Weekly Jackass Number Fourteen: Dan Rather

Really, who else could it be? I've already paid a tongue-in-cheek tribute to Gunga Dan in the series Rather Excellent Tales, so I thought I'd pretty much shut up for a change and let others do this week's installment. Let's see what everyone else is saying:

1. Philip Chalk in the Weekly Standard traces Dan's dishonesty back to that fateful day in November 1963, as he claimed to be the first to report the President was dead (wrong! - and I got it wrong in Rather Excellent Tales, too), and claimed some Dallas schoolchildren cheered upon hearing of President Kennedy's death (wrong again - they cheered upon being told they were being let out early - they were not told why).
2. Jim Geraghty at the National Review has a hilarious sendoff that argues for the increasing irrelevance of the nightly news format. Best line: 'The evening news is designed for the attention span of an overcaffeinated ferret'...
3. Mark Steyn digs up an old profile from October, 2001 - he plays it rather (no pun intended) straight, for him.
4. Cheese and Crackers has the signoff, if you want to watch it and get all misty-eyed.
5. Tom Shales at the Washington Post says Dan is leaving by the high road...
6. ...but deacon at Power Line is not convinced.
   
7. Jacques Steinberg at the New York Times focuses on Rather's chance to 'redeem' himself through his new (old) reporting gig.
8. Betsy Newmark thinks Cronkite should show a little class.
9. At PoliPundit, Lorie Byrd says this has been a long time coming.
10. PC540 has the top ten Rather quotes.
11. Outside the Beltway has a good compilation.
12. The Templar Pundit has a complilation, too, of his own reactions to MemoGate.
13. For extra points, see if you can guess the tone of this piece by Brent Bozell: Dan Rather's Shoddy Legacy.
14. Scrappleface reports that Rather saved his most shocking confession for his last day on the job.
    

Fourteen links for our fourteenth Weekly Jackass...and so an era ends. Courage, Dan. Courage...