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[c=#003BB2]https://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/30/nyregion/belatedly-the-riddle-of-an-attack-on-rather-is-solved.html[/c]
[quote][big]Belatedly, the Riddle of an Attack on Rather Is Solved[/big]
By FRANK BRUNI
JAN. 30, 1997
Over the course of a decade, it evolved from an incomprehensible utterance during a quizzical crime to the possible measure of a news anchor's unraveling to a kernel of kitschy folklore, memorialized as the title of a popular hit by the rock band R.E.M.
''Kenneth, what is the frequency?'' became more than just the question that Dan Rather, the CBS news anchor, said he was asked during an attack in 1986 that some detractors unfairly dismissed as apocryphal. It became a nonsensical oddity and an unsolved mystery: Who said it, and why, and what ever happened to him?
Now, it seems, there may be some answers, as The Daily News first reported on Wednesday. According to Mr. Rather and law enforcement officials, the man who punched and kicked him appears to be the same man who, in 1994, fatally shot an NBC stagehand outside Rockefeller Center.
And in both cases, the motive was distrust and suspicion of the news media, said Dr. Park Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist who examined the man, William Tager, after the shooting of the stagehand, Campbell Theron Montgomery, 33. Dr. Dietz said in a telephone interview yesterday that Mr. Tager, serving a 121/2 - to 25-year sentence for manslaughter, believed that messages were being broadcast directly to him on the evening news.
Mr. Tager's lawyer, John Esposito, did not return a phone call to his office last night, but has said he is not convinced his client attacked Mr. Rather.
When Mr. Tager was arrested for the fatal shooting, he claimed responsibility for the attack against Mr. Rather as well, but the authorities did not investigate it, because the five-year statute of limitations had expired. But Dr. Dietz wanted to determine if Mr. Tager was lying about the attack against Mr. Rather on the Upper East Side. So, last year, he contacted Mr. Rather to see if Mr. Rather's memories of the crime matched Mr. Tager's.
Dr. Dietz said there were certain details about the building in which part of the attack occurred that both Mr. Rather and Mr. Tager recalled identically. On Tuesday, Mr. Rather looked at photographs of Mr. Tager provided to him by The Daily News and identified Mr. Tager as his attacker.
After the attack in 1986, Mr. Rather's critics lumped the incident together with a subsequent episode in which Mr. Rather stomped off the set, leaving the network with dead air time, as signs that he was losing his cool.
But as time passed, Mr. Rather came to make light of the incident himself, even singing along with R.E.M. during a performance of their song ''What's the Frequency, Kenneth?'' on David Letterman's show two years ago.
[i]The TimesMachine archive viewer is a subscriber-only feature.
We are continually improving the quality of our text archives. Please send feedback, error reports, and suggestions to archive_feedback@nytimes.com.
A version of this article appears in print on January 30, 1997, on Page B00003 of the National edition with the headline: Belatedly, the Riddle of an Attack on Rather Is Solved. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe[/quote][/i]
[c=#003BB2]https://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/30/nyregion/belatedly-the-riddle-of-an-attack-on-rather-is-solved.html[/c]
[quote][big]Belatedly, the Riddle of an Attack on Rather Is Solved[/big]
By FRANK BRUNI
JAN. 30, 1997
Over the course of a decade, it evolved from an incomprehensible utterance during a quizzical crime to the possible measure of a news anchor's unraveling to a kernel of kitschy folklore, memorialized as the title of a popular hit by the rock band R.E.M.
''Kenneth, what is the frequency?'' became more than just the question that Dan Rather, the CBS news anchor, said he was asked during an attack in 1986 that some detractors unfairly dismissed as apocryphal. It became a nonsensical oddity and an unsolved mystery: Who said it, and why, and what ever happened to him?
Now, it seems, there may be some answers, as The Daily News first reported on Wednesday. According to Mr. Rather and law enforcement officials, the man who punched and kicked him appears to be the same man who, in 1994, fatally shot an NBC stagehand outside Rockefeller Center.
And in both cases, the motive was distrust and suspicion of the news media, said Dr. Park Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist who examined the man, William Tager, after the shooting of the stagehand, Campbell Theron Montgomery, 33. Dr. Dietz said in a telephone interview yesterday that Mr. Tager, serving a 121/2 - to 25-year sentence for manslaughter, believed that messages were being broadcast directly to him on the evening news.
Mr. Tager's lawyer, John Esposito, did not return a phone call to his office last night, but has said he is not convinced his client attacked Mr. Rather.
When Mr. Tager was arrested for the fatal shooting, he claimed responsibility for the attack against Mr. Rather as well, but the authorities did not investigate it, because the five-year statute of limitations had expired. But Dr. Dietz wanted to determine if Mr. Tager was lying about the attack against Mr. Rather on the Upper East Side. So, last year, he contacted Mr. Rather to see if Mr. Rather's memories of the crime matched Mr. Tager's.
Dr. Dietz said there were certain details about the building in which part of the attack occurred that both Mr. Rather and Mr. Tager recalled identically. On Tuesday, Mr. Rather looked at photographs of Mr. Tager provided to him by The Daily News and identified Mr. Tager as his attacker.
After the attack in 1986, Mr. Rather's critics lumped the incident together with a subsequent episode in which Mr. Rather stomped off the set, leaving the network with dead air time, as signs that he was losing his cool.
But as time passed, Mr. Rather came to make light of the incident himself, even singing along with R.E.M. during a performance of their song ''What's the Frequency, Kenneth?'' on David Letterman's show two years ago.
[i]The TimesMachine archive viewer is a subscriber-only feature.
We are continually improving the quality of our text archives. Please send feedback, error reports, and suggestions to archive_feedback@nytimes.com.
A version of this article appears in print on January 30, 1997, on Page B00003 of the National edition with the headline: Belatedly, the Riddle of an Attack on Rather Is Solved. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe[/quote][/i]
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