Dan Rather - Harry Shearer: Politics

HARRY SHEARER: So Dan Rather is suing CBS for, among other
things, pushing him aside and not letting him do all the
stuff on the air he was expecting to do, sort of the
same thing that happened to Walter Cronkite way back when
he was pushed aside by Dan Rather.
Anyway, I was reminded of something that happened a few
years ago in Seattle.
I kind of collect this footage.
Dan was in Seattle for, well, it wasn't a big news story.
He was just there to kind of say hello
to the local affiliate.
And to anchor the news, they put them on
the roof of a building.
Now, it's February.
It's cold.
In the sane world, they would have put him in a studio with
a picture of the Space Needle over his shoulder, but, no,
he's on the roof.
And it's 2:45 PM, and it's 3:00 PM, and
then it's 3:30 PM.
It just keeps getting colder, and Dan's got one
thing on his mind.
DAN RATHER: I get what we're going to do.
The question is whether we can do it without the coat.
Hi, folks.
How are you doing?
Hi.
TOM: Take a look and find out.
DAN RATHER: Jeff would prefer to do it without the coat.
On the other hand, I would prefer not to
be the frozen anchorman.
MALE SPEAKER: I've sent for some decaf coffee to warm you
up a little bit.
DAN RATHER: Great.
Matter of fact, A.J. was going to bring some.
MALE SPEAKER: OK.
DAN RATHER: So I don't know.
TOM: Well, let me frame it up.
DAN RATHER: We don't have much--
yeah.
TOM: See what everybody thinks about it.
MALE SPEAKER: I think it's--
Your comfort level, I think, is--
DAN RATHER: Yeah.
Well, it's going to be cold, but--
JEFF: Looks good.
You know what?
The green looks good.
DAN RATHER: Is it?
JEFF: With the light.
DAN RATHER: Green is good.
OK.
JEFF: So we don't need a scarf.
DAN RATHER: Don't need a scarf?
You don't think so?
No.
Let's try it without it.
JEFF: Green is good because it's subtle.
TOM: Let's see if they fixed the [INAUDIBLE].
DAN RATHER: Well, you can thank Jean for that because
she said, take this green coat.
You know me.
I'll take almost anything.
JEFF: Because with this--
DAN RATHER: But you know what?
If we wear the coat between now and then, I think that
we're going to be all right.
JEFF: All right.
Good.
Because that looks very nice.
DAN RATHER: Now, does that look good?
JEFF: It looks just a little hot on this side, Tom, but--
TOM: All right.
Hang on.
DAN RATHER: Where are you?
Which camera are we going-- one?
Here we go.
MALE SPEAKER: Yeah, right straight at you.
DAN RATHER: You know what?
TOM: Dan, when we're doing this, that Space Needle, keep
over your right shoulder.
MALE SPEAKER: Which is, right now, coming out of
the top of your head.
DAN RATHER: Well, that's [INAUDIBLE].
MALE SPEAKER: There you go.
DAN RATHER: Over the right shoulder.
TOM: Right to your left.
MALE SPEAKER: Here, let me move that.
DAN RATHER: Camera right?
I see what you mean.
There we go.
MALE SPEAKER: It looks nice, Tom.
TOM: [INAUDIBLE] a little more.
DAN RATHER: Oh, I see.
You want the Space Needle.
Is it far enough?
TOM: You need to drop your mic just a touch.
Probably a little more left.
DAN RATHER: Probably a little more left.
TOM: Yeah.
DAN RATHER: Thanks.
Yeah.
I think, Jeff, what we try to do--
now, let's see the coat, please.
Thank you.
Because it's going to be nothing but windy and cold.
[INAUDIBLE].

MALE SPEAKER: Very quick, there's no talk-back.
DAN RATHER: If you could move just one hair to your left.
That's all right.
Now we're just trying something here.
MALE SPEAKER: I think that would help.
MALE SPEAKER: We've got a clean [INAUDIBLE].
MALE SPEAKER: OK.
DAN RATHER: That's what we do.

JEFF: Absolutely.
When we go on, take it off.
DAN RATHER: I think so.
Don't you think?
JEFF: At 5:50, you're fine.
DAN RATHER: Yeah.
JEFF: [INAUDIBLE]
5:50.
DAN RATHER: Let me take it off.
I think we need to be consistent.
Here's the thing, the broadcast is not for another
45 minutes.
JEFF: Right.
So--
DAN RATHER: The wind will be up, but the
temperature will be down.
MALE SPEAKER: Yes.
DAN RATHER: What do you think?
But it looks so wind blown, this way.
I mean, the coat looks fine.
I agree with you.
The coat's subtle.
But what do you think?
TOM: No.
That's not how--
JEFF: See how we feel when we come out?
DAN RATHER: OK.
JEFF: And, uh--
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
JEFF: You can just go with it.
It's not going to affect the light because [INAUDIBLE]
dark.
DAN RATHER: OK.
JEFF: So we'll be fine.
See how it feels externally.
DAN RATHER: Now, here's a question.
Are we going to be able to build any-- of course, the
wind's coming right off the water right now, isn't it?
I was thinking about trying to build some kind of wind break.
I'd like to--
TOM: Yeah, the wind just came up.
DAN RATHER: Does this thing pull over?
MALE SPEAKER: It's so noisy.
DAN RATHER: But it's noisy.
It's going to go, ayup, yup, yup, yup.
That's what I feared.
MALE SPEAKER: He's adjusted.
DAN RATHER: I don't know, Jeff.
MALE SPEAKER: [INAUDIBLE].

JEFF: If you do, if you wear the coat,
leave the collar down.
DAN RATHER: Definitely not.
JEFF: You want the collar up?
DAN RATHER: Absolutely.
Nobody wears a trench coat with the collar down.
JEFF: I think it's distracting.
I really do.
DAN RATHER: Well, my concern about this whole coat would be
distracting.
See, if you put it down.
JEFF: You can't see it as much.
It looks nice.
DAN RATHER: Um, don't think so.
JEFF: It doesn't look like a geek.
It doesn't look like a geek.
DAN RATHER: I feel we ought to try to do it without it, is
what I honestly think.
Whether we can do that or not, I don't know.
JEFF: I think we can.
TOM: Steve?

DAN RATHER: So it's clear to me we should have taped this
broadcast at noon when the weather was better.
JEFF: Exactly.
MALE SPEAKER: [CHUCKLING]
DAN RATHER: Eric, a lifetime of not--

MALE SPEAKER: But why wouldn't you--
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
DAN RATHER: But Jeff is insistent that we keep our
collar down, but I've never worn a [INAUDIBLE]
trench coat.
MALE SPEAKER: [INAUDIBLE] something happens--
DAN RATHER: I can't imagine wearing a trench coat--
JEFF: Tell him how it looks, Eric.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
MALE SPEAKER: It's not us.
It's the uplink or something.
MALE SPEAKER: What's happening?
[INAUDIBLE].
FEMALE SPEAKER: Jeff, how much time do I have?
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
DAN RATHER: [INAUDIBLE] from Seattle, here's what we're
working on.
OK.
Not our best tape, but let's live with it.
JEFF: OK.
DAN RATHER: But we need to move on.
Now, we need to make a decision.
JEFF: I think we should [INAUDIBLE]--
DAN RATHER: Coat or no coat?
JEFF: I think you should go with the coat.
TOM: When he leans in, it takes care of that backlight.
JEFF: You should go with the coat.
DAN RATHER: Do you?
JEFF: Yeah.
TOM: Keep it down [INAUDIBLE].
JEFF: I like it with the collar down.
TOM: He leans in, takes care of it almost perfectly.
DAN RATHER: OK.
We have a decision here.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
DAN RATHER: Yeah.
[INAUDIBLE]
MALE SPEAKER: [INAUDIBLE] looks good.
[INAUDIBLE].
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
DAN RATHER: Sorry.
MALE SPEAKER: Hope it's not too [INAUDIBLE].
DAN RATHER: Thank you.
We were a little worried about the coat-- we
decided to go with it.
It's cold.
There's no getting around it.
Thank you.
MALE SPEAKER: [INAUDIBLE].
DAN RATHER: So--
MALE SPEAKER: Ready for headlines?
DAN RATHER: And Jeff likes the collar down.
MALE SPEAKER: Yes, we're ready.
I'm sorry.
DAN RATHER: I like the collar up, but what can I tell you?
MALE SPEAKER: Jeff, are you ready for headlines?
[INTERPOSING VOICES]
JEFF: Yes, headlines any time.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]