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Dan Rather is being put out of our misery. Sort of.
Two months after acknowledging that he could not authenticate documents central to a broadcast report that raised fresh questions about President Bush's National Guard service, Dan Rather announced today that he would step down as anchor and managing editor of the "CBS Evening News" on March 9, on what will be his 24th anniversary behind the anchor desk.
"I have been lucky and blessed over these years to have what is, to me, the best job in the world and to have it at CBS News," Mr. Rather said in a statement issued by the network. "Along the way I've had the honor of working with some of the most talented, dedicated professionals in the world, and I'm appreciative of the opportunity to continue doing so in the years ahead."
Years ahead? What the...!?!
Mr. Rather will continue to work full time at CBS News, as a correspondent for the Sunday and Wednesday editions of "60 Minutes."
So. For attempting to influence a Presidential election with obvious forgeries from a source who had a long record of being a Bush antagonist, a source who Rather had the gall to refer to as "unimpeachable", Dan Rather gets to both retire with honor...and keep his job?
I'll tell you this. Anyone who watches any CBS News program from this day forward does so with full knowledge of the nature of that organization, knowledge of the fact that CBS News cannot be trusted. That CBS News employs, and continues to employ, political hacks who sought to bring down a president, not with a legitimate story but instead with a story filled with lies and forgeries, is absolutely unforgivable.
In related news, another player in Rathergate/Memogate fiasco has a new job, this one heading the "world's most important network".
CNN News Group on Monday said it has tapped an online media CEO as its new president overseeing U.S. news, just a little over a year after it hired aformer local TV newsman to run its domestic operations.
Jonathan Klein, founder and chief executive officer of The FeedRoom Inc., a high-speed Internet news network and video streamer, will assume the role of head of U.S. news operations, answering to CNN President Jim Walton.
CNN is the cable news unit of Time Warner Inc.
Klein was the former executive director of CBS News, with oversight of its flagship "60 Minutes" program.
Yes, he was the executive director of CBS News during the Memogate/Rathergate matter. He famously derided bloggers as a bunch of pajama-clad amateurs when the blogosphere proved the Texas Air National Guard memos were forgeries. Now, he follows up his covering-Rather's-ass role by heading up CNN's domestic news division.
CBS News has proven it cannot be trusted. CNN, by hiring Mr. Klein, has demonstrated that it cannot be trusted either.
How unfortunate. I was a CNN junkie from the moment I first got cable in 1982. I watched it at one point or another every day, and did so until the aftermath of the Iraq War's initial phase. When then-president of news operations Eason Jordan admitted that CNN had withheld news stories of murder, political violence and terror during it's coverage of Saddam Hussein's Iraq I stopped watching CNN.
And, with the incredibly moronic decision to hire Klein, CNN continues to give me absolutely no reason to ever watch them again.
Unreal.
-posted by Charlie Eklund
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11/27/04 7:25 PM