MRC Marks 20 Years of Liberal Bias From CBS Evening News Anchorman Dan Rather

ALEXANDRIA, Va. --- Twenty years ago tomorrow, March 9, 1981, Dan Rather took over the most coveted job in broadcast journalism, the anchor chair at the CBS Evening News. He replaced broadcast news icon Walter Cronkite and then proceeded to give his viewers 20 years of liberal bias so pervasive it inspired bumper stickers reading "Rather Biased." Today the Media Research Center marks Rather's anniversary with his Top Ten most biased quotes.

10) "If we could be one-hundredth as great as you and Hillary Rodham Clinton have been in the White House, we'd take it right now and walk away winners....Tell Mrs. Clinton we respect her and we're pulling for her." (To President Clinton, via satellite, at a CBS affiliates meeting, referencing new co-anchor Connie Chung to the Evening News, May 27, 1993)

9) "I hear you talking and, as I have before on this subject, I don't know of anybody, friend or foe, who isn't impressed by your grasp of the details of this [health care] plan. I'm not surprised, because you have been working on it so long and listened to so many people." (Interview with Hillary Clinton, 48 Hours, September 22, 1993)

8) "Senator Simon, is there any doubt in your mind that [Souter's] views pretty well parallel those of John Sununu's, which means he's anti-abortion or anti-women's rights, whichever way you want to put it?" (CBS Evening News interview with Democratic Sen. Paul Simon, July 23, 1990)

7) "Everyone knows the rich got richer in the 1980s. Now, a new study shows how dramatic the change was." (Reporting on a study by the Economic Policy Institute, a group founded by Dukakis and Clinton advisors, CBS Evening News, Oct. 29, 1992)

6) "It is not just Congress that is taking a sharp turn to the right. The surge to the right on Capitol Hill is making waves all over the country on openly politically partisan, and sometimes racist, radio." (CBS Evening News, January 4, 1995)

5) "Gays and lesbians are beaten to death in the streets with increasing frequency - in part due to irrational fear of AIDS but also because hatemongers, from comedians to the worst of the Christian right, send the message that homosexuals have no value in our society....In the post-cold-war era, gays have been drafted to replace communists as the new menace to the American Way: We're told gays corrupt youth and commandeer art and entertainment to win converts." (Writing in The Nation, April 11, 1994)

4) "While Fidel Castro, and certainly justified on his record, is widely criticized for a lot of things, there is no question that Castro feels a very deep and abiding connection to those Cubans who are still in Cuba and, I recognize this might be controversial, but there's little doubt in my mind that Fidel Castro was sincere when he said, 'Listen, we really want this child back here.'" (CBS News live coverage of the Elian raid, April 22, 2000)

3) "Is or is there not some concern of the public, concern in some quarters, not all of them Democratic, that this is, in fact, a kind of effort at a quote, 'coup,' that is you have a twice elected, popularly elected President of the United States and so those that you mention in the Republican Party who dislike him and what he stands for, have been unable to beat him at the polls, have found another way to get him out of office?" (Interview with former Republican Sen. Warren Rudman, CBS coverage of the start of the impeachment trial, January 7, 1999)

2) "Al Gore must stand and deliver here tonight as the Democratic Party's presidential nominee, and now Gore must do so against the backdrop of a potentially damaging, carefully orchestrated story leak about President Clinton. The story is that the Republican-backed special prosecutor, Robert Ray, Ken Starr's successor, has a new grand jury looking into possible criminal charges against the President growing out of Mr. Clinton's sex life." (CBS Evening News, August 17, 2000, the final day of the Democratic convention. The next day, a Carter-appointed federal judge revealed he had inadvertently leaked the news)

1) "I'm all news, all the time. Full power, tall tower. I want to break in when news breaks out. That's my agenda. Now, respectfully, when you start talking about a liberal agenda and all the, quote, 'liberal bias' in the media, I quite frankly, and I say this respectfully but candidly to you, I don't know what you're talking about." (Interview with Denver radio station KOA's Mike Rosen, November 28, 1995)

Additional Rather quotes, as well as video clips, are available at www.mediaresearch.org.

For more information on the Media Research Center or to schedule an interview with Mr. Bozell, or another MRC spokesperson, contact Katie Wright at (703)-683-5004, ext. 132.