Are You Going To Miss Dan Rather?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

I wouldn't trade the sweat from Dan's brow for every member of the Bush criminal empire...

[IndianaGreen]

1. Despite his errors on the Bush TANG story

and his self-imposed silence during the buildup to the war in Iraq, Dan Rather is still head and shoulders above all the other network anchors. His broadcast was the best of the bunch.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. dan got caught up in the patriotic fervor and war fever....

eom

[Maat]

2. It just feels in my gut that something terribly unfair happened to him.

And that the mainstream media is totally in their hands now - everyone cowing to the Liar-in-Chief.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

3. we should e-mail him our appreciation

he was a mensch....

[IndianaGreen]

6. Yes, Rather was a mensch

and he will be missed as the TV network news become more pasteurized and homogenized. How different it is today from when Walter Cronkite could dismiss an Administration defense of its policies by the mere look in his eyes.

[PurityOfEssence]

9. Goddammit you put that perfectly

He was and is. Although a bit of a fuddy-duddy at times, he is deeply for real. He's a bit of a nerd, but the one that the truly cool people would always love.

Rather isn't the lefty ideologue that the right likes to vilify; he is a truly decent and moral person. Somehow, morality is subservient to affiliation in this country, and probably always has been. He is a giant of the soft-spoken and honorable type: he always goes to the war zones, sticks his neck out with shrieking ghouls like Nixon, and has true heart. The very "uncool" blandness of his demeanor and delivery has always been a reassurance for me: it's simple and small decency writ large.

Don't laud Cronkite too much though; he enabled the evils of this country's elite far and wide before he saw the light, and even then, he's been too reticent in righting those wrongs. Too bad Izzy Stone's not alive to take up the baton here and work him over some more, but you can at least see a jaw-dropping bit of cowardice in an encounter between him and Cronkite in documentary footage at a cocktail party.

This was a purge. It's idiotic, and what's worse is that the copies of the documents may very well be absolutely authentic. Fuck all that, though, the snide mouthpieces of privilege have spoken.

Bear in mind, though, that they've only spoken for the moment. I want people to go on record decrying them as "forgeries"; time will show that this hasn't been proven, and the meat of the message is what's true. The real story is the use of power to expunge history, and THAT'S very easy to document.

[Darryl Cramer]

25. it's sad what happened at the end

I agree with what you said, but it really is somewhat sad what happened to him at the end of his career. Unfortunately, he's now always going to be associated with this scandal. I just wached a piece about this on PBS - 60 Minutes was overzealous and, most likely, Rather wanted to get Bush. The document was forged, but the story was true! That's even more upsetting.

[PurityOfEssence]

27. The documents were not necessarily forged; they may very well be real

That, unfortunately is a huge issue for me that gets in the way of the reality of the situation: the overall story was absolutely true. Even when debunking them, his secretary said she had typed very similar memos and that these reflected Killians sentiments at the time.

The REAL issue is the purging of documents and the continual lying about the cushy billet in TANG. He used family pull to get a position he didn't deserve, sucked huge quantities of taxpayer monies to be trained, then weaseled out of even the most basic obligations. Not only is Junior a sluff and a fraud, he's a bum and a coward. These are the true issues. He lied about being willing to go to Vietnam, since he specifically checked the box to avoid this obligation.

Those documents are not necessarily fakes. Much as this is not the major issue, it IS a very good example of the manipulation of reality by the powerful and unscrupulous.

These documents will be heard from again, and there are forensic ways to prove or disprove their worth. Check the paper on which the copies were made, check the toner, and check them against machines at the bases where such documents would have been stored before their destruction.

[Cyrano]

5. Dan Rather might well be the last true journalist on TV.

He has carried on the tradition of Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite and so many other newspeople that made CBS a respected name in the world of TV journalism.

That world is now gone and the bosses at CBS are just another set of Bush shills.

(Bill Moyers, another great journalist, retired last month. I suppose all we have to look forward to are more Faux flunkies.)

[IndianaGreen]

7. You can count on them being blonde!

Murdoch will tell us what to believe!

[Blue_in_VA]

28. Absolutely!

He's the last of the true tv journalists: those who studied their profession and value journalistic integrity above all else. The talking heads today have any idea what true journalism is. If they did, none would have given the Swifties the opportunity to peddle their swill without doing some investigation and background research.

There's no doubt Dan's motivation was always the thrill of getting the story, not some perceived bias.

What's happened to CBS News must be killing him.

I hope he goes on to do something else so that this fiasco isn't the thing he's remembered for. PBS would be a good fit...or maybe a show on one of the satellite radio networks.

[cally]

8. YES!!!

Rather was fighting for journalism against the pretty boys and sometimes girls. I believed in his integrity. I don't think any of the next generation have any values beyond promoting their own career.

[autorank]

10. Kicked Nixon's butt; screwed the pooch w/Bush I & Bush II

I remember when Rather stood up at a press conference and really took Nixon on. This is when it was frightening to do this, very frightening. It just drove Nixon nuts and was a great moment.

Bush I was known as a "weak sister" until Rather interviewed him and got into a spat with pere Bush. After that, the tilt was that Bush I was really a tough guy (see, even then the political dialog in the country was pathetic). He blew the Bush II story, "big time", in a way that was very sloppy. And, oh my God, that crap about "I believe my President" from 911 until it was obvious Iraq was a dive.

In relative terms, he was better than the rest. At the same time, if he's one of the best, that's a sad, sad commentary on the news media and our opportunities for fair reporting. "I believe my President..." give me a break!

[hollowdweller]

11. Maybe he could start doing work for NOW on PBS!

I'm sure he'd like to take the gloves off.

[zulchzulu]

12. Actually he'll still be doing some stories

Like Moyers, he's still in the game.

[mattclearing]

13. Man, that guy was down behind enemy lines so many times...

probably a dozen more times than Bush ever was, which is to say never.

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. I miss Cronkite, though... Don't you?

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[dog_lovin_dem]

17. Absolutely!

Cronkite was "real". He is the most genuine reporter I have ever seen. I wish (unrealistically!) he would run for president.

[GreenPartyVoter]

19. He is STILL really with it. :^) Welcome to DU

----------------------------------------------------------
Save this nation one town, county, and state at a time!
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[Hardrada]

34. Missing Walter

I also miss Eric Sevareid. You used to get reasonably accurate news from Cronkite and crew and a philosophical and literary postscript from Eric S. My grandparents never missed a broadcast.

[yurbud]

15. reporter in the 70s & 80s, flak after

I honestly couldn't tell much difference between his broadcast and the ABC and NBC.

I think he used to be a good reporter, and I used to be impressed with the 60 Minutes guys, but they are gradually drifting into 20/20, and Dateline territory: true crime, gossip, and nothing that upsets anyone powerful EVER.

[dog_lovin_dem]

16. Dan has been

a comforting presence since taking over from Walter Cronkite when I was just a pup! I'll admit feeling frustrated with him at times during the past few years, but really believe he is a man of integrity. I truly hope that his retirement will be in name only, and that he will return to investigative reporting.

[dmkinsey]

18. Yup

Dan's always been my go-to guy for 30 minute news blasts

[JPJones]

20. I'm going to Mrs. Dan Rather n/t

[Skittles]

21. WINGNUTS WILL MISS HIM

ask any conservative for examples of the liberal media - I've been getting the same tired answer for 20 years: RATHER BROWKAW JENNINGS. WTF will they do now???????????

[msongs]

22. Never watch the network news crap, its PBS newshour for me and

that's a fact.


Msongs
www.msongs.com/howarddean2008.htm

[Osamasux]

23. I will miss the weird closing remarks he sometimes threw out there.

My favorite was "Tamp 'em down firmly."
First trying to figure out what the hell it was that I just heard. Then waiting for an explanation to pop up somewhere down the road. This one turned out to be a saying among Texas ditch diggers, of which there were quite a few in his family. It's just about doing a good job at whatever it is you do. How fitting.

[Fleshdancer]

24. No offense to Dan, but I gave up on network news a loooong time ago

I like him though. Hope he's happy in whatever he does next.

[Poppyseedman]

26. I voted no simply because

I stopped watching him years ago. The news product at CBS was badly produced. (It is a product!)

The other networks looked better, sounded better, better all around package. It showed in the rating for years

Dan is in charge of the news, he let the CBS news fall behind in all areas of competition.

He was a great reporter at one time, but slowly got left behind and out of touch.

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[robbedvoter]

30. No, but a dangerous precedent was set - direct intimidation of

the media for telling the truth. Clear sign of dictatorship.

[ozarklib]

32. dictatorship?

Please enlighten me. Who is the dictator that intimidated CBS?

[Cats Against Frist]

33. The Republican Party apparatus, their army of hate radio mongers

and their delusional, manipulated followers. It doesn't matter if the message was true or false, or whether Dan Rather fucked up or not, the same thing happens when the information is true, like Rumsfeld's lack of foresight protecting our troops. When it was "outed" that a reporter coached the soldier who supposedly asked the question, then all of the sudden, the machine kicked into gear and everyone from Hannity to Limbaugh to the bimbo twins (Mann & Laura) were screaming about how the "question was asked."

It's called the "style-over-substance" fallacy, and it is one of the most favorite Republican methods of attacking a message, without ever having to make an argument. They just make a lot of noise over the "way the question was asked," (tone, delivery, timing, etc.) and bitch so loud that everyone forgets the original question.

We all know that the Pretzel King got out of 'Nam because he was a rich kid. Anyone who can't put that two plus fucking two together is an idiot -- and most likely buys that he's a "man of the people" when he bought his fake ranch in 1999, and he is from one of the wealthiest families in America, with degrees from Yale and Harvard, and is called "Bandar" by oil sheiks.

It's not that hard to fool them, though. Their masters of the intellectual right-wing just churn out the messages, and they lick it up like baby pups. That's what happens when one is deprived of a brainstem.

[earth mom]

31. I will miss Dan...

The way he was treated over the National Guard story still ticks me off and the fall out from it today really ticked me off to the max. At least they didn't fire him...though it was because he'd already announced his retirement...what a crock! CBS should never have apologized or did any kind of damage control. It really makes them look foolish because that story was the truth and everyone knows it.