Terrifying & True | Kenneth, What is the Frequency - The Attack on Dan Rather

WEBVTT

1
00:00:04.120 --> 00:00:09.599
You're heading into your apartment when a
stranger approaches you and begins assailing you,

2
00:00:10.400 --> 00:00:15.919
beating you on the ground, and
as they're attacking you, they're saying,

3
00:00:16.640 --> 00:00:21.559
what's the frequency? Kenneth? Kenneth
isn't your name, and you don't know

4
00:00:21.640 --> 00:00:31.679
anything about frequencies, So what is
going on? What you are about tops

5
00:00:32.200 --> 00:00:41.799
to you? Based on witness accounts, testimonies, and public record, this

6
00:00:42.039 --> 00:00:57.320
is terrifying and truth truth. In
today's world, the news is very different.

7
00:00:58.079 --> 00:01:02.079
There's a lot more distrusted the media
than ever before. And I can't

8
00:01:02.159 --> 00:01:07.319
say that I blame anybody for having
a healthy dose of skepticism toward the things

9
00:01:07.319 --> 00:01:12.519
they're told have to be so,
especially regardless of their own lying eyes.

10
00:01:14.519 --> 00:01:22.079
But this story is about a newsman
who became synonymous with the medium, a

11
00:01:22.120 --> 00:01:27.200
man named Dan Rather, who I
saw report on everything from Clinton scandal to

12
00:01:27.599 --> 00:01:34.480
nine to eleven As a child.
Dan Rather has a very bizarre story in

13
00:01:34.560 --> 00:01:38.879
his past, and I look forward
to reporting it to you, just as

14
00:01:38.879 --> 00:02:02.359
he reported it to me. After
these quick words from our sponsors. It's

15
00:02:02.359 --> 00:02:08.439
a pretty catchy song, right well. This song by the band Rim made

16
00:02:08.520 --> 00:02:14.599
quite an appearance in the music industry. Upon its release on their album Monster.

17
00:02:15.599 --> 00:02:21.080
Unlike most singles or albums produced,
these lyrics have a story to a

18
00:02:21.199 --> 00:02:28.759
story which easily became pretty famous and
infamous in popular culture, but was more

19
00:02:28.800 --> 00:02:32.560
of a once in a lifetime nightmare
for the one who went through the ordeal.

20
00:02:34.599 --> 00:02:39.680
Mister Dan Rather. Dan Rather is
a journalist, analyst, and former

21
00:02:39.800 --> 00:02:46.560
national nightly news anchor from the United
States of America. When his reporting during

22
00:02:46.639 --> 00:02:52.759
Hurricane Carla in September of nineteen sixty
one helped save hundreds of lives, Rather,

23
00:02:53.039 --> 00:02:58.639
who started his career in Texas,
gained national recognition. From two thousand

24
00:02:58.639 --> 00:03:02.759
and six to two thousand and thirteen, Rather aired Dan Rather Reports, an

25
00:03:02.800 --> 00:03:08.800
investigative news program in the vein of
sixty Minutes on the cable network Access TV

26
00:03:09.479 --> 00:03:15.080
formally known as hd net for Access
TV. He also hosts a number of

27
00:03:15.120 --> 00:03:22.120
other programs, such as The Big
Interview with Dan Rather and Dan Rather Presents,

28
00:03:22.599 --> 00:03:28.120
where he conducts in depth interviews with
singers and other entertainers. Dan Rather

29
00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:34.560
Presents offers in depth reporting on a
range of issues such as adoption and mental

30
00:03:34.599 --> 00:03:40.199
healthcare. While all of these achievements
were milestones in his career, something entirely

31
00:03:40.280 --> 00:03:46.479
unexpected, got him to go viral
even before the Internet, so much so

32
00:03:46.680 --> 00:03:53.960
that his story became a common reference
and in many cases, a joke amongst

33
00:03:53.960 --> 00:03:59.080
the masses. On the evening of
October fourth, nineteen eighty six, CBS

34
00:03:59.159 --> 00:04:02.840
anchorman Dan Rather was traveling back to
his apartment down Park Avenue in New York

35
00:04:02.879 --> 00:04:09.240
City at around eleven pm. Two
nicely dressed men were following Rather to his

36
00:04:09.319 --> 00:04:13.560
building in the dark night. When
Rather finally got close to his building,

37
00:04:14.120 --> 00:04:17.600
one of the two men came closer
to him and asked him what is the

38
00:04:17.639 --> 00:04:25.800
frequency Kenneth perplexed, Rather replied by
saying that the men must have mistaken him

39
00:04:25.879 --> 00:04:32.399
for someone else. That's when the
culprit started kicking and hitting the anchorman violently

40
00:04:32.879 --> 00:04:40.639
while repeatedly asking the bizarre question.
Rather cried for help while the men assaulted

41
00:04:40.720 --> 00:04:46.000
him, but then the building's doorman
arrived to help. Naturally, the two

42
00:04:46.040 --> 00:04:51.079
assailants ran away and escaped the crime
scene. Later, when the news broke

43
00:04:51.120 --> 00:04:56.439
out and Rather narrated the story to
the media, no one wanted to believe

44
00:04:56.519 --> 00:05:00.360
him. The assault might have been
believable, but the question and that the

45
00:05:00.360 --> 00:05:06.480
culprits kept repeating sounded made up.
It was only after the doorman confirmed the

46
00:05:06.519 --> 00:05:13.600
story that police and other media houses
started taking things seriously. But even so,

47
00:05:14.160 --> 00:05:17.680
upon inquiries and notices, no one
was found guilty and the case was

48
00:05:17.759 --> 00:05:24.680
left hanging for years. Interestingly,
nothing of the sort happened again in the

49
00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:30.600
future, and it was judged as
clearly not an assassination attempt. All the

50
00:05:30.680 --> 00:05:34.920
years that the case remained unsolved,
Kenneth what Is the Frequency became a phenomena

51
00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:40.879
in pop culture, having the phrase
be featured in a scene from Daniel Cloe's

52
00:05:40.920 --> 00:05:46.199
graphic novel Like a Velvet, Glove
Cast and Iron Kenneth, What's the Frequency

53
00:05:46.319 --> 00:05:50.279
is the title of the first song
on Game Theories Lolita Nation album from nineteen

54
00:05:50.319 --> 00:05:58.000
eighty seven. On their album Monster
from nineteen ninety four, the band Rim

55
00:05:58.360 --> 00:06:02.079
included the song What's the Free Quincy
Kenneth, But That's not All? During

56
00:06:02.120 --> 00:06:06.600
a sound check for a performance at
New York City's Madison Square Garden, the

57
00:06:06.639 --> 00:06:13.839
anchorman actually performed with Rim. The
performance was captured and aired the following night

58
00:06:14.279 --> 00:06:18.920
on The Late Show with David Letterman. On Wednesday, The Daily News broke

59
00:06:18.959 --> 00:06:24.360
the story of the unsolved mystery of
the attack on Dan Rather. The person

60
00:06:24.399 --> 00:06:29.600
who kicked and beat mister Rather appears
to be the same person who fatally shot

61
00:06:29.639 --> 00:06:35.160
an NBC stagehand outside of Rockefeller's Center
in nineteen ninety four, according to mister

62
00:06:35.279 --> 00:06:42.639
Rather and law enforcement. According to
doctor Park Deets, a forensic psychiatrist who

63
00:06:42.639 --> 00:06:46.879
interviewed William Tager after shooting thirty three
year old stage hand Campbell Thron Montgomery,

64
00:06:47.319 --> 00:06:53.959
both incidents were motivated by mistrust and
suspicion of the media. Mister Tager,

65
00:06:54.079 --> 00:06:59.079
who is currently serving at twelve to
twenty five year sentence for manslaughter, thought

66
00:06:59.079 --> 00:07:04.360
that messages were being broadcast to him
directly on the evening news, according to

67
00:07:04.399 --> 00:07:11.439
doctor Deetz, who stated this in
a telephone interview. John Esposito, the

68
00:07:11.519 --> 00:07:15.879
attorney of mister Tager, had stated
on record that he was not certain his

69
00:07:16.040 --> 00:07:23.120
client had assaulted mister Rather. The
five year statute of limitations prevented the police

70
00:07:23.160 --> 00:07:28.040
from looking into the attack on Dan
Rather, even though mister Tager claimed responsibility

71
00:07:28.079 --> 00:07:31.879
for it when he was apprehended for
the fatal shooting. Doctor Diets, however,

72
00:07:32.199 --> 00:07:36.439
was interested in finding out if mister
Tager was telling the truth regarding the

73
00:07:36.480 --> 00:07:41.920
assault on Dan Rather on the upper
east side, so he got in touch

74
00:07:41.959 --> 00:07:46.600
with mister Rather to check of his
recollections on the crime to see if they

75
00:07:46.639 --> 00:07:51.240
were consistent with those of mister Tager. Both mister Rather and mister Tager remembered

76
00:07:51.279 --> 00:07:56.600
the same specifics about the building where
a portion of the attack took place.

77
00:07:57.079 --> 00:08:03.879
According to doctor Deetz, mister Rather
recognized mister Tager as his assailant after looking

78
00:08:03.879 --> 00:08:09.959
at pictures of mister Tager that the
Daily News had given him following the attack

79
00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:15.759
in nineteen eighty six. Mister Rather's
detractors cited both the attack and a second

80
00:08:15.800 --> 00:08:20.439
event in which he stormed off the
set and cost the network valuable air time

81
00:08:20.839 --> 00:08:26.160
as evidence that he was losing his
cool. Now that the culprit was caught

82
00:08:26.199 --> 00:08:30.879
and the victim had recognized him,
you must be thinking it's a happy ending

83
00:08:30.959 --> 00:08:37.480
to an odd pop culture story.
But there's even more to it. Tagar

84
00:08:37.639 --> 00:08:43.279
told a doctor that he was a
time traveler from a parallel universe in the

85
00:08:43.360 --> 00:08:48.720
year twenty two sixty five, giving
his tale a bit of a science fiction

86
00:08:48.799 --> 00:08:52.200
twist. The man had the nerve
to claim that he was a volunteer test

87
00:08:52.240 --> 00:08:58.759
pilot in a risky time travel project
and was a felon in the future.

88
00:08:58.559 --> 00:09:03.840
He would often claimed that his sentence
would be vacated and he would be freed

89
00:09:03.200 --> 00:09:07.360
if he was successful in his mission. Of course, these are the crimes

90
00:09:07.360 --> 00:09:13.519
he had committed in the future,
not in the present, day or past.

91
00:09:13.679 --> 00:09:16.080
Now. I know, right,
time travel. It makes me dizzy,

92
00:09:16.159 --> 00:09:20.519
gives me a little bit of a
headache, but I digress. Tager

93
00:09:20.679 --> 00:09:26.559
further admitted while being interrogated that he
had attacked Dan Rather because he thought mister

94
00:09:26.720 --> 00:09:33.200
Rather was Kenneth Burrows, the vice
president of his imagined future. But we're

95
00:09:33.240 --> 00:09:41.600
not done here. There's still yet
another thrilling subplot. Paul Limbert Allman speculated

96
00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:46.080
about the occurrence in a column for
Harper's Magazine in two thousand and one.

97
00:09:46.480 --> 00:09:52.279
Allman had found a reoccurring character named
Kenneth and the phrase what's the frequency in

98
00:09:52.320 --> 00:09:58.759
the works of postmodern fiction author Donald
Barthelm. Both Rather and Barthelm were young

99
00:09:58.799 --> 00:10:03.759
men who worked as journalists. They
were both from Texas, Houston to be

100
00:10:03.840 --> 00:10:09.000
specific, and were the same age. Allman believed it to be plausible to

101
00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:15.120
speculate that their paths may have intersected. Furthermore, Rather is reminiscent of the

102
00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:20.960
character Lather, a pretentious editor who
appears in one of Barthelm's books. Barthelm

103
00:10:22.039 --> 00:10:26.440
passed away in nineteen eighty nine,
and his brother Frederick, a writer as

104
00:10:26.440 --> 00:10:31.360
well, has declined to discuss any
relationship to the attack on Dan Rather.

105
00:10:31.840 --> 00:10:37.559
There was also the possibility that Rather
had made up or misheard his attacker's statements.

106
00:10:39.399 --> 00:10:43.919
This was a newsreader, after all, famous for his outrageous comparisons and

107
00:10:43.960 --> 00:10:50.639
descriptions that became known as ratherisms.
Typical phrases include this thing is as tight

108
00:10:50.639 --> 00:10:56.360
as the rusted lug nuts on a
fifty five Ford, and you would sooner

109
00:10:56.440 --> 00:11:01.000
find a tall, talking broccoli stick
to offer to mow your lawn for free.

110
00:11:01.840 --> 00:11:05.600
Back in two ten, Tager was
released from the prison on good behavior,

111
00:11:05.759 --> 00:11:11.200
but he was to be monitored by
parole officers and mental health caretakers.

112
00:11:11.519 --> 00:11:16.519
Considering the man came up with his
time traveler story. For the most part,

113
00:11:16.559 --> 00:11:20.759
it seems like a case of a
madman creating chaos, and he somehow

114
00:11:20.919 --> 00:11:26.200
ended up targeting a media personality and
became big and bold in the headlines.

115
00:11:26.080 --> 00:11:33.279
However, many conspiracy theories counter the
attack circumstances and claim that Rather had done

116
00:11:33.320 --> 00:11:39.399
this deliberately as a publicity stunt,
because in all honesty, the man did

117
00:11:39.440 --> 00:11:43.399
get quite a bit of attention from
the media, and Tager's absurd story just

118
00:11:43.519 --> 00:11:48.960
added to the narrative. All things
considered, either of the parties is a

119
00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:54.200
pretty good storyteller. Coming back to
the song that made this story even more

120
00:11:54.279 --> 00:11:58.679
sensational. On September fifth, nineteen
ninety four, the song, which was

121
00:11:58.720 --> 00:12:05.200
the album's debut single, was made
available to the public. Its highest positions

122
00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:09.159
or number two in Canada, number
four in New Zealand, and number nine

123
00:12:09.279 --> 00:12:15.080
on the UK Singles charts. It
also reached number twenty one on the US

124
00:12:15.200 --> 00:12:18.279
Billboard Hot one hundred. It spent
four weeks as the number one song in

125
00:12:18.360 --> 00:12:22.919
Iceland. It was the first song
to ever enter at the top of the

126
00:12:22.960 --> 00:12:30.320
Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart What's the
Frequency. Kenneth was included on RIM's compilation

127
00:12:30.399 --> 00:12:35.600
albums Part Lies, Part Heart,
Part Truth, Part Garbage in two thousand

128
00:12:35.639 --> 00:12:39.399
and eleven and in Time the Best
of Rim in two thousand and three,

129
00:12:39.919 --> 00:12:46.000
with it being the only track from
Monster to appear on either. The song

130
00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:50.399
was one of the band's most played
at live performances and was heard at every

131
00:12:50.399 --> 00:12:54.679
stop on their two thousand and eight
Accelerate Tour. What's the Frequency Kenneth is

132
00:12:54.720 --> 00:13:01.360
a powerful song, but according to
cash Boxes Steve Bolton, it isn't as

133
00:13:01.480 --> 00:13:05.399
much of a single as it is
the opening track to the most highly awaited

134
00:13:05.440 --> 00:13:11.039
album of the autumn. That front, it's resounding triumph. Before Michael Stipe's

135
00:13:11.039 --> 00:13:15.639
distinctive vocals enter the tune, the
song actually erupts onto the airwaves with a

136
00:13:15.679 --> 00:13:20.799
modernized rendition of traditional guitar rock.
The song continues on from that point in

137
00:13:20.840 --> 00:13:30.320
a variety of rock tempos without ever
losing the enthusiasm it had before. According

138
00:13:30.360 --> 00:13:35.480
to Chuck Campbell of the Knoxville News
Sentinel, the quote powerful but not grungy

139
00:13:35.559 --> 00:13:41.879
guitar by Buck is the focal point
of the satisfying debut single. The song

140
00:13:41.919 --> 00:13:46.759
itself isn't a narration of the incident, nor has it attempted to solve the

141
00:13:46.840 --> 00:13:52.080
mystery of the case. Just the
question What's the Frequency Kenneth? Has been

142
00:13:52.200 --> 00:13:54.879
used by the band to create some
rhymes in the song here and there.

143
00:13:56.759 --> 00:14:01.000
According to Alan Jones of Music Week, it is quote the most straightforward rock

144
00:14:01.120 --> 00:14:05.399
song the group has done in years. A full throttle, oral assault and

145
00:14:05.639 --> 00:14:11.480
very intense with bonus live tracks,
this one will sell. Paul Evans of

146
00:14:11.559 --> 00:14:16.600
Rolling Stone called it RIM's toughest single, and Howard Hampton of Spin said that

147
00:14:16.639 --> 00:14:22.360
it quote lifts its catchphrase from the
dadaist mugger who attacked Dan Rather a few

148
00:14:22.440 --> 00:14:28.799
years back, who knew someone could
become a milestone in popular culture by getting

149
00:14:28.840 --> 00:14:33.440
beaten up by a madman. It
just goes to show you, truly,

150
00:14:33.240 --> 00:14:43.759
there is no business like show business, like no business I know. This

151
00:14:43.799 --> 00:14:52.960
one is just a good old fashioned, damn near wholesome mystery. What's the

152
00:14:52.080 --> 00:15:01.720
frequency? Kenneth if Tager explained away
his att hack on Dan Rather by saying

153
00:15:01.720 --> 00:15:05.279
he thought it was a man who
was going to be a future vice president.

154
00:15:07.159 --> 00:15:11.799
What did the frequency have to do
with it? That's what I want

155
00:15:11.799 --> 00:15:16.960
to know. And why ask a
question as you're assaulting someone? I guess

156
00:15:16.039 --> 00:15:22.799
the question symbolizes the reason for the
attack. This is a mystery that as

157
00:15:22.840 --> 00:15:26.600
I run it through my mind,
it just gets more and more confusing.

158
00:15:28.799 --> 00:15:33.600
So help me out here. Do
you have any idea why this happened?

159
00:15:35.320 --> 00:15:39.720
Why somebody would say, Kenneth,
what is the frequency? As they assault

160
00:15:39.759 --> 00:15:43.799
a man in New York City.
I'd love to hear any theories. The

161
00:15:43.879 --> 00:15:48.919
crazier the better. Let's find out
a way to tie this to the Kennedy's

162
00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:54.080
if we can. But that all
being said, this does hearken back to

163
00:15:54.120 --> 00:15:58.120
an older time, a simpler time, when you watched the news for information,

164
00:15:58.240 --> 00:16:03.279
and those people that sat at the
desk and told you about world events,

165
00:16:03.200 --> 00:16:07.919
they were different. They weren't like
you and I. They were a

166
00:16:07.080 --> 00:16:14.320
kind of untouchable monolith. But they
weren't truly untouchable at all as we tried

167
00:16:14.320 --> 00:16:22.480
to find out what's the frequency?
Thanks so much for listening. Terrifying and

168
00:16:22.519 --> 00:16:27.440
True is narrated by Enrique Kuto.
It's executive produced by Rob Fields, produced

169
00:16:27.480 --> 00:16:32.879
by Daniel Wilder, with the original
theme music by Ray Mattis. If you

170
00:16:32.960 --> 00:16:34.879
have a story you'd like us to
cover on the program, send us an

171
00:16:34.879 --> 00:16:40.000
email at Weekly Spooky at gmail dot
com. And if you want to support

172
00:16:40.080 --> 00:16:42.759
us in a very direct way,
go to Weekly Spooky dot com and click

173
00:16:42.759 --> 00:16:47.240
on Patreon. For as little as
one dollar a month, you can support

174
00:16:47.320 --> 00:16:52.120
us and allow us to keep the
Spooky rolling and rolling and rolling. And

175
00:16:52.159 --> 00:16:55.519
I want to say a big thank
you to our Patreon podcast boosters, folks

176
00:16:55.519 --> 00:16:57.039
who page us a little bit more
to hear their names at the end of

177
00:16:57.039 --> 00:17:00.759
the show, and they are Johnny
Nicks, bob utopia dot Com, Megan

178
00:17:00.879 --> 00:17:04.519
Hua, Julia Kirsh, Brent McCullough, Steve King, Karen We met,

179
00:17:04.599 --> 00:17:08.079
Jack Kerr and Craig Cohen. Thank
you all so much, and we'll see

180
00:17:08.079 --> 00:17:12.680
you next time right here on Weekly
Spooky and Terrifying and True