I’m a little hesitant to post this, because I have no desire to add to the Dan Rather pile-on, even though I’m basically neutral about the guy. Despite the obvious screw-ups involved in the whole National Guard imbroglio, I think Rather has taken way more lumps than he’s deserved in recent months, especially when you consider that (a) the overall thrust of the National Guard report was, without a doubt, true, and (b) dozens of reporters made worse mistakes during the Lewinsky saga without paying a price—and many of them even saw substantial career benefits from their willingness to trot out unsubstantiated information that later proved to be false.

In any event, Rather can’t be blamed at all for the incident shown in this brief, grainy video, which is interesting mainly because it’s fun to watch highly controlled media environments fall apart. The first half of the video is the opening seconds of The CBS Evening News on January 22, 1991, when three AIDS activists infiltrated the CBS studios and interrupted the broadcast with chants. The protesters didn’t make it on camera, but a production assistant or producer is thrust into the frame as he tries to push them back. The second half of the video is Rather’s apology after the hasty commercial break.

I pulled this off of one of my old Media Shower tapes.