Ah. What was I thinking? It's all his fault...
We're gonna make it after aaaallllll...
I quote from the source: As a means of comparison, think of that great old sitcom, the Mary Tyler Moore show. The newsroom consisted of management , creative staff and hardworking technicians. But the face of it was Ted Baxter.
It should all be perfectly clear now. Can't understand how you missed it.
Ah. What was I thinking? It's all his fault...
We're gonna make it after aaaallllll...
The running laff on the MTM show, though you wouldn't catch it if you're too young to remember, was how Ted got all the glory and all he did was manage to read the news that a staff writer (Murray) wrote for him. Some of the time, he didn't even manage to read the news right, and then the sound crew and cameraman helped him out.
Nasa had better than Ted to work with, but the fact remains that the fliers lived a life of training to operate equipment, innovative equipment, that others designed, built and tested. When the fliers managed to work the equipment that they were trained for years to operate, the public and wannabe astronauts could scarcely contain the joy at such accomplishment. Think of how frustrated Murray and Lou and Mary were at times, which also provided much of the newsroom humor.
How is it that people get it in their minds that Dan Rather makes and writes the news? He just reads it, and manages to distort it. Yet, some magic takes place in much of the audience that somehow Dan makes it all happen. The support staff in Houston knew all too well that the astronauts operated equipment, but the responsibility for the mission was the burden of the ground crew.
How the people on ground in Houston chewed their nails just in hopes that the astronauts wouldn't wreck the fragile merchandise before they had a chance to use it.