Rather’s ratings are circling the drain in New York. (Hat tip: lawhawk.)

September 23, 2004 — Ratings for Dan Rather’s “CBS Evening News” have plummeted drastically in New York since the Bush-documents scandal broke wide open this week.

The perennially third-place 6:30 p.m. newscast averaged 135,000 viewers on WCBS/Channel 2 Monday — the day Rather issued an on-air apology for the mess.

That’s down 49 percent from the 266,000 viewers who tuned in to Rather’s newscast the previous Monday, Sept. 13, according to Nielsen.

Rather’s numbers rose to 176,000 viewers this past Tuesday — but that was still down from the 213,000 viewers who tuned in to the previous Tuesday’s broadcast.

Meanwhile, Mary Mapes, the veteran “60 Minutes” producer at the heart of the scandal involving forged National Guard documents, misled her bosses about the authentication of the memos, according to sources.

It also appears the producer was forbidden to put her main source — a disgruntled former Texas Air National Guard officer — in touch with the Kerry campaign, but she did so anyway.