In 1996 and 1997 House Speaker Newt Gingrich was charged by congressional Democrats of using a college course he taught to help him in his political activities. The allegations resulted in many stories on Dan Rather's CBS Evening News; but when Gingrich was cleared of all charges by the IRS, Dan Rather did not report on it.

"On Capitol Hill, the House today was supposed to begin making full disclosure of House Speaker Newt Gingrich's [alleged?] ethical violations and tax problems. It didn't. And what's more, now there's an added ethics allegation based on what Gingrich said, in what he thought was a secret telephone call, which Democrats say is proof that Gingrich violated a promise to the House ethics committee not to mount a political damage control effort. But Republicans tried to shift the focus today away from what Gingrich actually said."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, January 13, 1997.

"[W]e have the obligation to raise the resources to match the unions, to raise the resources to match the news media, to recognize that it takes one million activists working to talk to nine people each to match Dan Rather."
--Newt Gingrich strategizing before the National Congressional Committee Washington Convention Center, June 10, 1996.

"In Washington not just one but two bizarre new twists in the Newt Gingrich ethics and tax case. One could further delay public disclosure of the details of Gingrich's ethics [alleged?] violations and tax problems at an open hearing. The other raises a whole new ethics question about Speaker Gingrich. At issue, what he allegedly said in a secretly recorded telephone call. From Capitol Hill, Bob Schieffer is your guide to these latest twists and turns."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, January 1997.

"The House of Representatives voted today to reprimand and fine Speaker Newt Gingrich for low ethics -- specifically, using money from tax-exempt foundations to fund his partisan college course. And, a pattern of giving investigators inaccurate, incomplete and unreliable information."
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, January 21, 1997.

"You've just been seeing and hearing live coverage of their initial presentation of the accusations -- mark the word please, the accusations -- against the [Democratic] Speaker of the House, Jim Wright."
--Dan Rather during live coverage of a House hearing, April 17, 1989.
Note: Wright resigned the next month after being charged with violating 69 House rules.

"A CBS hard news investigation tonight digs deep, into the drive to dump Newt Gingrich and have Louisiana's Bob Livingston take over as House Speaker. Turns out Congressman Livingston is a master at winning friends and influencing people the old-fashioned way." [Using "legal loopholes" in campaign fund-raising, to which Rather is opposed.]
--Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, November 12, 1998.

"I swear, anyone watching the nightly news on CBS would never think to associate the contras with the idea of liberation. There is not, on CBS, a moment given over to the idea of the contras or to the inequities of the government they are fighting. Hollywood could go no further than Dan Rather in polarizing the principals."
--Newt Gingrich on the floor of the House, June 2, 1987.

Both Republican House speaker Newt Gingrich and Democratic senator Robert Toricelli were accused of ethics violations. The first time Rather reported on the accusations against Toricelli, he quickly added it's what Toricelli "sees as a Republican-motived" attack. But the first time (or any other time) Rather mentioned the accusations against Gingrich, he never relayed the Georgia Republican's opinion:
DAN RATHER: With the power shift in the Senate, attention is shifting to one member of the new majority, Democrat Robert Torricelli of New Jersey, and the possibility of what he sees as a Republican-motivated and -led criminal investigation of him could lead to yet another change of power back to the Republicans. Veteran CBS News political correspondent Phil Jones is covering that story. Phil.
PHIL JONES: Dan, Senator Torricelli believes the Republican-controlled Justice Department is out to get him, and a source close to Torricelli has told CBS News that the senator will decide in a matter of hours whether to ask Justice to turn over its criminal investigation to a special counsel.
--Dan Rather and Phil Jones on the CBS Evening News, June 5, 2001.

DAN RATHER: On Capitol Hill, House Speaker Newt Gingrich is facing deeper political problems tonight. This follows formal word that the official House ethics committee investigation into his finances is growing longer and getting wider. Chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer has the latest. Bob.
BOB SCHIEFFER: Well, Dan, the committee says it wants to expand the investigation to find out if the information it's been getting from Gingrich is reliable and accurate. It all goes back to the college course he was teaching which was financed by several tax-exempt foundations. He has said it was educational.
But Democrats claimed the class was just a political propaganda enterprise financed by tax-free funds, since videotapes of the lectures were made and sold, and the course became the basis of Gingrich's book. Democrats immediately called on Gingrich to step aside until the investigation is completed.
--Dan Rather and Bob Schieffer on the CBS Evening News, September 26, 1996.
Note: Gingrich was later cleared of all allegations by the IRS. Rather did not report it.

RATHER: President Clinton's chief of staff today tried to fight off the latest attack by House Speaker-to-be Newt Gingrich. Gingrich is again accusing the President and those around him as being way outside the American mainstream, not what normal Americans are. This time, Gingrich charges White House staffers have histories of drug abuse. He gave no names or specifics.
BRAVER: This is not the way to do business if you're serious about solving the nation's problems.
--Dan Rather and Rita Braver on the CBS Evening News, December 5, 1994.
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