CBS has been flooded with
emails about Dan Rather and the TANG memos according to the Toronto Star.
Station managers at several CBS affiliates said today they appear to be a target of a national e-mail campaign placing pressure on the network to oust Dan Rather as anchorman of the CBS Evening News.
The anger stems from Rather's role in a 60 Minutes report on President George W. Bush's service in the National Guard. CBS has apologized for reporting on documents critical of Bush's service, widely assumed now as fakes, and appointed a panel to investigate what went wrong in the report.
The piece doesn't mention support for Rather or question the underlying accuracy of the content of the memos, so it's likely driven by a right-leaning blog or group.
Many e-mailers offer the same message: I will not watch CBS News again until Rather is gone, said Bob Lee, president and general manager of WDBJ-TV in Roanoke, Va., and head of the CBS affiliate board.
"To be honest, I'm most concerned when the e-mail is coming from a local viewer," said Gary Gardner, vice-president and general manager of WINK-TV in Fort Myers, Fla.
That's the key to this story. The message gets the most attention when it's from somebody who lives in the broadcast area. This is probably true of newspapers circulation areas, as well.
The story ends with a warning to get our collective pens sharpened and let our local news affiliates know what we want:
Meantime, several U.S. radio stations have switched affiliation from CBS to ABC News because of the Rather controversy.
So let your local CBS station know if you want Rather on the air; hell, let them know if you don't.