Dan Rather blasted what he described as the mainstream media's "sweetheart coverage" of Washington during a Thursday interview.

Rather said on Tom Green Live Thursday night that he wished the public had a better understanding of how the media giants and members of Washington "work together" to fulfill their business and political interests.

"For a long time I thought the public didn't understand that no more than six-- I think it's 4-- very large international conglomerate companies... control 80% or better of the true national distribution of news in the country," he explained.

Rather criticized corporate media for not having "enough competition at the very top level." He discussed the extent to which these four or so major corporations "depend on Washington," and vise versa.

"Their [corporate media] big money contributed to political campaigns gives them heavy influence in Washington," Rather said. "They need favors. Of course, what the political powers need is 'sweetheart coverage.'"