapped on the outside of his clothing that gave an otherwise friendly encounter an edge of menace. I could not image who he might have to shoot in the Caravelle. The service was always quite good.”

UPDATE: The man who spoke Saddam Hussein's words in English during a CBS interview with Dan Rather late last month was an actor using a fake Arabic accent, the Los Angeles Times reported.