This morning, CBS announced it had reached a final agreement with Dan Rather terminating his contract and his 44-year relationship with that network. When reports of the impending break-up came of few days ago, the public reaction was surprise. Not surprise that he was leaving, but surprise that he was still around at all. It seems that since he left the anchor’s chair, Rather fell victim to forgotten-but-not-gone syndrome. Although still part of the 60 Minutes CBS team, his output was slight, with fewer shows airing than any other anchor there.
It wasn’t the ending Rather wanted. As I wrote two years ago, Rather aspired to Walter Cronkite status. Cronkite, Rather’s predecessor at CBS, was a national icon, a kindly figure who the nation looked up to. Rather never achieved that status. Not only was he a bit too eccentric, and openly ideological –but the role of broadcast anchor itself became more and more irrelevant during Rather’s tenure.
Rather’s final downfall was swift, being caught reporting as news–then defending beyond all reason–clearly forged documents pertaining to George Bush. There was no good excuse for his behavior–either he was actively involved in a fraud, or (perhaps even more damning given his self-image as a crack journalist) he failed as a reporter. As Rather himself might have put it, he was beaten like a rented mule. CBS, after a decent interval, gently pushed him out of Cronkites’ chair.
Despite the tendency of some conservatives to generalize Rather’s behavior to all ‘liberal’ broadcast network news, Rather was fairly unique. HIs interim successor, Bob Schieffer, got rave reviews–and as an senior presence, a bit of the “Cronkite” respect that Rather yearned for. The problem, rather, was that the network system provided its anchors with a captive audience for their idiosyncracies and bias. That world is gone now. Certainly there are still eccentric and biased anchors on television. More of them than ever actually. But in a world of 24 hour news on multiple channels, we don’t have to watch them. A flip of the switch, and you can see someone better. And with the Internet–and, soon, Internet television–choices will only get broader.
This change is the final irony of Dan Rather. He wanted to be remembered. He will be, but not as a crack journalist or trusted national figure. Instead, he will be remembered as symbol of the “old media” world, whose downfall represented the collapse of that world.
Perhaps that is better than not being remembered at all.
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
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