The footage is shot and transmitted to the control room, the director informs Rather through his earpiece and as Rather makes his on air announcement the producer intervenes to kill the tape of Giuliani and the director gives Rather the "technical difficulties" excuse as an out.

This was the most hectic day in American television history for broadcasters, so it is also possible that the footage did get messed up somehow.

However, I think it is quite likely that as events unfolded, key producers and executive producers began to assert greater control over what made it onto the air, especially in the case of the major anchors like Rather, Jennings and Brokaw. This was one of the main lessons learned from the news coverage of the false flag in Oklahoma City, imo.

A short video, or even a still image, of Giuliani holding a "black box" would be priceless, I must say.

SMILE

The truth shall set us free. Love is the only way forward.

"If Rather has not himself seen the footage, does not the plain fact of his introducing it strongly suggest that someone in authority in the control room has seen it and is preparing it to air?"

Not at all! An extremely likely scenario is that a field producer phoned the news directer in the control room and tells him/her that s/he heard that they've found a "black box" and thinks they can get their cameraman over there to get a live shot. It would be "an exclusive" in TV jargon. A live shot is transmitted from a one of those TV vans we have all seen, mounted with a microwave dish. Given the chaotic scene at Ground Zero that day, any number of technical problems are possibilities. It also could have been taped and captured, but that, too, would need to be transmitted by the microwave dish on their van to be aired in a timely fashion. As far as a retraction/correction, in most situations you are right, but I think it's generally accepted that they all get "a pass" because it was such a frantic situation.

This whole question of whether Giuliani was there when a black box was found is a worthwhile pursuit. There are lots of avenues you can take to uncover the validity of the claim and lots has been written about it already. The Rather comment only justifies the "reason" to pursue it, but in-and-of itself proves nothing. But it's a strong justification and starting point if you want to pursue a serious investigation on your own. The first thing you need is the date and time of the Rather comment. CBS obviously is not interested in helping you with that, you're going to have to get that info without their help. It's really not that hard to do. Once you have that, you can write back to CBS with that info and ask them if they ever corroborated that claim and/or if they ever aired a retraction. Where to go from there depends on what they say -- it's a step-by-step process. Good Luck.