Dan Rather Will Return to CBS News for First Time in 18 Years

Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather is making a return to the network.

PEOPLE can confirm that Rather, 92, is set to be interviewed on CBS Sunday Morning 18 years after his controversial exit. According to a description of the April 25 episode of news program, “Lee Cowan talks with former CBS News anchor Dan Rather about his work at CBS and his life in news.”

The journalist has maintained that his ousting was a result of being scapegoated for the fallout from a 60 Minutes II report in 2004 on allegations that President George W. Bush went AWOL during part of his time in the Texas Air National Guard. 

The Bush administration disputed the authenticity of the documents cited in the story, leading to an investigation that concluded the piece disregarded “fundamental journalistic principles.” The documents were not, however, ever proved to be forgeries.

Rather’s reputation suffered following the dispute, and he was removed from the anchor desk in 2005 before being fired the subsequent year. Producer Mary Mapes and three news executives were also let go from CBS after their involvement with the story.

The controversy, dubbed “Rathergate,” was dramatized in the 2015 film Truth starring Cate Blanchett as Mapes and Robert Redford as Rather. According to The Associated Press, CBS refused to run advertising for the movie, which was based off of Mapes’ memoir Truth and Duty. 

“It’s astounding how little truth there is in Truth,” CBS spokesman Gil Schwartz — who was chief spokesman during that 2004 scandal — told The AP prior to its opening day. “There are, in fact, too many distortions, evasions and baseless conspiracy theories to enumerate them all. The film tries to turn gross errors of journalism and judgment into acts of heroism and martyrdom.”

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in December 2015, Rather still stood by the report.

“We reported a true story. We didn’t do it perfectly,” the former anchor said. “We made some mistakes of getting to the truth. But that didn’t change the truth of what we reported.”

He claimed that “partisan political forces and ideological forces who found this a very inconvenient story” attacked the weak points of the story to avoid the hard facts and “change the conversation.”

“The corporate entity caved,” Rather told THR. 

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CBS Sunday Morning airs Sundays at 9 a.m. ET on CBS.