If I had been Dan Rather – and been so humiliated for flagrantly lying on national television and then losing my job for it – I probably would have just gone away or tried to do some kind of penance to feel good about myself.
But then I’m not… obviously… Dan Rather.
Dan is back today to criticize Katie Couric for “dumbing down” the news – lying being, I suppose, intelligent. But never mind, Dan decries this new trend in “tarting up” news and opines that it is behind the declining ratings for CBS. No, Dan, what’s behind the declining ratings is that no one needs the evening news anymore, no matter who is delivering it. The evening news is pernicious. It assumes people are too stupid to go find the news themselves when they want it and must have it spoon fed to them by some pompous ass, male or female.
And now I must go because I vowed never to write another word about Dan Rather. Paris Hilton is more interesting – and more newsworthy.
Yes,she start signing off “Courage” if she wants to sound smart.
Poor “Kenneth” still doesn’t have the frequency!
“Paris Hilton is more interesting – and more newsworthy.”
Brighter too.
They tried to make me go to rehab, I said No, No, No.
Dan Rather
Roger, I want to congratulate you on being the first person to find a productive use of Paris Hilton, whom previously I have studiously and carefully ignored.
Rather, Brokaw, Williams, Cronkite, Jennings, Rooney, Gibson et al, all painful to watch. I don’t need a guy with a newsy voice telling me how to view the world. That is why I go to blogs, many of them, in several languages. My generation will bury the network news, and the newspaper and the news magazine for that matter. It is not a revolution, that word is overused. Simply, they had a corner on the information market. Not anymore.
Roger and NavyOne:
You are right. Now, which network will be the first to dump the evening news.
The Washpo was recently lamenting the crash of local prime time news. If it bleeds, it leads journalism is dead. Advertisers fleeing.
Check out what Tony Blair said yesterday about the new “impact journalism” in Britain which has supplanted impact for truth. The weeping and crying from the Independent and Guardian were heard all over the net.
Remarkable what one smart, truthful, gutsy pol with a world cred can do as he walks off the stage. Instead of a Dick Nixon exit, he invents his own finale and leaves the wounded press lords reeling.
Roger, the problem wasn’t that he was nationally humiliated and lost his job…CBS backed him up and whitewashed the fake documents fiasco.
Although we know better, he was allowed to leave without being raked over the coals by his employers. He still maintains his claims that the documents were legit because CBS would not admit he blew it big time due to his rabid anti-Bush bias. (CBS’ culture is anti-GOP, Anti-Bush, so Rather’s fake documents were considered a legitimate means of trying to sway the electorate.)
Being allowed to leave ‘with dignity’ is not always the right thing to do, especially when the person who has done wrong does not repent, and his enablers will not admit there was wrongdoing.