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Old Cal is playing nice-nice along with fellow members of Big Media. Even Brent Bozell was letting Rather ride off into the sunset without knocking him off his high horse? Have we forgotten what Rather & Mapes were trying to do? The timing of it?
Let me remind you... They ran with an old, old story (not to be equated to the perfidious behavior of his challenger) about President Bush and tried to blow life into it very late in the campaign, and they did so with childishly spurious documents tendered by well-known crank and malcontent. When presented with irrefutable proof of the forgery Rather churlishly persisted in defending his shoddy work. Rather, to this day, has not apologized or even denounced the credibility of the papers. An inquiry(!) has been underway since the incident. It's looking like we'll find out who killed JFK before it winds up its business but meanwhile Rather & Mapes are collecting their checks.
If we didn't have the most generous libel laws in all the world, Rather & Mapes might be in the stocks.
Seeing these old boys file their sad adieus to the corrupt Face of CBS News makes me want to hurl chunks.

P.S. It was Rather that pushed old Uncle Walter ("The Most Trusted Man in America") out the door when he made it plain that he could do other things if he didn't get the anchor chair on his timetable.

Well said. The issue is bias but it goes beyond that: the Old Media are used to having power. They were the ones that relentlessly pushed their issues as "news" night after night and when even presidents stood in their way went after them. Anyone who lived through their coverage of the Vietnam War saw the effects of the Dan Rathers and their anti-US bias in every telecast. Even Watergate itself was less a crime than the synergy between the opposition/pro-enemy Left and the broadcast and print media to knock Nixon down.

The Old Media never stood for the unfiltered dissemination of information for the interpretation of the people - they stood for the art and power of filtering it for us for their own political ends. They were and are unelected political operatives that until the cable and the Internet came along enjoyed enormous influence.

Dan Rather's latest blunt instrument attack on George Bush, timed to influence the election, is only the latest from 40 years of these types of tactics. The difference is that this time, we have other means to get information and he and his cohorts stood exposed in the open.

Well said indeed. Now that RatherBiased Dan is being allowed to ride off into the sunset like a Texas Toad hopping merrily across old U.S. 90 on a hot July afternoon in search of an old '57 Chevy hubcap filled with rainwater, everyone seems to want to let Danno off the hook.

NO FRIGGIN WAY!

As you (TGB) pointed out, what Rather, Mapes, Heyward and the rest of that motley crew were trying to do was to turn a presidential election around in favor of THEIR annointed candidate, John F'in Kerry!

Does anyone with half a brain think that Rather would be announcing his upcoming retirement if the Democratic Party, in a mass orgasm, were preparing for the (gag, choke, spew) Inauguration of President-elect John Forbes Kerry?

No, I didn't think so either.

If Rather is still breathing oxygen on January 21, 2009, I would love to think that FORMER President George W. Bush will direct his attorneys to sue the living dogs--t out of Dan Rather and CBS News for what they did to him personally, and for what CBS did to all of America.

They don't call 'em SEE-BS for nothing.

When presented with irrefutable proof of the forgery Rather churlishly persisted in defending his shoddy work. Rather, to this day, has not apologized or even denounced the credibility of the papers.

A "major" network gets away with pure intentional untruthfulness in the democratic election process and new leadership comes in praising those involved. Does Viacom have a board of directors?