Rather Purports To Be At Peace, But Suggests Anonymous Partisans Destroyed Him With 'Lies'
If this is how Dan Rather at peace looks like, wonder what he's like when angry and embittered . . .
On Morning Joe today, Rather emphatically alleged that he was "at peace" over the Memogate fiasco that led to the end of his career. But he couldn't help himself from suggesting that his reputation had been destroyed by anonymous partisans employing "lies." View the video after the jump.
Ironically, Rather's whine came in response to a self-indulgent set up from Mike Barnicle, who bemoaned the "danger" in the way "elements of the culture around us" can extract "one day" of a career to define its entirety. Watch Rather clinging to the fantasy that his career was damaged by false attacks from others, rather than by his heedless reliance on palpably false documents.
Note: NewsBuster Scott Whitlock caught Rather saying something similar on Good Morning America earlier this week. Rather complained that he had been subjected to a "propaganda barrage." Awww.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: There's been a lot of controversy surrounding this book. A lot of people saying you need to just let it go. And I know you've probably heard that from a lot of your friends. Just let the CBS, the end of CBS do, you had such a long and honorable career there: don't focus on it. Why do you feel you needed to go back and tell your story?
DAN RATHER: Well, first of all: it's way behind me--I have moved on, a long time ago. It's one of the reasons I didn't write the book right away. I had, you know, confusion, anger at that time. But I'm at peace now . . . I did want to include in this book my side of what happened at CBS News, what really happened as opposed to what a lot of people think happened at CBS News, and how the story we broke at Abu Ghraib--that was before the Bush story--was a prelude to what happened with the Bush story. But it's in the book: what I have to say is in the book. But I moved past it a long time ago, and I can't emphasize enough how much at peace I am now.
MIKE BARNICLE: Dan, could you talk about, we were talking briefly about this off the air, the aspect of your life, your story, and the culture we are all a part of, in that you have had, and still have, this tremendously honorable career, across all of these decades. Going to Afghanistan in a few days for what, the 14th or 15th time?
RATHER: Fourteenth time.
BARNICLE: Covering a major story, war in our times. And yet we live in an age, not just with you: one second of that career, one day, one hour of that career, can be extracted and built up by elements of the culture around us trying to define an entire career. There's a danger in it.
RATHER: Well I agree with you of course, Mike; naturally I would. But I do think there's something people can pull back--what we call in television the wide shot--and think about. That with the internet, with all of its advantages, and I'm a great believer in the internet and the future of the internet, that one of the downsides is exactly what you just said. That anonymous people, frequently organized for partisan political purposes, and/or their ideology, can anonymously absolutely blow up your reputation. Whether it's your neighbor: you can be a plumber or welder or businessman, and if your neighbor doesn't like you, he can virtually destroy you over a 24-, 36-hour period anonymously by putting out all kinds of misinformation, lies even, about you, and that moment gets frozen in time and many people identify you with that moment. It's true.
SCARBOROUGH: Gotta fight back.
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Comments
It's like saying
Submitted by Iron Tigers Vet on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 10:05am.
you committed suicide, but someone else pulled the trigger. It was your gun, your ammo. You pulled the trigger, now suffer the consequences. Quit whining. Cowboy up hack.
Way to keep it classy Dan.
To quote Charlie Harper, ...
Submitted by Newsbubba on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 10:09am.
... "You poor, dumb bastard."
Dan, my man, you came into the world a liar, and you will go out a liar.
May you rest in Peace. (Is that a religious reference? Remarkable for a liberal!)
Poor Dan and Mike
Submitted by dr-go on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 10:17am.
both experienced that "one day" which defined their career and what a day it was. Journalistic memories are quite handy at times.
The bloggers that brought
Submitted by forest on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 10:18am.
The bloggers that brought Rather down weren't "organized" and for the most part weren't anonymous. One of them is now even a big progressive. Rather knows all of this, so his claim of an anonymous right-wing conspiracy is a lie. Lying is what got him in trouble to begin with. Some people never learn.
Poor old Dan
Submitted by Matthew Sheffield on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 10:29am.
As one of the bloggers in question, he could easily have found out who we were. The vast majority of us revealed our names either directly in our stories or elsewhere on our sites. We also did a ton of media interviews.
It's easier for him to believe in shadowy Republican conspiracies, though, so that explains why he didn't bother fleshing out his absurd theory.
Not annonymous...
Submitted by c5then on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 10:20am.
We know that the partisan hack that employed the lies was named Mary Mapes and was your producer on the segment. You chose to not check them out and to put it on the air with no journalistic due dilligence.
If someone hands you a revolver and tells you it's OK because it's not loaded, and then you put it to your head and pull the trigger, you cannot claim you are innocent. You should have checked.
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
Yeah... Barnicle: another "victim."
Submitted by SickofLibs on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 10:22am.
They're only victims because they got caught.
Personally, I'd like to see Dan paired up with Charlie "Mr. Excitement" Rose on This Morning - now that would really be DY-NO-MITE TV!
Sorry
Submitted by TMF2006 on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 10:26am.
In the words of Dennis Prager - Being liberal means you never have to say you're sorry!!
Partisan Lies
Submitted by minky on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 10:39am.
It just goes to show you, Danny, that you can't hide behind a mask of false journalistic objectivity, while also being a partisan activist. It is inevitible that the rest of the Democrat media operatives will eventually self-destruct, also. It was YOUR lies that brought you down. You are beneath contempt.
Lean forward rather, you
Submitted by Diesel on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 10:51am.
Lean forward rather, you communist POS!
Wait a minute (or even seven minutes of black air)
Submitted by CO2Maker on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 10:56am.
Dan, you're saying that people made up stuff to ruin your reputation? Misinformation, lies even? But what if the lies tell us the truthiness? You know, lies that leave a TANG in your mouth.
Gee, that's gotta be frustrating. I bet it's like a possum hangin' in a watermelon tree with a petard on a hoist, dag nab it, or something like that.
Yeah, CO.
Submitted by Newsbubba on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 11:28am.
Dan always was one for those down home, good old boy, Texas sayin's, ryght?
Here's one for him to chew on from a real man: "When you make a mistake, there are only three things you should ever do about it: 1. Admit it. 2. Learn from it, and 3. Don't repeat it."
Dan went 0 for 3.
But the Valium, or whatever, seems to be working for him, don't you think?
He's whining about something
Submitted by kareling on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 10:58am.
He's whining about something rather similar to the Rush/Fluke flap. Only Rush came out stronger than ever.
Kareling, ...
Submitted by Newsbubba on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 11:10am.
... never, ever Rush a Fluke.
Did Joey Challenge Rather's Killian documents?
Submitted by Conservator on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 11:30am.
It is quite amusing to see Rather blaming "anonymous bloggers on the internet. As I recall, in September of 2004 Rather aired a faux story about Bush's military record only a few months before the general election while he was seeking reelection. In fact, if Rather hadn't posted the "Killian documents" on the WEB for all to see, he may have gotten away with his vicious and false attack on Bush.
"...Criticism of Rather reached a fever pitch after 60 Minutes II ran his report about President Bush's military record; numerous critics questioned the authenticity of the documents upon which the report was based. Rather subsequently admitted on air that the document's authenticity could not be proved. In the aftermath of the incident, CBS fired multiple members of the CBS News staff but allowed Rather to stay on..."
Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Rather#CBS_Evening_News_anchor
For additional information on the "Killian documents" below are two more sources:
Dan Rather Will Not Go Away Quietly
"...Dan Rather still thinks he will be vindicated for his infamous story on President George W. Bush's Air National Guard Service but after reading a new epic re-investigation into the matter in Texas Monthly, it's difficult to see how that will ever happen.
“I believed at the time that the documents were genuine,” Rather says, in a sprawling 7,000+ word piece by Joe Hagan, “and I’ve never ceased believing that they are genuine.” The former CBS News anchor is "optimistic that somebody, somewhere will one day come forward and reveal the truth" about the so-called Killian documents, which were used to underpin his 2004 story claiming that Bush received special treatment to avoid the Vietnam draft and dodged his responsibilities. Unfortunately for Rather, its unlikely that the documents will ever be authenticated..."
Killian documents
Please go away....
Submitted by liberalsarefunny on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 12:10pm.
Thank you, Danny boy.....
Dan
Submitted by mmilesll on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 12:26pm.
Don't ever forget your drugs Dan
Dan Blather
Submitted by Big_John on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 12:47pm.
He lies to try to take down Pres Bush but CLAIMS that other people lied about him?
Okay.
What's the frequency Kenneth?
Submitted by Tomorama on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 12:53pm.
Just the fact that on his book of dreams tour...................... he was scheduled to go on O'reilly and the coward backed out.
Maybe afraid of a not so friendly set of factual questions there coward.
Funny how he keeps track of exactly how many times he has been to Afghanistan, like it shows "something about him".
Sorry, keeping count, shows me all I need to know.
Yeah, maybe he could do us
Submitted by G L on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 1:57pm.
Yeah, maybe he could do us all a favor and forget the return trip next time.
Rather
Submitted by amyshulk on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 12:55pm.
Yep, you succeeded in lying so well you even conned yourself! Idiot.
Ronald Reagan
His own narcissism and stupidity destroyed him.
Submitted by drsamherman on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 1:11pm.
It must be really hammering him that Mike Wallace, a talking head of similar tenure, is getting all of the memorials and accolades from his news coterie and that he will be remembered only for his own vapid ego and stupidity in using forged documents to create a false narrative. It must also be destroying him that the falsehoods were discovered almost instantaneously and all of his defenses, along with those of that hog Mary Mapes, came crashing down very quickly.
He's not only had salt rubbed in the wounds, he's had Habanero peppers and sulfuric acid poured into them with his repeated denials and the failure of his court case. No vindication for Danny, only oblivion and a reputation flushed right down the toilet just like so many other egotistical, self-important b@$t@rds who sought to influence events beyond their ability and intelligence.
Rather's nuts
Submitted by TangoUniform on Wed, 05/02/2012 - 1:54pm.
C'mon folks have we forgotten, "What's the frequency Kenneth?"