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Your post is absolutely correct. There have been several disconnects from reality in the reporting of this story. The first, and I think deliberate, incorrect information, is the assumption that Rather was duped. Rather has never been a reporter. He is a political idealogue and a propagandist. He also epitomizes the Godless mind, which does not believe in the concept of truth. His interview, where he stated that Bill Clinton could lie about many things and still be an honest man illustrates this. In the Bush story, he didn't care whether the story was true or not. He didn't care if the documents were forged. He didn't care if Ben Barnes was making up his story, and that Barnes directly contradicted his own earlier statements. He didn't care if Bill Burkett was mentally unbalanced. The only question he had was, "can we get away with it?"

The second point is exactly what you said. People keep talking about Rather getting in trouble with the brass at CBS News. Rather IS CBS News. He had enough power to block Cronkite from doing any on air work after he stepped down from the anchor desk.

I also think Rather has gone senile. For several years now, he's looked about as balanced as Jerry Lewis in the last two hours of the MD marathon. Rather is the same dishonest propagandist he's been for his entire career, but he's lost a step and can't make up stories as well as he used to. Also, of course, the leftists in the old media don't control the agenda anymore. Ten years ago, he would have gotten away with these crappy forgeries, just like Bill Clinton was able to mush the Flowers affair and his summer in the Soviet Union when he was supposedly at Oxford. It ain't happening anymore.