Viewers voted against airing Rather special

ASSOCIATED PRESS

A northern Michigan CBS affiliate asked its viewers about a Dan Rather special, and the people were saying “no” until the station stopped the voting.

WWTV in Cadillac, Mich., began taking votes on its Web site Monday evening about whether to carry last night’s 8 p.m. broadcast of “Dan Rather: A Reporter Remembers.” Mr. Rather earlier last night delivered his final “CBS Evening News” telecast as anchorman.

Station spokeswoman Tessia Klix said Tuesday afternoon that more than 1,000 people had cast ballots, with 63 percent voting no.

But William E. Kring, station general manager, said yesterday the poll had been discontinued because it had been “grossly misinterpreted.”

“We were simply trying to maintain the great tradition of local viewer input,” Mr. Kring said. “It was never our intent to embarrass Mr. Rather or the CBS network,” Mr. Kring said.

The network had no comment, but Mr. Rather came up a loser in another poll.

A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Tuesday night said just 23 percent of the public believe all or most of what Mr. Rather says, compared with 34 percent in 2002.

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