Rather Arrogant
Given the way his CBS gig collapsed three years ago, one would think Dan Rather would have the good sense to disappear from the public scene. Lay low, and hope history forgets the sad closing chapter to a proud career, in which the newsman broadcast a bogus, inflammatory story about President Bush's National Guard service in the closing days of the 2004 election. But no, Rather is showing no sense whatsoever, filing a $70 million lawsuit against CBS for his self-inflicted demise.
Of course, if Rather had any sense, he likely wouldn't be in this position in the first place.
After all, if Rather had some sense, he wouldn't have based his story on documents that were obviously fraudulent -- against the advice of his network's own authenticators -- just because it was too hot a story to pass up.
If he had some sense, he wouldn't have continued to defend the documents -- and fat-mouth those who revealed them to be phonies -- after they were exposed before the whole world.
If he had some sense, he wouldn't have tried to protect the sources who gave him bum information in the first place.
So all in all, it should come as little shock that Rather would now be so arrogant as to think CBS owes him tens of millions for his own self-destruction. Still, one shudders to think the network might pay him off just to make him go away, when what Rather deserves is a legal defeat that might provide the humbling that public humiliation obviously hasn't.
Comments
Rather is also blaming the Network for giving him that unsubstantiated material in the first place -- which reveals the underlying problem, that anchors take credit for other people's research when it turns out to be correct and makes them look good, but blame them for not checking into them in the first place, like real reporters are supposed to.
Seems that once these people become "stars," their huge salaries and egos make them feel above the nitty-gritty details that make for a good journalist in the first place. Many of them ARE the phony newsreaders they seem.
Posted by: jill | September 20, 2007 12:56 PM