Hewitt Says Rather Should Have Been Fired

Lloyd Grove reports:

“CBS legend Don Hewitt hasn’t been shy about criticizing Dan Rather, but the grand old man of 60 Minutes had stopped short of publicly recommending termination for the central figure in CBS News’ painful 2004 Memogate flap.

Until yesterday.

‘Should Dan Rather have been fired?’ Time magazine managing editor Jim Kelly asked the 83-year-old Hewitt during a Court TV journalism panel at Michael’s.

‘Yes,’ Hewitt answered. He suggested that the 74-year-old Rather – a 60 Minutes correspondent since stepping down last March as “Evening News” anchor – was politically motivated in airing a controversial pre-election report on President Bush’s National Guard service.

‘I have a built-in bias against reporters who have axes to grind,’ Hewitt said. ‘I think there are reporters that allow their own bias to encroach on their journalism, and that’s a crime against journalism.'”