Press: Rather Not

Way out for a star anchor

CBS's 60 Minutes is the foremost practitioner of the ambush interview, and the network's evening news anchor, Dan Rather, a former reporter on the show, has conducted more than a few. So when TV Reporter Steve Wilson of San Francisco got nowhere with repeated requests to question Rather about 60 Minutes' methods for the syndicated Breakaway, he confronted Rather outside CBS News' New York studios. The anchor reacted in the way that people he has ambushed have sometimes wanted to: he turned Wilson down on-camera, using a four-letter word for a sex act. But Wilson had the last laugh: footage of Rather's outburst was aired on the show in 65 cities, with the mot bleu bleeped out. The anchor apologized in a letter: "That was inexcusable, rude and un-Christian behavior for which I am remorseful." ·