Breaking: Dan Rather to leave CBS News immediately;

[babylonsister]

agreement reached. Just heard on MSNBC.

[GodlessBiker]

1. Maybe he and Katie don't get along...

and he wanted to be out before she started on the air.

[Minnesota Libra]

4. That's what I was thinking nt

[Hugin]

2. That's too bad.

Really, what is going on over there at CBS?

There goes the last anchor who is also a journalist.

Brace for more... "I like puppies." stories.

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

3. Got To Get Rid Of These Damn Liberal Hosts

That's the only way to halt the runaway Liberal bias by the media.

:sarcasm:

[neoblues]

5. Good For Him!

Yes, it's sad... but considering what the place has become--along with all the media corporations--any self-respecting person with integrity and a sense of decency, honesty and justice... would no doubt find just being there offensive!

Better to be free! Besides, just as Bill Moyers and Al Gore have done, there are many ways to contribute to the restoration of either or both Journalism and America! Certainly Dan, if he wants it, will find many opportunities.

[leftyladyfrommo]

7. I sure hope he does. I have watched him for years and years.

Now I feel like I shouldn't watch CBS anymore. Just on principle.

[poofer]

19. same here

I refuse to watch Fox channels and I always watched CBS for
world news. I don't know what to watch anymore, now that he
left.

[JDPriestly]

12. Hopefully he made a good deal and

he will now be free to speak out and say what he really thinks without checking with the corporate daddy who pays his checks.

[bdamomma]

6. the cancer of this regime

continues to spread.

[LibDemAlways]

8. Rather only felt free to talk about the sad state of

American journalism when he was interviewed overseas. When he courageously sought to expose the truth about the chimp's non-service in the Guard, he was swiftboated.

I hope he writes a big, no-holds-barred tell-all insiders look at how the media has become a propaganda tool of the RNC, kicks serious ass, and has the last laugh.

[acmejack]

9. He owns a home in Austin, so we will get to see him around.

Which will be great for us. His daughter, Robin is quite an activist around here.

I would really like to see him make it a personal mission to stuff the TANG story up W's ass.

[im10ashus]

10. Here's a link to the story from CNN

Why do they have this on their entertainment page? Oh, yes, I forget. News is now entertainment.

:sarcasm:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/06/20/television.news.rather.reut/index.html

[theboss]

11. Isn't he going to work for Mark Cuban?

Cuban's new venture seems pretty exciting to me. His movies have been excellent.

It's amazing what great work can be produced by a raving lunatic.

http://www.blogmaverick.com/entry/1234000377073756/

[Armstead]

13. I feel bad for him on a personal level

Someone who devotes his life to an organization for so long at least deserves the chnce to retire with dignity.

CBS seems to be determined to jettison all remanents of its journalistic heritage.

[bdamomma]

18. terrible what is happening to good journalists

CBS was a bedrock of good journalism when I was growing up, the corporate whores are digging their nails into journalism.

[question everything]

14. Good for him. Just too bad it comes on the heels of the horrid

performance by Connie Chung.

Both Jon Stewart and Jay Leno had fun with that, and Leno added a "video" of Rather's farewell, putting his face on a very cheeky Chippendale type..

Dan Rather is 74 years old, he should be free to do what he wants.

Thanks for the memories, Dan.

[Vidar]

15. No more TV news for me.

[babylonsister]

17. After Schieffer is replaced, there really is no

old school, reputable newspeople left. Sad state of affairs. The current batch are lazy and boring for the most part. Oh, but they can read a prompter!

[Benhurst]

16. He's well rid of Couric Bull Shit News.

[otohara]

20. That's How It Works In Media

they want you out of the building asap...

[Hidden Stillness]

21. The Media is Destroying Reporting Itself

I thought there was something wrong with this story, and it turns out there was, of course. Rather's released statement, read on "Countdown" for example, tells of Rather's increasing frustration at not being allowed to do anything at CBS anymore. CBS, like all the rest of them, has an ugly history of treating even the greatest of reporters and anchors like crap, at their retirement and before. Recall how they pushed the great Walter Cronkite out, and then put on a retrspective tribute special on Cronkite, opposite the Super Bowl, just so it would get low ratings.

Rather was a real reporter, a writer, who brought a seriousness and high level of research to news stories, as a lot of them used to do, who made you understand the importance of these stories that were being covered, and who didn't fuck around with boring trivia. CBS once was the standard of TV and radio news, with the greatest staff, the most prestige and awards, the largest audience. From being an objective base and source of important news that made for a sense of common knowledge, of stories you needed to know about to be educated as to what was going on in the world, the media has now sunk to something so pathetic, that you can watch/listen to hour after hour, shut it off, and not remember anything you heard, like it was all freaky and visual, but you can't even remember it. They have no standards of truth anymore. CNN Headline News coverage of the Rather story ended with the lie, that lately "Rather's reputation was tarnished" by the Bush AWOL from the Alabama Guard story, "which was discredited," CNN claimed. That is a complete lie. The memo was real, the witnesses were telling the truth, Bush dodged the draft, then dodged the Guard service, was and is a drunk and a cocaine addict--it was all true, and they just blithely claim it was "discredited," with no evidence; and it was all true. How the standards of their whole industry have fallen: trivia, lies, propaganda, Bob Woodward even, now is a Nixon-like co-conspirator.

Just remember a lesson I realized at some point about the Edward R. Murrow/Sen. Joseph McCarthy story: everybody talks about how wonderful and democratic it was that Murrow faced down and destroyed the persecution and slander that was McCarthy, so the truth won. Apparently, most people don't stop to realize that Murrow also, was gone, off the air, by the end of the decade--killed off by the corporate media, and sponsors. No one can stop them.