Wag the Dog?

AP, 3/98, DAN RATHER: NOT KNOWN HOW MANY CASUALTIES.

CBS NEWS hit total embarrassment Friday afternoon when anchor Dan Rather, in full pancake makeup, and Pentagon correspondent David Martin were caught rehearsing coverage of a U.S. bombing run on Iraq-a rehearsal that was mistakenly beamed to television affiliates via satellite!

For 20 minutes, Rather could been seen on the satellite going through the motions of a bombing.

According to one viewer who witnessed the spectacle, Rather at one point described how it was not known how many casualties were caused by the bombings.

"It felt like WAG THE DOG," a senior news producer at a major-market affiliate told us. "I bet the network is living in fear that someone on the receiving end of the transmission had tape rolling."

"It looked like a real broadcast of what was going on," Bill McClure, master control operator at WTAP-TV in Parkersburg, W.Va., an NBC affiliate, told the AP.

The network wanted to test new graphics and theme music that would be used to cover the story, according to CBS NEWS spokeswoman Kerri Weitzberg. No word on testing camera angles that would work best during February sweeps.