Adieu, Dan Rather
 

Well, I suppose Au revoir is more accurate, because I am certain he will not be gone from the public eye forever. Anyway.....

Tonight is the night - his last news broadcast.

With friends like Walter Cronkite, though, he needn't any enemies. A few days ago, Cronkite said Rather should have been replaced long ago. Ouch.

I am no fan of Rather, and that's no secret. I'm sure he's done many a fine journalistic thing in his life, but i will remember him for three specific events -

First, I remember his coverage of the shuttle disaster in 1986. He looked like an absolute moron with the model of the space shuttle attempting to demonstrate what had happened.

Secondly, while I did not witness this event, I did witness the interview (in replay) where he was quizzing Bush the Elder about Iran-Contra, and Bush put Rather on the defensive by asking him how he would like to be remembered for storming off the set of the news when a tennis tournament went overtime into the news slot, and the cameras went on to a blank set when he wouldn't go on. Not a good thing to do.

Lastly, without much elaboration, the documents.

I would like to add his disgusting behavior when interviewing, back in 1984, then Vice President Bush.......his questions were un-fair and obviously one-sided of course, but what made me most furious was the rude/snide way in which this "journalist" was asking the questions.... :mad:

Probably you should be thanking Rather for that one. He shifted the debate away from Bush and onto himself -- which, obviously, worked to Bush's benefit.

Wait - shouldn't I be thanking Karl Rove, the true mastermind of the whole document scandal????? :rolleyes:

Well, I wasn't implying that. But now that you mention it, yeah, you probably should.

Oh - I know that - I was just being sarcastic about all you liberal conspiracy theorists.

While at the same time gloating about the downfall of the ringleader of the liberal anti-right wing media conspiracy?;):p

You know, if it was Rove, it was equal parts brilliance and balls. And having that schmuck Rather be the fall guy -- icing on the cake, I'm sure.

The problem with this is....?

Nothing at all. Just indulging in a bit of sarcasm myself.

Adieu? Au Revoir?

Hmmpf Only cheese eating surrender monkeys talk like that. ;)

I've never been a real big Rather fan, so I guess the word for today for me is ambivalent... and I don't know how I feel about that.

My Lord, you're right. And it's too late to edit my post.

I feel......dirty.

I need to go shower now.

OK, now you're just teasing me. :p

For a nice blender, I can give you more.....

I liked Dan, when I watched TV news back in the 80's and early 90's. I'm not sure what he's been doing lately though.

After all we've shared I'm nothing more than a procurer of appliances for you.

I don't watch national network news any more. I wonder if it's even relevant any more. The cable news channels don't have the same obligation to pretend they're unbiased -- and how can broadcast news compete with that? It's much more satisfying to hear the evils of the world filtered through the newscaster who Thinks Just Like You. And whether your preference is Fox News or the Daily Show you can nod sagely and relax in your "side's" obvious superiority.

Local news has the rubbernecker attraction. "Look, honey! That busload of nuns and orphans forced off the road by teen street racers crashed into the burning warehouse set ablaze the local serial aronists who's killed 4 firefighters this month and it's almost on our way to work! Let's leave early and detour so we can see the action!" And while it's mildly entertaining to stay tuned to see what YOU should KNOW about using shredders while wearing neckties, that doesn't really translate well to the national news.

For me it's sad because these retirements in the aggregate signal the end of an era where we at least pretended to get our facts from the news and our opinions from thoughtful contemplation of the facts -- rather than tuning in to get our opinions spoon fed to us.

Then again, the good old days seldom were.

I don't watch TV news at all any more. It isn't relevant. It's all op-ed and not much fact.
I quoted you because I think this is so true. You be full of wisdom, Prudence. :)

As for Rather, I rather like Rather. I never found him to be arrogant as some. I found him to be a tell it like it is person. I'll miss him. On Sept 11th, I found him to be a strong reporter after our country was attacked on Bush's watch. I found him doing his job to be calming during that time.

As for the documents, I think in time we'll find that he had courage to speak up when everyone else was too afraid to. Especially because what he was reporting was 100% true even though the documents he had were proven to be fake. (I believe Marian Carr Knox when she said she didn't type the docs but... "the information in those is correct.")

It's all about what you've done for me lately, Scrooge. :p