Dan Rather Emboldens Americans


Noting the casualties of Daniel Pearl’s murder and the crash of an Army helicopter in the Philippines with 12 aboard, Dan Rather concluded Thursday’s CBS Evening News by contending: “We are being tested. And part of the test is our collective national willpower and staying power.”

On his February 21 broadcast, Rather bucked up his viewers:

On September 11th, after the second plane hit the World Trade Center, President Bush told his staff, “We are at war.” Later he would tell the nation that it would be a long war, that there would be more American casualties. Today there were more. The soldiers aboard the U.S. Army helicopter that crashed in the Philippines, and Daniel Pearl, the ninth journalist to die in this war, the first American. His wife had pleaded with his kidnappers, saying all Pearl wanted to do was tell their story objectively. In the end, they chose to make their point savagely another way. And now it is time to remind ourselves again we are at war. It will be a long war. There will be more American casualties. We are being tested. And part of the test is our collective national willpower and staying power. Lest we forget. And that’s part of our world tonight. Dan Rather for the CBS Evening News reporting tonight from Washington. Good night.

(This update courtesy of the Media Research Center.)

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