[sharkhawk]

He said this pressure -- along with the "dumbed-down, tarted-up" coverage, the advent of 24-hour cable competition and the chase for ratings and demographics -- has taken its toll on the news business. "All of this creates a bigger atmosphere of fear in newsrooms," Rather said.

In the 70's, Doonesbury used to make fun of Rather as being the "gossip" monger on CBS. A long series of cartoons showed him being on a panel discussion on celebrity jounalism with Rona Barrett, and being mocked as the airhead he is. Funny how Trudeau never continued on this subject.

While I am on this rant, maybe the reason newsrooms can't afford the "hard hitting journalism" they supposedly used to offer might be the $10 million a year they pay to idiots like Rather, Couric, Jennings or Brokaw.

[mercy]

Wasn't Trudeau's 'Roland Hedley' supposed to be Dan Rather?

Sheesh. It must have been at least 20 years ago that I could even stomach Trudeau's crap.