Dan Rather thinks Katie Couric has weakened the CBS Evening News. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black, or in today’s hypersensitive politically correct world, African-American (not to be confused with Afro-American, which to my knowledge is still a hairstyle).
Dan Rather has accused Katie Couric of “dumbing it down and tarting it up.” Now did he say “tarting,” as in sexually slutty, or “tarding,” which is slang for calling her a retard, which would make his comment about dumbing it down redundant. So Katie Couric is either a slut or an imbecile. In junior high school a woman can be both, but unlike that world, where those comments can be positive in a warped way, calling adult professional women slutty would be out of bounds (if one accepts the argument that the entertainment industry is remotely connected to civilized society).
I want to make it clear that I am no fan of Katie Couric. I find her a stereotypical liberal newsperson. She is arrogant, condescending, smug…basically, a liberal. She has taken the news and turned it into nonsense. I love Will Ferrell, but having even 60 seconds of the news dedicated to what Ron Burgundy (Ferrell’s hysterically funny character in “Anchorman”) thinks about the news is ludicrous. If people want “infotainment,” there are plenty of trashy tabloid shows such as “Access Hollywood,” and the like.
Hard news is not about Paris Hilton. It is about the War in Iraq. However, as big a train wreck as Katie Couric is, her sins are that of an unqualified powder puff who wants to be the dumb junior high school cheerleader and the serious war correspondent. Can anyone picture Edward R. Murrow refusing to go on an assignment because of his family? She gets paid millions to do a job, and has no business reporting on a War when she is unwilling to actually learn what is going on their first hand.
Dan Rather’s sins were much bigger. He was a fraud. Period. His career was based on vengeance and vendetta. In 1988 he screamed at George Bush the Elder. You do not scream at Presidents, or their families. Ever. A great scene on Letterman several years ago occurred right before Dave was about to interview Hillary Clinton. In a brilliantly scripted comedy bit, Walter Cronkite stood up and said “Dave. You are about to interview the First Lady of the United States. Don’t be a jack@ss.”
Dan Rather had a history of such infantile behavior. He once refused to do the last 7 minutes of a broadcast because a sports report went overtime. Sorry to disappoint this elitist, but average Americans, who shop at Walmart, go to Church, and eat red meat…those people rather and his ilk disdain…they like sports. When Bush Senior pointed out that Dan Rather was cherry picking his criticisms, Rather responded by yelling at this man. The Secret Service should have beaten him harder than the “What’s the Frequency?” assaulter. No, I do not support violence against Dan Rather, but yelling in a menacing manner at the President could lead to a royal hurting. His life must be protected.
Yet Dan Rather soldiered on, and his chance at retribution came in 2004 with the help of liberal lunatic Mary Mapes, a woman so blinded by partisan hatred that even her own father wondered what happened to her. They used fake documents. The blogosphere, arrogantly dismissed by Dan Rather and his ilk as “People typing in their Pajamas,” did a better job of investigative journalism than Rather himself. It took about 10 minutes of effort, if that. Hatred of George W. Bush fueled the CBS News and 60 minutes, and the ends were supposed to justify the means. Granted the Jayson Blair Times called the documents”Fake but accurate,” but the Jayson Blair Times is as cancerous as CBS News. The result for all of these entities has been lower ratings and lower revenues. George W. Bush was reelected, and Dan Rather (despite a positive media spin) was fired, along with Mary “Sour Grapes,” Mapes.
CBS News was # 1 for 30 years. Edward R. Murrow was a legend, and Walter Cronkite was “the most trusted man in America.” Gunga Dan Rather was the man who drove CBS News into 3rd place. Katie Couric has further devalued it, but that is like the CEO responsible for taking a company and having it lose 90% of its value criticize their successor for losing the final 10% and sliding into bankruptcy.
How does one take gold and turn it into lead? Well if it is the CBS News, one puts Dan Rather in charge. They would have been equally professional had they put Charles in Charge. Joanie loved Chachi, proving Scott Baio had one fan more than Dan Rather, not counting his family and members of REM.
While it was unrealistic to expect Katie Couric to work miracles, making things worse was next to impossible, and she succeeded in that monumental task. There is no evidence that Katie Couric has used fake footage, unless you count CBS News masquerading as a real news program as fraud. In that case ABC and NBC also have explaining to do, so Katie is temporarily off the hook for that one.
A case could have been made for Dan Rather being arrested. No, I am not advocating throwing him in jail, but if he knew the documents were forgeries, and allowed him to go on the air, that could be a crime. Journalists want absolute protections that ordinary citizens do not have, but the right to promote forgery, which is a financial crime, should not be allowed.
Dan Rather destroyed his own legacy, which only existed because he told us it did. The truth finally came out. He was a mean spirited bully who got undone by his own haughtiness, the victim of a long overdue petard hoisting. Maybe he called Katie Couric a petard. It would not make sense, but neither did a lot of what Dan Rather said. For example, his signature signoff was “courage,” yet unless courage is defined by throwing his subordinates under a bus to take the blame for his misdeeds, he did not seem to live up to this value.
Katie Couric did succeed in ruining what Dan Rather left behind. What Dan Rather will never grasp is that she only provided the final nail in the integrity coffin that he closed shut himself. He dumbed down what was given to him, and only because he is a grumnpy old ma is he unable to “tart” anything up.
Dan Rather and Katie Couric deserve each other. They are perfectly matched, like Katrina and Rita. They are not seen as credible in reporting on the many disasters in this world, because from a serious news standpoint, they are two of them.
The only solution is for someone even more partisan, less serious, and more biased to take over. Al Gore and John Kerry are available. They could not do any worse. Even if they did, no harm would be done. There are no viewers left to lie to, no intelligent ones left to be insulted.
eric
I just finished reading your comments on Dan Rather(Blather?) and Katie Couric and found them so entertaining, because they ring so true. Mr. Rather is such a vindictive old man that will carry his hatred of conservatives to his grave. This is so unfortunate and unneccesary. That for a man to live his life in pursuit of making anothers’ life miserable, only leads to the detriment of that obsessed persons’ life in the end. Mr. Rather got his just rewards for his actions and can only give a lame excuse that even though the documents of President Bushs’ military service, were PROVEN to be forgeries; Mr. Rather still had the unmitigated gall to say he believed them!!!(only Liberals , Communists, and Socialists can actually convince themselves that lies are truths, and truths are not to be believed! I have only just today discovered your blog, and will check back on other comments you have already posted when my time allows. This one though had inklings of a Rush Limbaugh, George Wills, or Thomas Sowell qualities to it. I commend you for it. Sincerely, Chach.
Eric
You have outdone yourself. You have dipped your pen in acid and burnt holes in the shroud covering the drive-by media. And did it with humor. Loved the line about the reason Rather couldn’t tart anything up. All that aside, the reason Katie fails to lure this viewer (the only one I can speak for) is her interviewing style. I haven’t watched her on CBS because when she had her perky little morning show she would start an interview and just when the guest was starting to answer, she would interrupt and supply the answer to her own question, then go to commercial. Why bother with a guest at all? It took about 2 months for me to decide she was hopeless and I haven’t watched her since.
Good suggestion about Kerry or Gore. Maybe you could start a contest. My nominee would be Rove. He at least has a sense of humor and some class. Oops! Wrong side of the partisan equation. Anyway….