Dan Rather’s New Show on Young Turks Network Launches Today

By A.J. Katz 

Dan Rather is returning to the evening news, but it’s not where you might think.

Today, the progressive digital channel Young Turks Network will premiere The News With Dan Rather, a half-hour long evening newscast starring the longtime newsman. TYN is calling The News an “untraditional evening newscast,” and it will be made available weekly at 5:30 p.m. ET on Young Turks’s YouTube and its other digital platforms.

According to CNN, “the program will focus on original reporting, stories that Rather believes are not receiving the amount of attention they deserve, and analysis of the hot topics of the day.”

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The newscast will be originate from his own office, not some fancy broadcast TV news studio.

Rather is joining an outlet that’s quite different from anywhere he’s ever been. The 86-year-old legendary newsman anchored the iconic CBS Evening News for decades. Now, he’s hosting a newscast from his home on a platform that skews far younger than he or most of the people he has reported the news to.

Young Turks is unabashedly progressive, where as CBS Evening News has tried to provide the news without any sort of ideological lean.

But Rather and the Young Turks do have something in common: A disdain for Pres. Trump.

“I feel strongly that when you have a president who is continually, relentlessly damning the press, individuals by name, individual institutions and calling the press the enemy of the people — listen, this has to be resisted,” he said.

Rather added, “This is a time when everybody needs to be counted. I don’t want to be preachy about it, but we have a real responsibility, those of us in journalism and those of us who have experience in journalism, to do what we can. … These efforts to convince the public that people in the news are dealing in fake news is quite frankly bullshit.

Despite a left lean, Young Turks founder Cenk Uygur wants Rather to be himself.

“We just need people to have an authentic point of view,” he said. “And Dan’s point of view is not only smart and informed and incredibly experienced, but also authentic.”

Former Young Turks reporter (and former TVNewser co-editor) Jordan Chariton filed a $23.5 million defamation and libel lawsuit against HuffPo and its owner, Oath, late last year over a contributor posting that publicized sexual assault allegations against him.

The post was taken down by editors but not immediately removed from Google. It ultimately led to the Young Turks firing Chariton on November 17, 2017.

In the lawsuit, Chariton seeks $20 million in punitive damages from HuffPo for publishing what he called “egregious, reckless, malicious and unwarranted” claims about him. He also seeks an additional $3.5 million for damages to his “personal and professional reputation, business opportunities and livelihood.”

A week ago, TYT issued a statement saying that they had reached a legal settlement with Chariton.

He responded:

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