Tomorrow the new FOX News online operation called Fox Nation will debut the documentary Black Eye: Dan Rather and the Birth of Fake News. John and I sat for the first interview that the producers conducted for the program. They made a house call on us in the Twin Cities this past August to ask about our role in the chain of events that led to the undoing of Dan Rather and the disgrace of CBS News in the course of the 2004 presidential election.
John and I gave our own account of what happened in the 2015 Weekly Standard article “Rather shameful.” I also recalled the story in the 2015 Star Tribune column “Lies upon lies.”
Our 2015 accounts were occasioned by the release of the film Truth, starring Robert Redford and Cate Blanchett. The film was based on former CBS News producer Mary Mapes’s 2005 memoir Truth and Duty. Reading reviews of the film upon its release, I realized that Rathergate had receded into the mists of ancient history. Filmgoers knew enough to stay away from the film, but nobody — certainly not the average film reviewer — knew the true story. Reviewers mostly took the film at face value.
I am grateful that Fox has taken up the story in documentary form. Fox has posted a preview of the documentary here. I can hear my voice as well as that of Harry MacDougald in the preview, but what the heck is former New Jersey trial court judge Andrew Napolitano doing in there? I hope to be back with comments on the documentary as soon as I have had a chance to watch it tomorrow.
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