60 Minutes Story Very Similar to Rather's

By Zach Jevne

Over the weekend, 60 Minutes ran a story about the effects of concussions in football players that was very similar to a story featured on Dan Rather Reports six months ago.

The Rather story, which aired on HDNet, featured interviews with ex-New England Patriot Ted Johnson, who suffered concussions and the side-effects from them. He was also seen on 60 Minutes retelling the same stories.

The three other people Rather interviewed, a neurosurgeon, a doctor, and a father of a player, were also used in the 60 Minutes piece.

This is not only interesting in the fact that 60 Minutes is using a piece that features nearly all of the same sources, but that they are following Rather's footsteps. CBS and Rather have had a very public falling out, including a $70 million lawsuit filed by Rather.

In the lawsuit, Rather said that after stepping down as news anchor on March 9, 2005, CBS News essentially buried him at 60 Minutes. His court complaint said, "CBS provided very few assignments...and did not permit him to cover important stories."

Feature stories are sometimes recycled in the news business, but its interesting that this concussion story was covered by Rather at HDNet, a cable network, and then six months later it appears on the network show he used to work for.

(Photo Credit: Jim Wallace)

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