Rather departs unhappily from CBS after 44 years

Veteran TV news anchor Dan Rather has left CBS News after 44 years with the network. But the 74-year-old is very unhappy and issued a statement that did not disguise his disappointment. He said: "My departure before the term of my contract represents CBS's final acknowledgement, after a protracted struggle, that they had not lived up to their obligation to allow me to do substantive work there. As for their offers of a future with only an office but no assignments, it just isn't in me to sit around doing nothing. So I will do the work I love elsewhere." Rather's reputation was tarnished in 2004 by a discredited report on President Bush's record in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War. (Via boston.com)