Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Rather Excellent Tales: Old Blowhards Never Fade Away

1989 to Present: The last several years have seen Rather slide into increasing irrelevance. Rather has become so biased that even Andy Rooney has commented on it, calling Dan 'transparently liberal'. He has presided over a disastrous decline in the ratings of CBS News, more so than the other networks, so cable can't be blamed entirely. From 1993-1995, Rather was humiliatingly forced to share anchor duties with Connie Chung, but otherwise, CBS stuck with its star money-loser. That is, until Memogate. It's interesting to contemplate how quickly the story would have broke in the pre-blog age, if at all. I've enjoyed this look back at the career of everyone's favorite pompous media figure, and I'll let you in on a little secret: I'm glad Rather will continue to be a part of CBS News - after all, we need our villians to remind us of who the good guys are. What would Superman be without Lex Luther?

FUN FACTS: Dan Rather's daughter Robin is a prominent fundraiser and activist in Austin. I also live in Austin. I have never been in the same room as Dan Rather or his daughter...could it be? Am I...Dan Rather? Only Karl Rove knows for sure...

Rather Excellent Tales: Birth of a Legend
Rather Excellent Tales: The College Years
Rather Excellent Tales: Heading on Down to Houston Town
Rather Excellent Tales: A Star is Born
Rather Excellent Tales: On to CBS
Rather Excellent Tales: The White House Years
Rather Excellent Tales: The Glory Years

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