Dan Rather’s “retirement” announcement on Tuesday was obviously intended to accomplish two things: pre-empt what is likely to be damning criticism from the internal investigation of the fraudulent documents he presented to television viewers during an election campaign, and pre-empt it when everyone’s attention is focused on Thanksgiving and not the usual news cycle.
Of course, if every media outlet could be counted on to cover Rather’s announcement as sympathetically as the Chronicle, then CBS News wouldn’t have had to bother with the announcement.
Here is the way the Chronicle‘s Mike McDaniel describes the “controversy” related to Rather’s retirement:
Rather drew fire for a 60 Minutes report, aired in September, that raised questions about President Bush’s service while in the Texas Air National Guard. An internal investigation was launched, with the probe led by former U.S. Attorney General Richard Thornburgh and former Associated Press executive Louis D. Boccardi. Results of the investigation are expected soon.
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During the election, Rather came under attack by conservatives who accused him of being the poster boy for liberal media.
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The mood inside CBS has been tense since the controversy over the National Guard story. “Morale is not great for all the obvious reasons,” veteran reporter and Face the Nation anchor Bob Schieffer said. “CBS made a mistake, Dan admitted it, the company apologized for it, and (the report will) be made public without CBS having a chance to edit it.
Not once in the story does McDaniel elaborate on the “mistake” Dan Rather and Mary Mapes made — airing a story with fraudulent documents obtained from questionable sources and without proper vetting in the midst of a close election contest.
If one didn’t already know the details of the “mistake” and “controversy” (hat tip: bloggers), one wouldn’t have a clue what Mike McDaniel was talking about, and might actually feel sorry for the retiring old dinosaur. (And contrary to that cherrypicked Schieffer quote, Rather has never admitted he presented fraudulent documents, or apologized for it.)
Even better than that, McDaniel managed to find perhaps the only media critics in the nation who were “surprised” and “taken aback” by the Rather announcement.
The newspaper that missed Enron continues to prove it is no one-hit wonder when it comes to journalistic ineptitude.
