But we are going to make the obvious comment: what we've heard about the particulars of Rather's suit confirms and increases our disrespect for Dan Rather. We'll keep our observations to two:
- Rather says that he was just the guy who read whatever CBS told him to read. He had always represented himself as a hands-on, careful, dogged, incisive, brave journalist. Now we he says he was a flesh-and-blood Max Headroom without the humor.
- Rather says that CBS prevented him from going forward with his own investigation to prove that the documents were in fact authentic. This is like O.J. complaining that the Vegas police are preventing him from finding the real killer.
We now pronounce this whole affair to be the effective end of network news as a cultural phenomenon. TV news is now officially and finally useful only for on-the-scenes reporting of breaking stories, like the 9/11 attacks. Otherwise, everyone would Rather get the news elsewhere.
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