Former CBS journalist Dan Rather appeared on NBC "Today" on Tuesday where he lamented on the American people's lack of trust in the media.
"There’s a recent poll that said nearly half of people think the media make up stories," host Savannah Guthrie noted. "The media itself is under fire."
"What do you think the media needs to do better to enhance its own credibility?" she asked.
"We need to do a better job, we need to do our job. Our job is to bear witness, to be honest brokers of information, to be as accurate and fair as we possibly can," Rather said.
"I think most of the public understands that we’re under attack by very powerful people, including the president, for their own partisan, political, and ideological reasons," he concluded.
Rather infamously resigned as the anchor of "CBS Evening News" after going to air with a story only two months before the 2004 election claiming that then-candidate George W. Bush often went AWOL while serving in the Texas National Guard.
After the story aired, conservative bloggers discovered discrepancies indicating the memos it was based on were forged. CBS retracted the story and apologized, but Rather still insists the story was accurate.