Rather Says Odds Getting Longer for Couric: Dan Rather, who last month accused broadcast networks of dumbing down and tarting up their newscasts, said he can foresee a time when media company executives retreat from evening news production.
“I think we’ll see the time when someone at the top says, ‘We can give this time back to affiliates,’” Mr. Rather said Monday in a discussion with TelevisionWeek Publisher and Editorial Director Chuck Ross at the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing convention in Washington.
Mr. Rather, who now anchors “Dan Rather Reports,” a weekly news show on Mark Cuban’s HDNet, said media executives’ focus on audience ratings and attracting certain age groups of viewers is eroding the quality of the newscasts.
