Rather takes more heat on “read a newspaper” remark

Dan Rather has expressed surprise at the reaction to his remark following President Bush’s address on stem cell research that viewers who are “really interested in this” ought to read “one of the better newspapers tomorrow.” Rather told Monday’s Chicago Tribune that fellow broadcast journalists who criticized his recommendation are “a cosmos apart from the real world.” He added: “Sometimes you just state the obvious and it becomes a thing.” But Paul Friedman, executive vice president of ABC News, told the Trib, “I do not agree that it’s something that television can’t do at least as well as newspapers. In point of fact Nightline did it as well as or better than any newspaper last night.” Oddly, CBS News posted a rather elaborate, interactive explanation of “the politics, the ethics and the science” of stem cell research on its Web site that went unmentioned by Rather (and, later, by his critics).