Dan Rather Will Go Off Frequency Next February

CBS News announced that Dan Rather will give his last evening news broadcast in March 2005. At 73, Rather has had a long and storied career, which was recently marred by the whole Bush National Guard incident. Rather is 73, which makes soon-to-step-down Tom Brokaw look like a spring chicken at 66. And if you asked Gothamist which newsman would be arrested over a meatloaf, we would have said Dan Rather, not the 86 year-old Mike Wallace. Rather has always been a tough guy - a little nutty, but who wouldn't be, having to carry the torch of Walter Cronkite? Somewhere at ABC, Peter Jennings is doing his happy dance; we expect his broadcast tonight to be extra punchy.

While Gothamist hasn't been watching much Dan Rather lately (we do love David Letterman's montages of various Ratherisms), we are a bit sad. When we were little, we'd watching the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather with our parents, and afterwards, we'd play "pretend anchor" with pages and pages of scribbles. Dan, we'll miss you.

Salon on Dan Rather's appearance on the Late Show after September 11. The Rather watchdog site, Rather Biased. And some Ratherisms.