|
Are we really going to let Dan Rather retire with full honors?
So, Danny's announced his retirement. We're all supposed to chip in for a gold grandfather clock, pat him on the back, wish him well, and forget about it. Unh-uh. Not so fast, Danny boy. There's still that little matter of the forged documents you tried to foist on the public. You tried to swing the election hard to the left with documents you knew couldn't be real, and you got caught at it. Can we say "dumb", Danny? And now we're just supposed to just forget it? Not even, Danny boy. You've always been proud of that down-home Texas sound, haven't you Danny? I have a Texanism I know you'll love: "Fetch a rope." Oh, I know CBS is investigating (looking for a scapegoat so they won't have to admit you were the real problem), but that ain't gonna cut it, Danny. There are some of us, a lot of us, who aren't going to be happy with anything short of a hangin'. I'm not ready to write my major hit piece yet, just letting you know how I feel. Shoot, I probably won't even need to write one. Remember Powerline? Remember Little Green Footballs? Yeah, I thought you would. Hindrocket and Big Trunk are already itchin' to stir up trouble and your good friend Charles Johnson's always ready for a good reporter-bashin'. Is it warm in here, Danny? Why ya sweatin', Danny?
Updates:
The Washington Times isn't forgetting, Danny. Check this out: [...]
... CBS is preparing the findings of its investigation of Mr. Rather's report that President Bush compromised his National Guard service three decades ago, which was based on forged documents and broadcast in the weeks before the presidential election.
Critics accused Mr. Rather of trying to manipulate the election, demanded that he resign and that a federal investigation be organized.
CBS aired Mr. Rather's bombshell on "60 Minutes" on Sept. 8. The story was questioned at once by Internet bloggers, and the controversy soon was taken up by newspapers and other TV networks.
He apologized later that month. Sumner Redstone, president of CBS' parent company, Viacom, acknowledged that the network "had been damaged by the report" and appointed a two-man panel to review internal decisions that had cleared the way for Mr. Rather's story.
[...]
Some Rather critics insisted yesterday that his leaving CBS was not a retirement, but a firing.
"Today's announcement ratifies that there was a scandal at CBS, but Dan Rather is not really resigning, he's being reassigned," said Tim Graham of the Media Research Center. "But all of this should not distract the public from asking what went wrong. This resignation sounds like propaganda from a publicist to me. CBS is trying to get out of a mess, trying to take the scent off the investigation of their own wrongdoing."
And how about this from The New York Daily News: Dan's fall is Nixonian
Rather's smearing of his critics was even worse than the bogus hit on W
To the end, Gunga Dan liked to play the part of the crusading journalist, a regular reporter just digging up the facts. That was his TV persona. In real life, his hubris made him more like Richard Nixon than Walter Cronkite. And like Nixon, the coverup was his downfall.
The CBS announcement that Dan Rather will give up his anchor chair in March made zero mention of Rathergate, the big-time blunder in which he used fake documents to charge that President Bush got favored treatment in the National Guard 30 years ago.
I guess we're supposed to believe it was mere coincidence that Rather is packing even before the network's probe is released. Or we're supposed to believe that, as Rather claimed, he and his bosses had been discussing his retirement over the summer.
[...]
My, my, my, Dan. Forget the watch. Just run while you can.
|
