IMO, the timing of Rather's "retirement" announcement has more to do with the contents of the internal investigation at SeeBS than anything else. I believe the contents of the report have been leaked to Dandy Dan and he took the bait to get out while the getting was good before SeeBS management were forced to fire him based on the internal investigation's report.
IOW, Rather, essentially, is being forced out as opposed to retiring at his own will. SeeBS "C's" the handwriting on the wall. Their ratings have continued to plummet and Rather & Co. have helped accelerate that fact. The internal investigation will do nothing for Rather's cause.
If there is justice in the world, Rather should be taking Mapes with him. For all we know, Mapes is still "working" on the phony Bush/Guard story. After more than 5 years on this non-story, one would think that is there were any "there" there, it would have been discovered.
For all of their efforts, the best they could do was try to smear a sitting president with forged documents besmirching his honorable service to the nation versus any serious investigation of John Kerry's "heroic" (gag, barf) service.
Since this is what passes for "news" these days in the MSM, is it any wonder that so many of us prefer to get our news from cyberspace and just let these talking bobblehead dolls talk to themselves?