Hey Dan Rather, Thanks for Being Mad As Hell And Not Taking It Anymore

Somewhere, the ghost of Edward R. Murrow is smiling. And if the classic Network's Howard Beale was real, he would be going heh-heh.

I say this in response to Dan Rather's $70 million suit against CBS-owning Viacom, their chickenshit cowardice and their knife-twisting betraying ways.

Perhaps Rather's report on GW Bush not being the most diligent National Guard soldier was not all that airtight. Yet for daring to report leads in that area, Rather was marginalized by CBS and Viacom's Sumner Redstone.

Listen, Sumner Redstone. When you were running movie theaters back in the 1970s, Dan Rather was a distinguished reporter and anchor trusted by tens of millions of Americans. How dare you approve Rather's marginalization?

And to make matters worse, CBS' chief Les Moonves had the unmitigated gall to further diminish your reporting responsibilities at the same time he publicly wooed and then signed celebrity ass-kisser Katie Couric to take over the seat you -- and Cronkite, and Murrow -- so distinguishably occupied.

Now, Couric's ratings are in the tank, and Rather is standing up, battling the entertainment-focused corporation that has done him wrong in more than one way.

Dan Rather, I hope you kick Viacom's puff-addled, celebrity-obsessed ass seven ways to Sunday in court.

Comments

[luziannagirl]

Not that Rather wasn't or isn't capable or distinguished; but our primary source of daily news switched long ago from CBS to ABC. Since Peter Jennings' death, however, our daily news is a bit harder to come by and not nearly as quick. Now we get it from the local newspaper and National Public Radio.

Wonder how Jennings managed to succeed where Rather failed? Luck? Or, maybe the stress of keeping the hounds at bay is partly why Jennings isn't with us any more, while Rather remains alive.

Just wondering if we'll ever see better days for real journalism

[Oldchef]

Go Dan Rather!! Many of us have boycotted the CBS evening news since he was swiftboated and booted from CBS. Moonves seemed to think that the switch to "People Magazine News" was a good move. Couric is a joke, not a news anchor. They should thank God they still have Lara Logan, a real reporter. I hope Dan Rather gets a big settlement. Maybe losing even more money will wake Viacom up.

[mrcontinental]

Good work Dan.

Donate the cash to some worthy causes and you'll be immortalized as number 2 behind Cronkite.

[TJS]

There is an underlying hypocrisy to Dan Rather's lawsuit. The crux of Dan's legal case is that he was not responsible for the Bush story because he was "just a narrator" of the story. For years, Dan stood on a soapbox and decried the emergence of vacuous newsreaders with perfect teeth and perfect hair, telegenic mannequins who simply read whatever was put on the teleprompters in front of them. Dan argued that a "true journalist" like himself must be involved in every facet of the reporting. He proudly boasted of this role as "Managing Editor" of the CBS evening news. He always claimed that he was first and foremost a reporter, self-righteously outraged at the suggestion that he was a mere newsreader.

Now in his lawsuit, Dan claims that he was little more than a narrator"it was up to others to check out the facts of the Bush National Guard story. After years of boasting that he was not a newsreader"that he was that guy in charge"Dan is suddenly claiming that he only read what was on the teleprompter. In effect, he is saying that after years of being Walter Cronkite, he was suddenly Ted Baxter (the bumbling anchor from the "Mary Tyler Moore Show" who pompously read whatever was put in front of him.)

Unlike Don Imus, Dan was not fired. His contract was not renewed. This happens all the time in television. Aaron Brown"s contract was not renewed by CNN, and the vastly inferior Anderson Cooper replaced him.

The ghost of Edward R. Murrow is NOT smiling on Dan. Murrow accepted responsibility for the content of his programs. The National Guard story happened on Dan"s watch. Maybe Dan was set up? But it was HIS broadcast. He was the face guy. Murrow never blamed Fred Friendly. But Dan"s defense is to blame his underlings"the producers who were making a fraction of his salary. A true journalist in the Murrow/Cronkite tradition would have said, "It happened on my watch. It was my ultimate responsibility to check the facts and I messed up."

[Desiderata]

Walter still lives. I wonder what he thinks of all this?

[knowledgeispower]

Russell,

You get a big fat wet one right on the lips for this post!

MMMMWHHAAA!

Great post! Here's to Dan.

CBS is in the gutter thanks to that slimy munchkin Les Moonves, Redstone and Heyward. (By the way, what's that has been, been up to?)

HDNet now rocks with Rather!

[LenP]

I like Dan!

Dan the Man!

If he can't win

then No One Can!

[GenXLiberal]

Let's take CBS' sponsors down a few pegs too and boycott the SOB's. Hit them in the pocketbooks folks. We want our media back!

[twofish]

What irks me is that I heard this mentioned on one local tv news cast, and on PBS' Nightly Business Report. Both characterized Rather's story about Bush's National Guard duty as "discredited." But the story was never discredited, only the documents (and even they were just called into question, not absolutely disproved). But that's still the spin they choose to put on it.

[JudyGee]

Good to see dan rather come out from hiding under the bed. I have been waiting to hear the unvarnished truth about how he was pushed out. The story wasn't bogus. the cbs executives were chickenshit just as they were when joe mccarthy blew some gaseous stink their way about so-called "reds", the make believe commie conspiracy. we had to live through that nightmare until the great journalist Edward R. Murrow had the courage to bring to TV the lies and manipulations of mccarthy's terrifying and deranged mind. It began the push to get mccarthy out of the senate and fortunately for all of us, he dropped dead almost immediately thereafter.
it is time for dan rather to save his soul and support a story about the cowardice and the infantile underdeveloped character structure
that is george bush's legacy. the national guard story is true, not bogus. i hope he plans for it to come out in this lawsuit.

[TheQuestion]

I always figured Rather was set up by Karl Rove.

[Yourtalkingtoyourself]

Why only 70Million? Surely someone as important as Dan "deserves" twice that amount. He's just going to sink his reputation further. Idiot.

[AOoftheOPALS]

This is a responce that should have happened within weeks of the game, (That's what it was.) But it is not to late to provide the lessons that might help prevent future abuse the manipulaters that engineered Dan Rathers removal. The faked documents, No doubt provided by Rove & co. (Sleaze made simple), were true. Once they had redirected the investigation, Of course it simply disappeared. Until now, Thank you, Dan Rather, For giving the sheep an opportunity to clear some of the wool from their vision.

[suki21693]

When are the rest of us going to get mad as hell? How long are we going to allow the msm to maintain this passive stance? They continue to allow the White House, the Pentagon, the Justice Dept, etc to tell them what the news is, rather than going out and doing any reporting.

Are they this afraid of the powers that be? Grow some balls and go get my news!

[YellerDawg]

What exactly was in Dan's story that isn't true? We all know the truth about the idiot Bush and his distinguished service in the armed forces. Dan Rather was undone by a "forged" document. The contents of the document were never in question; in fact they were supported by the woman who typed the original. The whole episode was a case study in swiftboating. At the very least it was a slight of hand trick. Dan Rather looks like a bad man, and no one notices that George Bush avoided Viet Nam because of his father's influence. To add insult to injury, he didn't even bother to show up most of the time. I guess it interfered with his partying. This lawsuit may go nowhere, but it makes Bush look bad, so it's all good.