HDNet

Dan Rather Reports — which debuted November 14, 2006 — marks a milestone tonight: the program's 100th episode.

"Taking this program from a literal start-up," Rather tells TVNewser, "to what it is now is among the happiest and most satisfying professional things in my memory.

"The whole Reports team and I feel a deep gratitude to [HDNet President and Co-Founder] Mark Cuban for being an owner who believes in hard news and doesn't back up when the heat's on.

"He said that he would give us complete, total and absolute creative control and he's done so."

Airing at 8pmET (with an 11pmET re-broadcast), tonight's program, "A Border Runs Through It," will take a look at Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Over the past two-plus years, Reports has focused on topics such as touch-screen voting machines, Mexican drug cartels, and post-Katrina FEMA trailers.

Rather says he is "proud to be a part" of the program, and, combined with his love of work, "I hope and expect to keep doing [the show] as long as God and Mark Cuban allow me to."

"I don't see a time," Rather says, "when I will 'retire.'"

(photo by Lynton Gardiner)

The Columbia Journalism Review's Jesse Sunenblick writes a nearly 5,000-word profile of Dan Rather, looking at where he is now in his professional life and how exactly he got there.

Rather says he's happy with his HDNet gig. "This is sheer joy for me. I've never been happier or more satisfied. One reason I'm talking to you is to spread the word," he said.

What is it about the job that excites him? "What we have to sell here is quality journalism. We play no favorites. We pull no punches. What we have is absolute editorial freedom," he said.

Click continued to see what makes Rather ask himself, "What Would Murrow Do?"...

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Okay, it was a Senate debate. And, okay, it was on the ABC show, "Dirty Sexy Money."

A tipster notes the HDNet anchor appeared on Wednesday's program, to moderate a debate between Patrick Darling (William Baldwin) and Danielle Root (Mary Linda Phillips). According to the tipster: "Dan's part was to ask the Baldwin a question, which he didn't answer, but due to stuff seen in the audience shot, it was a 'pivotal' moment in the show."

It was Rather's second appearance on the program.

HDNet will be awarded an RFK Memorial Journalism Award tonight at the Newseum for their World Report program, "A Silent War, A Violent Peace," about Uganda's civil war. For a network still less than seven-years-old, the award is a big step.

"To tell the story, in all its complexity, requires a
commitment of resources and airtime that very few networks are willing, or able, to give," says Dennis O'Brien, EP of News and Documentaries for HDNet. "Kira Kay and Jason Maloney risked their lives to do the Uganda story, and to be recognized with an RFK is quite gratifying."

The report can be seen here.

O'Brien, formerly of ABC News, described how HDNet is able to focus on stories that networks are not able to do.

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Dan Fleschner, of allDAY.com, interviewed Mark Cuban after Cuban's appearance on Today this morning. Among the topics: Dan Rather Reports, which airs on Cuban's HDNet and recently celebrated its first anniversary.

"(The program) is kicking a*#," Cuban says, adding that "it's the one news show where we just give him carte blanche...

"He's just getting back from Cuba, where he was working on getting an interview with Castro. Whether or not it happens, I don't know. But if that's what he needs to do to do his best work, then go do it. There's no corporate interference, there's no board of directors to deal with, there's no question about what happens to the stock price. It's not my call, so I've just given him the freedom, and the show's amazing.

"The response is that it's the only 'real' news show on TV. There's no entertainment fluff in it."

From a TVNewser tipster: "While CBS was serving Dan Rather's lawyers with a motion to dismiss, Dan was in Washington doing a press conference announcing that HDNet was carrying the Iowa Brown and Black Presidential forum. Dan at one point was in tears, while talking about America, race, the Vietnam and Iraq wars."

Alissa Krinsky
TVNewser Contributor

Dan Rather says working at HDNet is "about as close to journalistic heaven as I expect to get."

And tomorrow, it's officially twelve months of heaven: the first anniversary of HDNet's Dan Rather Reports, a one-hour, weekly news program. Tuesday's show, "A Crack In the Ice", on global warming, takes Rather to Canada's Northwest Passage and the Arctic ice cap.

Previous Reports have focused on touch-screen voting problems and the controversy over children's cold medicines, among other topics. "I love what I'm doing now," Rather says.

It's a long way from retirement for Rather, who just turned 76. He says that "as long as I have my health, and as long as someone will let me practice journalism of the sort that I want to practice, then I don't expect to retire. I would much rather wear out than rust out."

Rather believes he's "a reporter who got lucky, very lucky" to have a long career, which began in 1953 with a part-time stint at a Huntsville, Texas radio station. He later wrote for the Houston Chronicle and worked at Houston's KTRK-TV before joining CBS News in 1962.

He calls covering the JFK assassination "the four dark days in Dallas. An absolute sledgehammer to the heart."

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The latest episode in the Mark Cuban, Bill O'Reilly war of words aired tonight at the culmination of the Blog World Expo in Las Vegas.

During the keynote address this afternoon, Cuban talked about how he'd like nothing more than to use his blog to fight his critics, including O'Reilly. "Once you start using [a blog] as a baseball bat, things start to get really, really different," Cuban cautioned the packed conference room at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

O'Reilly has been critical of Cuban over the release of the upcoming movie Redacted. The fictional documentary, as it's being described, is from Cuban's company 2929 Entertainment and focuses on what life is like for some American soldiers fighting the war in Iraq. "This guy's never seen the movie," Cuban says of O'Reilly, "but he's out there saying 'Mark Cuban if you release this movie, I'm coming after you.'" Cuban, speaking to about 500 bloggers, told the group "at the same time, there is every bit of me that just wants to say 'Bill O'Reilly is a moron.'"

Cuban, who also owns the TV network HDNet, says the attacks are "irrelevant" from a business perspective but adds, for "a small movie, he's making it bigger and bigger by the day. So I'm really grateful to him. Bill O'Reilly's my new best friend."

Ah, TVNewser contributors never sleep. As I checked out ABC's Dirty Sexy Money tonight, who should appear on the show in a cameo role? Dan Rather. Playing Dan Rather. He attends a party at the Manhattan townhome of the fictional Darling family, hoping to get the scoop on the political ambitions of Billy Baldwin's Patrick Darling character.

Rather: "So word's out you're headed for the Senate, Pat."

After Baldwin dodges the question, Rather turns to Darling's wife: "So he is running, isn't he?"

Will Rather get the story? Will he return in future episodes? Guess I'll have to tune in next week...

Tomorrow night, HDNet's Dan Rather Reports will present "conclusive evidence of the failure of touch screen voting machines across the country," according to an HDNet press release. "From scientists involved in testing the equipment, to manufacturers in third world countries who shipped these defective voting machines to the United States, [the program] will present new information showing that these defective machines may have altered the outcome of multiple elections."