[STARWISE]

As only the inimitable Peggy can, the picture painted seems so plausible.. he bought the fame and the press releases .. and but for his last desperate, brazenly stupid and biased campaign screw-up, might have gone out to cheers, honors and high-priced speeches. But the always veiled, unmitigated hubris and arrogance foiled that, and now he'll forever be linked with fraud. You almost had most of the country fooled, Dan .. sayonara.

[upchuck]

Blather, arrogance, Clinton, arrogance, sKerry, arrogance, Dasshole, arrogance.

Arrogance always, sooner or later, takes you down.

[Calvin Locke]

...and now he'll forever be linked with fraud.

Instead of being known as the anchor that way overstayed his numbers, or lack thereof, he has a "-gate" after his name.

Is Richard Nixon smiling, or what?

Schadenfreude, anyone?

[Billthedrill]

Stunning. One of the most brilliant columns on the topic, and I am more than content to let Noonan have the last word on the matter. She's earned the right.

[JoeSixPack1]

Kudos to Peggy. She summed up Danny, rather well. :-)

[Agent Smith]

Right on target. Even Mr. Rather might agree.

[FreedomCalls]

Dan Rather has become the Nixon he despised.

[KC_Conspirator]

I think it about it this way. Bush beat Kerry, he beat the democrats in the house and senate, and Bush made Tom Dasshole and Dan Rather lose their jobs.

[clee1]

Yep... a wonderful legacy he leaves.

[ForGod'sSake]

I'd say this is a keeper. Gets into the Dan's mind a little. Scary place.

FGS

[JanetteS]

Probably the worst moment in his career, because it was arguably the one most obvious in showing bias and a political agenda, was the time Dan tried to beat up George H.W. Bush live, on the "CBS Evening News," over Iran-contra. Mr. Bush decked him instead, and with a question that reverberates: How would you like your whole career to be judged by one mistake? I do not doubt that CBS News that night thought it was going to take down a vice president, and wanted to. And was embittered by its failure. Which may have contributed to the years long, Ahab-like quest of producer Mary Mapes to bring down George W. Bush with documents it took bloggers less than 24 hours to reveal as fabrications.

I love Peggy Noonan's writing. The entire column seems to be composed as if to delicately deliver this knockout punch of a paragraph.

[Lancey Howard]

"The old network hegemony is over. That's why network news viewership is down, that's why the evening news isn't appointment TV anymore. America didn't turn crazily right, Americans just finally got political options in how they'd get the news, and took advantage of them."

Peggy Noonan nails it.

[Travis McGee]

"Two things to be said here. One is that CBS News hasn't changed that much, and the other is that the media world in which it operates has changed completely. The whole context has changed. No one has to accept the enforced corporate liberalism of the networks anymore, as they did from 1950 through 1990. They have options, from cable to Fox to the Internet to hundreds and thousands of radio shows, newspapers, magazines. The old network hegemony is over. That's why network news viewership is down, that's why the evening news isn't appointment TV anymore. America didn't turn crazily right, Americans just finally got political options in how they'd get the news, and took advantage of them."

[PhilDragoo]

The document on the left is the one CBS tried to foist off as legit 1972 typewritten; the one on the right (in black on white) is one I created with a little help from Bill Gates and Microsoft.

The bum in the center is a discredited propagandist full of hate and gas, signifying nothing.

Door, ass, ash heap of history.

[orangelobster]

"CBS then was full of people who liked to argue about who opposed the Vietnam war first, this producer or that reporter. It was a matter of pride who was antiwar first. "

I had to laugh at the pathos of this.

[Bonaparte]

We've all got our blind spots and Rather is Peggy's.

[Grampa Dave]

[freedumb2003]

which in this case is "Rather Retires Under Cloud After Forged Documents Story"

Or, as we like to say it, "Buckhead nails and exposes arrogant self-important Talking Head who thought his every utterance is The Word Of God"

[budwiesest]

Screw these ambulance chasers with microphones. They have always slanted the story to fit an agenda which has only of late, become highly visible. Hate America, hate the constitution, hate the second ammendment, promote egalitarianism, affirmative action, socialism, humongous centrally planned and controlling government, etc, etc.

If my power steering were ever to go out, I would only hope that Rather, Brokaw, and Jennings were doing lattes on a sidewalk in front of my 3/4 ton Silverado, rather than some dude trying to eke out a living on something less than $7Mill a year.

America deserves better than this. Much better. We're f***ing paying for it.

And every tin-pot dictator or mullah had better get it right this time. 'Cause there's a lot riding on it. Our once cheerleading newscasters for your causes are now vanishing. What say ye? Tough sh*t, it's a new world now and we've got your number. We're coming for your asses and, quite frankly, don't care how it'll be covered on the 6 o'clock news.

[Talking_Mouse]

Excellent. Reminded me of things that I had forgotten about Dan (good things like the earthquake moment of silence). Summed up fairly his political bias. Left me with a good taste in my mouth about both the way media is headed and the passing of Mr. Rather.

[GVnana]

"Don't understand me too quickly."

Could've been my motto at one time in my life.