I've worked for CBS for 55 years now. You get loyal to anything you're involved with for that long, whether it deserves it or not. But I like CBS News, and I don't feel real good about it these days because of the questionable documents that were used on the 60 Minutes Wednesday broadcast in the story about President Bush's National Guard service.
I want to make a suggestion to Sumner Redstone, the chairman of the board of Viacom, the company which now owns CBS. You're one of the richest people in the world, Sumner, if I may call you Sumner. People say you're one of the smartest, too. If I seem to be sucking up to you here, it's because I want to sell you an idea.
How about this for re-establishing the credibility of CBS News?
Turn our Evening News With Dan Rather into a one-hour broadcast seven nights a week. Provide it as a public service in exchange for the license that CBS has to make hundreds of millions of dollars from the entertainment shows that Les Moonves puts on.
The Evening News is 20 minutes long -- nowhere near long enough to tell Americans what's going on in their own country, let alone anywhere else. One of the reasons America is hated around the world is because we're ignorant of everyone else's problems, and that's partly our fault. Television provides too little foreign news. So, send a bunch of CBS reporters to other countries, too, so we give viewers an idea of what's happening somewhere other than here. If CBS News was on the air every night for an hour, it might make people forget this mistake.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/01/60minutes/rooney/main646807.shtml