• Mother Jones, Tuesday, March 8, 2011 4 PM

"Dan Rather is ebullient," begins Jim Rendon's long piece in Mother Jones that describes the previous CBS anchor's life at "Dan Rather Reports" on HDNet -- an "obscure outlet" where the 79-year-old is enjoying tackling "meaty, challenging stories." Still,"does great reporting matter if nobody sees it?" asks Rendon.

The piece revisits the events that led to Rather's firing, when he says he "felt like hell." Rather also believe that Viacom, which bought CBS in 2000, pushed him off "60 Minutes" "to curry favor with the Bush administration," writes Rendon.

Still, Rather's able to put all that behind him and focus on what's important to him: "the simple act of sitting down across from someone, notebook in hand, and asking questions."

Read the whole story at Mother Jones »