Dan Rather Offers Apology

April 5, 2001 -- -- Gruff CBS newsman Dan Rather offered an apology Wednesday for having spoken at a March Democratic Party fund-raiser in Austin, Texas.

The idiom-prone anchorman called his display of political partisanship "an embarrassing and regrettable error."

The face of CBS News told The Washington Post that he knew it was a political event he'd been invited to but was unaware that it was a fund-raiser until he got there.

Rather issued a statement in which he said, "It was a serious mistake, which I acknowledge. No one believes more strongly in CBS News standards than I do, and I have let those standards down."

The news anchor was not compensated for his appearance.

Sandy Genelius, a spokeswoman for CBS, which is owned by Viacom, told the Post that Rather's appearance at the Austin event "was an honest oversight on his part."

"Obviously, our standards don't allow correspondents to participate in political party fund-raisers. No one believes in this and upholds it more fervently than Dan Rather," Genelius said.