Andy Rooney has remedy for CBS News

NEW YORK, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Expanded world news might reestablish CBS News' credibility after the scandal about the questionable National Guard documents, newsman Andy Rooney said.

Rooney, in a "60 Minutes" commentary Sunday addressed to Sumner Redstone, chairman of Viacom, CBS' parent company, detailed his plan for CBS to regain viewer confidence after the news agency used unverified information last week to report on President Bush's National Guard service.

"Turn our 'Evening News With Dan Rather' into a one-hour broadcast seven nights a week. ... The 'Evening News' is 20 minutes long -- nowhere near long enough to tell Americans what's going on in their own country, let alone anywhere else.

"Send a bunch of CBS reporters to other countries, too, so we give viewers an idea of what's happening somewhere other than here. If CBS News was on the air every night for an hour, it might make people forget this mistake," Rooney said.

Rooney had only one special request.

"I'd sit at a desk over in the corner of the newsroom, and any time I disagreed with something, I could interrupt. I'd like to have had that desk at the Bush/Kerry debate, too," Rooney said.