Tuesday, November 23, 2004
DING DONG, THE ANCHOR'S DEAD!
While the idea for this blog had been percolating for quite a while (and while the travesties of the MSM and the popular culture such as movies and TV are hardly recent phenomena only) this blog clearly began in reaction to a specific incident--what the blogosphere dubbed "Rathergate" and the obscenely biased reporting of one Dan Rather and the CBS NEWS team. There's been controversy, investigation, denial, and a whole lot more since then, but today comes welcome news for any who cherish free and fair press: Dan Rather is GONE from the anchor role at CBS, announcing his retirement today effective in early March (although he'll continue to do "60 Minutes" duties for an indeterminate while after that.) The announcement was made by Rather to the CBS staff and then to the public as follows, according to Drudge:
"ADDRESSES CBS NEWSROOM AT APPROXIMATELY 1:39PM EST [Partial transcript -- joined in progress]: No matter what you hear elsewhere, this was a mutual decision. The timing has to do with (wanting to separate) this decision to leave the anchor chair... from the (investigation) of the 60 MINUTES report. The decision got made the way I described. There is nothing more important (to me) than how honored I am to work with the greatest news organization in the world. Thank you for coming. We're not going to spend much time (on questions) because we have news to cover. (Offered to answer questions, but staff simply gave his signature 'hip hip' three cheers.) Let's get back to work. Thanks everyone. "
Now clearly this means that the CBS investigation in-house into the Rathergate issue is finally and toturously drawing to a close and they allowed Dan to fall on his sword FIRST to pretend there's no connection when everyone above age 5 and a half can see the connection clearly.
OUR reaction? Well, if we spoke Latin we'd say "Sic Semper Moronis!" Or maybe "Mentiris" or "FarLeftis" but what the heck, you get the idea. Liars pretending to be newsmen, especially those who lie from a political agenda they deny, shouldn't clutter the public airwaves. Adios Dan--its been a nice ride from your one lucky break of being in the right place and right time when JFK was shot until now--surely a record in the parlaying of a lucky break and average talent into a career. Here' s the official story. Read it....and chuckle. We did.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=276466&page=1
"ADDRESSES CBS NEWSROOM AT APPROXIMATELY 1:39PM EST [Partial transcript -- joined in progress]: No matter what you hear elsewhere, this was a mutual decision. The timing has to do with (wanting to separate) this decision to leave the anchor chair... from the (investigation) of the 60 MINUTES report. The decision got made the way I described. There is nothing more important (to me) than how honored I am to work with the greatest news organization in the world. Thank you for coming. We're not going to spend much time (on questions) because we have news to cover. (Offered to answer questions, but staff simply gave his signature 'hip hip' three cheers.) Let's get back to work. Thanks everyone. "
Now clearly this means that the CBS investigation in-house into the Rathergate issue is finally and toturously drawing to a close and they allowed Dan to fall on his sword FIRST to pretend there's no connection when everyone above age 5 and a half can see the connection clearly.
OUR reaction? Well, if we spoke Latin we'd say "Sic Semper Moronis!" Or maybe "Mentiris" or "FarLeftis" but what the heck, you get the idea. Liars pretending to be newsmen, especially those who lie from a political agenda they deny, shouldn't clutter the public airwaves. Adios Dan--its been a nice ride from your one lucky break of being in the right place and right time when JFK was shot until now--surely a record in the parlaying of a lucky break and average talent into a career. Here' s the official story. Read it....and chuckle. We did.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=276466&page=1
