Goldberg on Rather: Schadenfreude-on-Steroids

NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

[governsleastgovernsbest]

On Yom Kippur, which ended just last evening, Jews quite literally beat their breasts while asking forgiveness for all the sins committed during the previous year. The confessional prayer enumerates literally dozens of different transgressions. But while the syllabus of sin is seemingly comprehensive, there would appear to be one lacuna. Nowhere in the menu of misdeeds does "schadenfreude" appear.

We might just have to petition to have it added in time for next year. Because Jonah Goldberg's I’m Rather Grateful is such a delightful dose of schadenfreude-on-steroids as to be as irresistible. Go ahead, read it and enjoy. There'll be plenty of time to repent.

Excerpts [emphasis added]:

• In 2004, at the height of the Dan Rather Memogate story, I wrote in National Review: “Across the media universe the questions pour out: Why is Dan Rather doing this to himself? Why does he drag this out? Why won’t he just come clean? Why would he let this happen in the first place? Why is CBS standing by him? Why ... why ... why? There is only one plausible answer: Ours is a just and decent God."
• Well, God has not forsaken us. Dan Rather seems divinely inspired to crash more times than a Kennedy driving home from an office party.
• Rather used to compare his job to “a very high trapeze act, frequently with no net.” Three years ago, he went splat in the bull’s-eye of the center ring. Now, with the circus long since out of town, he all of a sudden wants a net rolled out.
• Frankly, we need this. And by “we,” I mean a grand coalition of people who delight in watching one of the 20th century’s most pompous gasbags fall from the top of the laughingstock tree and hit every branch on the way down.
• [Rather] took a few more face-saving laps around CBS before he was quietly escorted out the door like the muttering office old-timer who’s gone off his feed.
• [N]ow he’s back like a crazy man who shows up unannounced at the Christmas party smelling like cabbage and old newspapers, wearing a trench coat but no pants.
• The beauty of this lawsuit, which has most legal observers laughing so hard that their neck veins look like one-pound sausage casings with five pounds of ground chuck in them, is that if it goes to trial (shortly after unicorns file my taxes), CBS will be put in the position of having to prove that the story was bogus.

H/t D.G.

[DCPatriot]

FYI...Finklestein IS governsleastgovernsbest, the writer of the column.

[skinkinthegrass]

Beyond the “Story/truth/docs issue.... We were simply trying to protect CBS, our stockholders. America.... and in-fact Dan himself and his legacy.... from an unstable, out of control Dan Rather.”
A jury could eat that up

.....well, that really put a damper on things. :(

[Diana in Wisconsin]

[skinkinthegrass]

WHOA!....great graphic. :D

[Lancey Howard]

CBS basically has two options:
1. Settle for as low as they can negotiate.
2. Go nuclear and absolutely bury Rather.

If CBS settles, I am sure that the settlement would have to include acceptance of full blame for the TANG report debacle. Above everything, the vain Rather wants his reputation back. In other words, CBS would essentially have to cop to being incompetent and untrustworthy while painting Rather as the unwitting fall guy.

On the other hand, if CBS can successfully bury Rather and pin the whole debacle on him and his crew (Mapes, et al), then the network could actually emerge looking like the victim of Rather’s incompetence and rabid anti-GOP political agenda.

It will be interesting to see where this goes. If I was running CBS I might just look at Rather’s crazy lawsuit gambit as a manna-from-heaven opportunity to wipe my network’s hands clean of it’s most disgraceful scandal. THANK YOU, Dan Rather!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

It’s IncPen’s, but I post it on all CBS and Rather posts. :)

[spanalot]

“As I said, quite possibly the single most ill-advised lawsuit since Oscar Wilde filed libel charges against the Marquess of Queensberry.”

Dan must have thought this out and my only conclusion is that he knows where some bodies are buried... which means more fun!

[governsleastgovernsbest]

I think it would be very difficult for CBS to accept a settlement, because they would be harming their own reputation for integrity [I know that’s a joke but that’s how they would see it.]

So I expect them to go the hammer-and-tongs route. And as Goldberg mentioned, there’s not a legal expert out there who thinks Rather has a leg to stand on.

[Sherman Logan]

On the other hand, if CBS can successfully bury Rather and pin the whole debacle on him and his crew (Mapes, et al), then the network could actually emerge looking like the victim of Rather’s incompetence and rabid anti-GOP political agenda.

They can't just walk away unscathed, even if they take this route, because they would have to admit that they kept this Rather (hah!) important information from the American people for several years just to protect their corporate image.

[SquirrelKing]

Good one!

[MrEdd]

I post it too. Thank you InkPen.

You da man.

[Inspectorette]

A jury could eat that up.

Depends on the jury. If it ends up being comprised of big-city libs dazzled by his (!)star power, Rather could win.

[Ditter]

tee hee I love schaenfrauden in the morning.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

A guilty pleasure, for sure. Goes well with a good cup of coffee.

[johnny7]

Apologies...

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Thanks, though no apology needed, really, since I essentially agree with Goldberg on this one. Just wanted to let you know for future reference that Finkelstein = me.

[uscabjd]

Actually, we won’t have to wait for trial for cbs to allege that the story was false - they will have to allege “good cause” in their Answer ( or other responsive pleading), and their good cause is that the story is false. Then comes the discovery phase, when witnesses and documents are produced, etc. This will be fun.

[Publius6961]

Well, how does it feel to hang out with the meanest forum in the universe?

Meaner and more mindless than DU and Kos... and Moveon... and?

[johnny7]

There is another way this case could go as well... one in which they go to trial and RATher/cBS agree that the forged memo's are off-limits. The case is over cBS's conduct in liew of the 'unsubstantiated' story... the validity of the memo's becomes inconsequential and lends to RATher's claim that they never were proven to be forgeries..

This may be tin-foil material... but I put nothing past these swine. ;)

[an amused spectator]

I don’t know about others, but I miss the days of Who, What, Why, and When news. I really don’t want to hear the “news” the provider wants to sell. The “According-to-an-ABC-(or-other-network)-poll” type of self-generated news is nothing more than editorial passing for news. Anyone can design a questionnaire to get the desired results, but the networks pass this crap off as news.

Yes, but how's the O.J. case going...?

;-)