Press: Anchor Away

In the "cool" medium of television, Dan Rather has always been considered a "hot" presence. Last week, however, Rather's colleagues at CBS were debating whether their intense, somewhat melodramatic anchor had grown a few degrees too hot after he angrily walked off the set of the CBS Evening News, leaving the network with a blank screen.

In Miami to report the arrival of Pope John Paul II, Rather became upset after learning that the network's coverage of the U.S. Open tennis tournament might cut into that night's 6:30 newscast. He called CBS News President Howard Stringer and told him that if...