WHO'S HOT & WHO'S NOT! (ICONOCLAST)

Iconoclast ^ | R. Bastiat

[Apolitical]

WHO'S NOT HOT....

1. DAN RATHER



Nothing in Dan Rather's career at CBS became him like the leaving it. In late June, the discredited one-time golden boy of the electronic media finally threw in the towel and made his long-expected departure from CBS, with an ill-tempered whine that network executives "had not lived up to their obligation to allow me to do substantive work there."

The wonder is that they let him do any work at all, much less for over four decades including 24 dismal years as anchor of CBS Evening News. During that period, he dragged the newscast down the ratings ladder from the top perch he inherited from Walter Cronkite in 1981 to the bottom rung he eventually bequeathed to interim successor Bob Schieffer in 2005.

Somehow Rather kept his job even as his ratings plummeted. In 1987, he survived what many regard as his defining moment as an egotistical airhead, when he stormed off the news set because a tennis telecast threatened to cut into what he considered to be "his own" personal air time on the Evening News -- resulting in an astonishing six minutes of dead air that Cronkite said should have cost Rather his job. CBS would come to regret many times over that it let the incident pass.

Rather's aloof, arrogant style as a news reader was clearly an acquired taste that too few viewers were willing to acquire. As radio shock jock Don Imus once put it: "Dan Rather delivers the news as if he were making a hostage tape" ..............

[Apolitical]

Good riddance!

[OldFriend]

Rather was willing to carry the CBS anti-American agenda.

Much like MSNBC they brought no honor or prestige to the airwavs but rather provided an avenue for hate rhetoric against republicans in general and this president in particular.

[saganite]

I always enjoyed watching Dan during elections to see what lunatic analogies he would come up with. It was kinda like watching a traffic accident, or a bull riding contest, or listening to Casey Stengel. No telling what lunacy would ensue.

[NaughtiusMaximus]

Good night Mrs. Calabash, where ever you are.

(And you too, Dano.)

[Common Tator]

What is funny is Andy Rooney said at the time Rather was removed as Anchor the Evening News exactly what was going to happen to him.

Rooney said, I think on Larry King, that Rather would be promised 60 minutes and he might get a segment or two then no more.

That is exactly what happened. If Rather didn't know what the suits at CBS were doing, then how did Rooney know.

Surely Rather must have learned what Rooney said on national TV.

[Theresawithanh]

"As radio shock jock Don Imus once put it: "Dan Rather delivers the news as if he were making a hostage tape .............."

Whether this is true or satire, that's a perfect description of Rather!

[Pelham]

Where have you gone, Jimmy Durante..

[freedumb2003]

Good piece!

Big Ben sounds like Brett Favre in his youth. But good for hi for rejecting the Nanny State.

They should have mentioned Buckhead, who really brought down Kenneth.

[Carl LaFong]

A hell of an entertainer. Just thinking about him brings a smile to my face.

[Pelham]

Yes- we sure don't have anyone like that anymore. Durante, Jack Benny, Victor Borge, George Gobel. I was pretty young but I remember them. They wouldn't have a chance today, seeing as they lacked today's necessary attribute of being crass and vulgar. They were merely funny.