Article: Dan Rather, R.I.P. Assasinated By The Media Company He Loved

When the decision to axe Rather was made, it was delivered in a typical two-faced way with News and Sports President Sean McManus kicking him out while singing his virtues.

"Of all the famous names associated with CBS News, the biggest and brightest on the marquee are Murrow, Cronkite and Rather, "he said.

"With the utmost respect, we mark the extraordinary and singular role Dan has played in writing the script of not only CBS News, but of broadcast journalism. There will always be a part of Dan Rather at CBS News. He is truly a 'reporter's reporter,' and he has helped to train several generations of broadcast journalists. His legacy cannot be replicated."

The President of the corporation, Les Moonves, praised Rather for "an unwavering desire to tell the story to the American public." The company is giving some conscience money to his University named after Texas independence leader Sam Houston. Like Rather, Houston was mired in contradictions. (According to Wikipedia, "Although a slave owner and opponent of abolitionism, his unionist convictions meant he refused to swear loyalty to the Confederacy when Texas seceded from the Union, bringing his governorship to an end.")

For his part, Rather, ever the gentleman and diplomat praised his colleagues and his years at CBS adding a call on the press for more discussion of larger issues such as freedom of the press and the corporatization of news.

Rather has not been the only victim of the corporatizaton of news. Veteran CBS reporter Thoams Fenton who served his broadcast for many years as a lead diplomaticcorrespondent recently indicted the lack of coverage of the world in his book Bad News. Many others in CBS over the years left with bitter feelings about their treatment and went public with complaints about the decline of TV News.

Now a trifecta of anchor exits is complete. Brokaw gone at NBC, Jennings dead at ABC and Rather pushed out while holding on for dignity's sake even after his anchor chair was knocked out from under it. When I visited the CBS News command module, I was dissuaded from sitting it it""a warning sign even made sure no one but the Big Man himself was allowed to saddle up.

While News personalities come and go, the news machine grinds on only in a new era of convergence between television and the internet, with the only certainty that it too will change, and, on the evidence so far, not for the better.

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