A Rather Pathetic Display

Looks like Our Man Dan is not enjoying his dotage very much:

Former CBS anchor Dan Rather said there is a "climate of fear” in newsrooms that is worse than he’s ever seen in his four-decade career.

I.e. ideological competition. I bet the dinosaurs would have been afraid of the fabled asteroid too if they'd had the brains to know what was coming at them.

Rather declared that in the years since the then-White House correspondent tangled with President Nixon during the Watergate affair, politicians "of every persuasion” have gotten better at applying pressure on the corporations that own the broadcast networks.

Is Dannyboy displaying a bit 'o paranoia here? The only politician of recent vintage I can recall "applying pressure" on media outlets is John Kerry and his strong-arming of Sinclair Broadcasting last fall.

Addressing the Fordham University School of Law on Monday, he called the current atmosphere a "new journalism order.”

"New" in the sense of compelling so-called "journalists" to actually practice journalism instead of partisan hackery.

He said this pressure – along with "dumbed-down, tarted-up” news coverage, 24-hour cable news competition and the chase for ratings – "creates a bigger atmosphere of fear in newsrooms.”

I dunno; it seems to me that "dumbed-down, tarted-up" beats "biased, slanted, and made-up" any day of the week.

No wonder Rather broke down in tears yet again. His favorite toy - his reputation as a moral avenger and master propagandist - is gone for good. Now he can only be a legend in his own mind.

That much, at least, can never be taken away.

Absent a lobotomy, anyway.