Posted on 03/08/2005 4:57:41 AM PST by IronJack
Dan Rather retires on Wednesday. Across the country, champagne is already chilling. It is the end to a ugly, saga of bias, discrimination, and utter lies against the right. For half a century, Dan Rather has been as welcome in conservative camps as a flyspeck on a wedding cake. He will not be missed.
But the old-line media will not mute his passing. It will be lauded as the zenith of a long and noble career, a fitting end for a man who gave so much in the service of Truth. Rather will be lionized by people as corrupt and morally bankrupt as he himself. But he will be JUDGED by a harsher, more critical eye.
He will be saluted as a “hard-bitten reporter who wasn’t tied to the anchor desk,” as one report had it. But the fact is, he wasn’t a hard-bitten reporter, except when he was hot on the trail of some (often invented) scandal that would damage his ideological enemies. And if he wasn’t tied to an anchor desk, he was at least tied to a set of outmoded beliefs in his own infallibility, the right - indeed the obligation - of the media to reshape the world rather than reporting on it, and the conceit that being paid a lot of money somehow gifted him with some insight the rest of us pajama-clad boobs lacked.
It may not be good manners to speak ill of those whose careers are dead, but Dan Rather was no great journalist. Even in disgrace, he is not humbled. His is the greatest sin that can consume a so-called guardian of the public trust: pride. Not pride in his work, or even pride in his profession. But a pride that aspires to hubris, an unshakable belief in his own superiority.
It is that belief that led him to spew left-wing hate nightly for 50 years. It is that belief that seduced him to run an irresponsible story that damned a sitting president, forsaking all fundamentals of journalism in the process. And it is that belief that finally laid him low, a victim of his own conceit.
It was also hubris that made him an insufferable tyrant in the newsroom: grating, dictatorial, duplicitous - he made life hell for anyone around him who challenged his agenda. Bernard Goldberg, a colleague of Rather’s for 20 years at CBS News, said that Rather cherry-picked the high-profile stories for himself, then presented them in a way that inevitably indicted the conservative ideal. Rather, not the nominal “bosses” at CBS, was in charge of the news division. The decisions about what aired, how, and when came from him alone. Occasionally, the management would be allowed to consult, but Rather had free rein at the anchor throne, and owned the newsroom like a personal fiefdom.
Which belies the recent Thornburgh investigation, in which blame for the Sept. 8 National Guard story was shared among hordes of bureaucrats and ultimately came to rest on a series of untermenschen who suddenly manifested a burning desire to change careers.
It also belies the cultivated - and propagated - image of Rather as a homespun, rolled-up-sleeves country boy from Texas who brings his simple country integrity to the big city and uses them big ole’ clod-kickin’ boots of his to clean up Dodge. Far from a chaw-spittin’ cowboy, Rather is more of a venom-spitting elitist, a pampered puppy of the leftist establishment who was weaned on anti-American rubric, fed commie kibble until his teeth fell out, then, for sentimental reasons, was kept sleeping on the parlor rug near the fireplace, awakening only long enough to bark at any strangers in the house. Creaky, constipated, cantankerous, he has long outlived his usefulness; Rather’s ratings have consistently been the lowest of the three old-fashioned media for two decades.
His demise has something of the Greek tragedy in it. A man of arguably noble spirit and extraordinary ambition is driven to ultimate destruction through some fatal flaw. Like Coriolanus, for example, he drifts further and further into extremism because he is not bound within any social matrix. The mores that should constrain him are either absent or equally flawed. In his climb to the peak, he has offended millions, and the accumulated weight of those enemies now besets him.
Journalists shouldn’t create enemies. Sure, shining the light on a cockroach might make the cockroach mad, but only a sociopath could blame the guy who flipped the switch. No, enemies come from something far more insidious, namely the untrammeled pursuit of power. At some point in that headlong rush, it becomes less about the end than the means. Principles are waylaid by ambition, and self-importance inflicts a deadly ethical glaucoma. For an institution in which credibility is stock in trade, that affliction is fatal.
The fact that Dan Rather is not a great journalist does not mean that Dan Rather won’t be remembered as a great journalist. Such is the forgiving power of time. But when the roll is called up yonder, in whatever gin-soaked precincts pass for Heaven in journalistic circles, Dan Rather’s name wont’ be there. For he was weighed in the balance, and found sadly, tragically wanting.
So when the encomiums start and you hear the shopworn salutes and vague valedictions, remember the words from Shakespeare:
“Was ever man so vain as this? He is grown too proud to be so valiant.”
Good riddance, indeed.
I had not realized until the other day that after JFK was assassinated that Rather lied to the nation and said that a schoolroom erupted in cheers upon learning that JFK was dead.
The truth is that the principal told the kids they could go home and had not told the kids the president was shot. The kids were cheering that they got to go home early, without knowing why they were being sent home.
This is the longest goodbye ever.
As Pontius Pilate would say, "Truth? What is Truth?"
Dan Rather became Richard Nixon.
The MSM will be fawning over this Ted Baxter clone for the next 48 hours, but in their hearts, they'll be relieved that the poster boy for biased media is being put out to pasture. As for the rest of us, we ought to have "Goodbye and Good Riddance" parties all over the country. Just don't ask me to watch the maudlin send-off on Wed. I can stand only so much...
Just shut the $&$@ up and get out!
That's the nicest sentiment of which I am capable of uttering!
"Rather is more of a venom-spitting elitist, a pampered puppy of the leftist establishment who was weaned on anti-American rubric, fed commie kibble until his teeth fell out, then, for sentimental reasons, was kept sleeping on the parlor rug near the fireplace, awakening only long enough to bark at any strangers in the house."
Now that was well said, and to me it is the thesis sentence of this whole article.
Goodnight Kenneth...
BTW WHAT'S THE FREQUENCY?
He'll be like Clinton, sticking his mug into the national debate long past the time when anyone gave a sh** what he thinks.
A nicer piece than Dan has ever written and very fitting that you, a FReeper, should pen his career's obituary.
Dan Rather- I salute You:
Ironjack bump.
Licorice: "Mistress Heinz says there is nothing to this.
If there was, Dan would be the first to report it."
LOL!
I think he should stay.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.