The Dan Rather Story

Dan Rather' s retirement from the big news show was a big news story. Part of the big news story was about the big news story he got wrong. But nearly all of those big news story about the big news story he got wrong were themselves wrong.

Bad news all around.

Dan Rather and CBS did not broadcast a false story about GW Bush's National Guard non-service. They made a technical error in one part of the story, by accepting the authenticity of a piece of paper. It was the wrong piece of paper, evidently. But what was written on the piece of paper, as far as it said anything about Bush's service, was correct and factual. The same woman who said she didn't type that particular piece of paper said she typed a piece of paper that said essentially the same thing.

The facts are correct. The story is not false. And so this become yet another politically motivated lie which the news media perpetuates until it becomes the conventional wisdom.

So the lie becomes the accepted truth. Really bad news.

Now the rightist liars have succeeded in creating contempt for the name of Dan Rather. I'm not a fan, I haven't watched the CBS Evening News for years, nor do I watch 60 Minutes. But I hope that when this subject comes up he insistently corrects the record.

Al Gore's name became a one liner of contempt, thanks to such often repeated lies as his claim that he invented the Internet. He did not ever make that claim. Have you ever seen a piece of tape of him saying it? Seen it in print? It doesn't exist. But such is politics today that even Gore jokes about this, as if he had made that claim. This is wrong. It is playing into the conscious strategy of the rabid right to create contempt for everyone and everything they oppose.

Stand your ground, Dan. Courage.