We Come To Bury Dan Rather, Not Praise Him

American Spectator's obit:

CBS News broke all viewership records last night, beating the audiences of NBC, ABC, Al-Jazeerah, Charlie Rose, and the Al Franken Show combined. What a grisly affair. By our count, 73 percent of those viewers were watching Dan Rather for the first time, drawn to their screens like looters to a disaster, having to see for themselves what bias looks like after it has crashed, burned and vaporized. CBS produced no one to offer counseling or even to provide a number to a trauma hotline. The solemnity was stifling. We are a nation in recovery.

Darling Dan proved magnanimous. In a gesture to President Bush, he exploited the tragedy of September 11 as no one has attempted to since the GOP convention. We even were shown long-suppressed footage of the attacks of that day. We can expect Dan to set up shop at Ground Zero. Did you see how his hair was combed extra carefully, how the makeup on his face seemed to carry an extra layer or two, how he came out in his finest Sunday suit? Not every man is fortunate enough to officiate at his own professional burial. It marked the end of a very long ego-trip.

Some saw the appearance of Naderite Joan Claybrook as a gesture to CBS's most faithful viewers. We saw it differently. Claybrook was critical of the credit card companies that have the cheek to bill credit card holders for the purchases they make on their cards. But this was no kneejerk populist gesture. Claybrook was rising to the occasion. If we're losing Dan, why go on? Eat, drink, and be merry, she signaled, for tomorrow we shall die, Danless. Raise up our glasses, run up our credit cards, live for today, carpe per diem.

It took courage to resuscitate "Courage!" And shrewdness, as a diversion from Dan's subliminal use of "frequency." All that cunning Dan acquired during his Gunga days came in handy.

The worry now is that Dan might feel called upon to become the next Pope. Why else did he extend courage "to the oppressed and to those whose lot it is to struggle in financial hardship or in failing health." Either that or he intends to run as Hillary's veep or come back as Mother Teresa.

Okay, no more piling on, right? Remember, Dan was speaking in a state of shock, having been rejected not only by his network, but by Uncle Walter Cronkite, who before this week never had an unkind word to say about anyone.

One great thing about the Rathergate fallout has been watching the carefully-coifed cronies of CBS News expose themselves for the backstabbers and liars they've always been.

Dan Rather's a dirtbag, but why didn't Uncle Walter have the "courage" to shiv him like he did the American military during Vietnam before his fall?

Character is revealed, not formed, in the crucible of crisis.

Guess we know a lot more about the character of Les Moonves, Andrew Heyward, Dan Rather, Walter Cronkite, Don Hewitt, Mike Wallace, Andy Rooney, Mary Mapes, and Josh Howard now, don't we?