Dan Rather blinks [Cal Thomas nails it!]

Townhall.com ^ | November 25, 2004 | Cal Thomas

[Quilla]

Dan Rather, who has announced his "retirement" next March from the anchor desk he has held for 24 years, is a dinosaur. After the last of the old news anchors leaves his chair (Peter Jennings will be the final one sitting), Rather, Tom Brokaw and Jennings will be fossils. There will not be their like again.

Rather earned his stripes and paid his dues during a career that has spanned four decades at CBS and as a wire-service reporter before that. He is a man who loves his country. Recall his emotional breakdown on the "Late Show With David Letterman" following 9/11. Rather said he would go and fight the terrorists if the president asked him. Some thought his performance strange, even grandstanding. I thought he meant it.

While Rather is 73 and could have been expected to retire soon (his predecessor, Walter Cronkite, was forced out at age 65), the controversy over faked National Guard documents purporting to show George W. Bush failed to fulfill his military obligations appeared to give CBS management the excuse it needed to make a change. Rather, who helped bring down Richard Nixon, was himself brought down by a gross inaccuracy and a type of stonewalling reminiscent of the president he tormented.

It doesn't matter who replaces Rather. Everyone at that level of broadcast journalism has been ideologically vetted. No one who is a conservative is allowed to ascend to the top of major news organizations. If you disagree, try naming one. Despite plummeting ratings and numerous surveys that have shown large numbers of people believe the major networks approach the things conservatives care about with a bias, even hostility, network executives refuse to acknowledge those feelings and continue to present the news through the filter of their leftist ideological worldview.

Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center and a frequent critic of Rather, observed: "Mr. Rather's bias is part of an institutional problem throughout the national 'news' media - identified by former longtime CBS News correspondent Bernard Goldberg - which is the arrogant notion that their point of view is always accurate and always relevant to any story in which they choose to inject it."

More proof that nothing changes at the networks is the appointment of Jonathan Klein as president of CNN. Klein was executive vice president of CBS News. He praised the "60 Minutes" producer, Mary Mapes, who received and vouched for the forged National Guard documents from a well-known Bush-hater. Klein called Mapes "absolutely peerless . . . in the profession. She is a crack journalist."

Klein also blasted Internet bloggers for exposing the forged documents and CBS's error in standing behind them. He stereotyped a blogger as "a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing what he thinks." The bloggers did a better job than CBS news anchors and producers, who sit around in their expensive suits telling us what they think. Klein carries his biases from CBS to CNN.

The "60 Minutes" curmudgeon, Andy Rooney, has been making a bigger fool of himself lately by calling conservative Christians uneducated and ignorant. When the sports commentator Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder disparaged blacks in 1988, Dan Rather aired video of the remarks, which led to Snyder's firing by CBS management. That Rooney still holds his job after stereotyping and disparaging Christians sends a message of bias, even bigotry, to a substantial audience that CBS has mostly lost and obviously does not care if it wins back.

CBS's eye logo is an appropriate metaphor for what ails the network. "There is none so blind as they that won't see," wrote Jonathan Swift. Notice he didn't say "can't see," but "won't see."

CBS is not blind, but it deliberately closes its eyes to the institutional bias that substantial numbers of Americans can see quite clearly. Unlike the period during which anchors dominated the national news stage, people now have choices. They are choosing cable, especially Fox News Channel, in growing numbers.

If CBS continues in denial - and it will - its evening news ratings, which have been in third place for several years, will suffer further decline. It didn't have to be this way for Dan Rather or for the once great CBS. He should have learned from Richard Nixon that cover-up and stonewalling can come back to haunt you

[ohioWfan]

Amen! And I don't care about what you care about, and think everything you think is important is stupid.

You can't support the troops and think the mission is wrong........because THEY don't.

[F.J. Mitchell]

"Dan Rather blinks.

Since when do snakes blink?

[SlightOfTongue]

Scary pic... Why do they all have the same shaped heads?

Must be the affects of their implants. You know - the "Borg factor".

[weegee]

The left pretends to be outraged by all of the deaths that they claim are "Bush's fault" but anyone who looks at that list would find many instances that are outright impossible to pin on the President, regardless of what their opinion is on the mission in Iraq.

People dying of heartattacks, car accidents in Kuwait, pneumonia, crossing the highway in Kansas? "Bush lied, people died". Yeah right.

There has been an outright ban on all images of people killed on 9.11.2001 yet the left has been scrambling to expose any images that can get of dead US troops (bodies or coffins).

They are outraged over Abu Ghraib yet never voiced any concern over Saddam's treatment of prisoners. They are outraged over Abu Ghraib yet still call the terrorists in Iraq "insurgents" and "freedom fighters" despite their kidnapping of civilians and videotaping the murder of these prisoners while reciting Islamic prayers.

F. the Left

[MeekOneGOP]

Good article. Thanks for posting!

CBS is not blind, but it deliberately closes its eyes to the institutional bias that substantial numbers of Americans can see quite clearly. Unlike the period during which anchors dominated the national news stage, people now have choices. They are choosing cable, especially Fox News Channel, in growing numbers.

[wright2bear]

He stereotyped a blogger as "a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing what he thinks."
MSM just can't believe that the average American may be smarter than they are

CBS is not blind
They are blind from their own arrogance.

[sport]

He is a man who loves his country.

Bullshit!

He may love his country but the United States of America is not the Country he loves by a long shot.

The only thing I can say about dan rather without getting banned is Cood Riddance, I won't miss you and it was about 30 years too late.

[Happy2BMe]

"Dan Rather, who has announced his "retirement" next March from the anchor desk he has held for 24 years, is a dinosaur a world-class A$$HOLE!

[Enterprise]

Yeah, I started thinking about it, and holy shiite, crack and crank? WOW!

[Paperdoll]

Thank you, Cal Thomas.

>Andy Rooney has been making a bigger fool of himself lately by calling conservative Christians uneducated and ignorant.<

When personal disparaging remarks replace mature repartee, it only reveals the bankruptsy of convincing arguement for one's position. Then those with razor tongues proceed to slit their own throats.

[MeekOneGOP]

---

Media Research Center:
Dan Ra^ther on Bill Clinton:
"I think he’s an honest man."

   O’Reilly: "I want to ask you flat out, do you think President Clinton’s an honest man?"
    Ra^ther: "Yes, I think he’s an honest man."
    O’Reilly: "Do you, really?"
    Ra^ther: "I do."
    O’Reilly: "Even though he lied to Jim Lehrer’s face about the Lewinsky case?"
    Ra^ther: "Who among us has not lied about something?"
    O’Reilly: "Well, I didn’t lie to anybody’s face on national television. I don’t think you have, have you?"
    Ra^ther: "I don’t think I ever have. I hope I never have. But, look, it’s one thing-"
    O’Reilly, jumping in: "How can you say he’s an honest guy then?"
    Ra^ther: "Well, because I think he is. I think at core he’s an honest person. I know that you have a different view. I know that you consider it sort of astonishing anybody would say so, but I think you can be an honest person and lie about any number of things."
    O’Reilly: "Really?!?"
    Ra^ther: "Yeah, I do."
    O’Reilly: "See, I can’t. I want my government to be honest across-the-board. I don’t want people lying."

---

[JLO]

Bump!

I wish I recalled who it was here who was talking about their daughter being schooled in journalism. It was pretty amazing when the Freeper told how the daughter's papers kept getting returned as not left-leaning. I guess media types are brainwashed as they are educated. And I guess we are not surprised.

[ladyinred]

Good riddance to Dan Rather, your departure is long overdue.

[WorkingClassFilth]

Cal Thomas is a victim of leftist bias himself, Like Goldberg, he was squeezed out from NPR after a brief stint as that news plantation's conservative porch monkey.

[WorkingClassFilth]

"...same shaped heads?"

I believe having a block-shaped head is a prequisite.

[WorkingClassFilth]

That was a beautiful and kick-@ss post! I'm still laughing about that toad...

[WorkingClassFilth]

Did you know of Danny telling his boss in 1963 that he'd go to Abraham Zapruder's house, knock him down and steal the film for CBS? Having washed out of Marine boot camp, he went gung-ho for the dark side.

[bannie]

Same shaped heads: Alcoholic-mother syndrom?

:)

[BIGLOOK]

Ping thanks, Tonk. But Rather is only losing his anchor chair, he'll be on 60 Minutes with the rest of the old lib codgers till Father Time intervenes.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Yeah, I know.

I don't understand why anyone thinks this is a "win"

Rather will still be reporting on CBS and 60 Minutes.