The political situation in March of 1981 when Dan Rather took over for Walter Cronkite was quite a bit like the first months of the George W. Bush presidency twenty years later: Both had new Republican presidents trying to keep a lid on domestic spending with Democrats trying to maintain important social programs. The political atmospheres in both cases were the same, and so was the bias.

That night, as more recently, Rather and his colleagues favored Democratic arguments in their reports. The first, by White House correspondent Lesley Stahl detailed an array of "CUTS" with a brief mention at the end of how much money the administration said the government would save. The second, a report on Congressional reaction, ended up relaying only criticism of Reagan's plan. Phil Jones's report featured two soundbites criticizing Reagan's proposals and none in support of them.

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ANNOUNCER: This is the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather.
DAN RATHER: Good evening. President Reagan, still training his spotlight on the economy, today signed a package of budget cuts that he will send to Congress tomorrow. Lesley Stahl has the story.
LESLEY STAHL: President Reagan came out to announce that he is sending his official budget for 1982 to Congress tomorrow, which he said will include $48.6 billion in cuts.
RONALD REAGAN: Now, these cuts are not necessarily the last ones. We're committed to a five year spending program, and I am determined to stop the spending juggernaut. If more cuts are needed to keep within our spending ceilings I will not hesitate to propose them.
STAHL: The documents the president signed today include cuts in programs he didn't expect to touch, since his earlier projections of budget deficits were found to be underestimations. Some of the new cuts are in politically sensitive areas:

Lesley Stahl's piece placed a prominent emphasis on Reagan's spending reductions, emboldening and capitalizing the word cuts. Click photo for larger image.

(Graphic Onscreen: CUTS: Labor department--1 Billion, Manpower Training, Employment Services, Personnel, Welfare Demonstration)
STAHL: Nearly one billion out of the Labor Department, specifically in Manpower training, employment services, personnel, and welfare demonstration projects.
(Graphic Onscreen: CUTS: Water Projects--$.5 Billion, Red River Navigation Project)
STAHL: Roughly a half billion in cuts in water projects, including the elimination of the Red River navigation project in Louisiana.
(Graphic Onscreen: CUTS: Veterans Benefits--$700 Mil.)
STAHL: Seven hundred million in veterans benefits.
(Graphic Onscreen: CUTS: Agricultural Subsidies, $10 Million Aid to Tobacco Farmers)
STAHL: Further reductions in agricultural subsidies, including a savings of ten million in aid to tobacco farmers.
(Graphic Onscreen: CUTS: Change Welfare Laws, Permit States to Try Work Requirements)
STAHL: Lastly the president will propose a half dozen changes in welfare laws, including one to permit states to experiment with work requirements for welfare recipients.
White House officials say they have made cuts in more than 200 programs and agencies and consolidated 84 programs into block grants. Moreover, they claim that state and local governments will be spared 14 hundred pages of federal regulations and seven million staff hours of form-filling a year. Lesley Stahl, CBS News, the White House.

RATHER: Moderate Republicans joined Democrats at a Senate hearing today and dealt the Reagan budget cutters a setback on some social service programs. Phil Jones was there.
PHIL JONES: There are nine Republicans and seven Democrats on this committee, so Democrats were only able to make changes when two moderate Republicans, Weicker of Connecticut and Stafford of Vermont, jumped from the Reagan reservation. The major changes: aid to handicapped.
(Graphic Onscreen: HANDICAPPED PROGRAM--Reagan Wants: 20% Cutback, Committee Votes: Add $200 Million)
JONES: The President wants a twenty percent cut, the committee added 200 million instead. Even conservative committee chairman Hatch said no to the President.
Sen. ORRIN HATCH (R-Utah): And what we saw over this country was the suffering of many, many people, who just really in many ways couldn't take care of themselves. And in a great society like ours, it seems to me that we ought to do everything we can for the handicapped.
JONES: Other changes:
(Graphic Onscreen: LOW INCOME ENERGY HELP--Reagan Wants: $1.3 Billion, Committee Votes: $1.8 Billion)
JONES: Low income energy assistance. The president wants 1.3 billion the committee wanted more, 1.8. Legal services:
(Graphic Onscreen: LEGAL SERVICES--Reagan Wants: Elimination, Committee Votes: $100 Million)
JONES: Mr. Reagan wants this eliminated, the committee left 100 million. Overall education funding:
(Graphic Onscreen: EDUCATION FUNDING--Reagan Wants: 25% Cut, Committee Votes 11%)
JONES: The president is talking about a 25 percent cut, this committee said only 11 percent.
It was all harmony between Republicans and Democrats until chairman Hatch suggested that taxpayers were fed up with those who believe in throwing money at the problems.
Sen. EDWARD KENNEDY (D-Mass.): --don't yield to the chairman of this committee by saying that there are any of us that want to can throw money at problems and think they're going to be resolved. I don't think you can throw tax cuts at American people and think that's going to resolve our problems, either.
JONES: This committee action, of course, is not final, but it does provide some signals: that moderate Republicans in Congress aren't going to rubber-stamp the Reagan budget cuts and that there is great potential for Congressional nibbling at the Reagan plan. Nibbling that could seriously jeopardize the final Reagan economic recovery program. Phil Jones, CBS News, Capitol Hill.
--Dan Rather, Lesley Stahl, and Phil Jones on the CBS Evening News, March 9, 1981.

A Squatting Start

"In short, the CBS transition policy amounted to a kind of fantastic bait-and-switch ploy. There had even been raging arguments inside CBS News over whether Cronkite would even acknowledge that he was leaving the broadcast. Cronkite didn't want to say good-bye. It wasn't as if he were dying, and besides, he'd been given assurances that he could appear on the Evening News whenever he wanted. But [CBS News president Bill] Leonard knew that Cronkite's last broadcast would be bigger news than any story it would report. He prevailed upon his anchorman to say a little something, and Cronkite finally agreed. At the end of his last Evening News broadcast, on Friday, March 6, 1981, he said that his colleague Dan Rather, a good man, would be on the broadcast come Monday. And he intoned in that voice as familiar as family, 'Old anchormen don't go away, they keep coming back for more.' (a prospect that made Dan Rather none the more comfortable).

"And so Rather, knowing that if failure came, it would be monumental and would have his name on it, wanted to do something that would somehow distinguish his presence from Cronkite's. Because he wanted to make the broadcast his, on Saturday he stood and sat and strolled late into the night, and he was back on Sunday. Finally Monday arrived, and Rather neither sat nor strolled nor stood. He made his debut as the permanent anchor of the CBS Evening News in a kind of squat, a contortion that was awkward just to watch, much less to hold while reading the news. It made a painful, pitiable display of Rather's first performance in Cronkite's chair, which would have been terrible enough anyway. He looked as if he were getting ready to run off somewhere, as, in retrospect, might have seemed a good option. And it didn't get much better over the next few weeks, even after Rather had abandoned his squat for a more conventional posture. The transition was a complete disaster."
--Former New York Times television critic Peter Boyer writing in his 1988 book, Who Killed CBS?.