Goodbye Dan Rather and Good Riddance

Dan Rather has signed off on the CBS Evening News for the last time. Check out RatherBiased.com for why this is a good thing.

Rather: Not Snuggly

He even said “Courage!” during his final newscast. Rather tried using “Courage!” as a signature sign off for a short time many years ago, until he stopped because pretty much everyone thought it was kind of stupid. I have no idea why Rather would reference one of the more silly chapters in his life. He doesn’t strike me as a guy who would bring something like that up for the sake of irony. Irony is not really his strong suit. Otherwise, he’d slip in a “What’s the frequency, Kenneth?” remark or do a segment in a sweater. Rather wore sweaters while he did the news for short time too in an attempt to be more snuggly to viewers. That didn’t work out either. I guess the “Courage!” sign-off was just one more thing Rather believed he wasn’t wrong on and deserved a comeback. Too bad Rather didn’t spend more time worrying about doing the news well instead of his image.


Well, don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out Dan. Goodbye and don’t come back. You outstayed your welcome a long time ago. Even Walter Cronkite, who is not really known for badmouthing people, pretty much said he couldn’t believe CBS didn’t dump Rather as an anchor sooner since the CBS Evening News has been mired in last place in the ratings for the three network evening news broadcasts for as long as can be remembered. Rather may enjoy a special place in Cronkite's heart (after CBS pushed Cronkite to retire so Dan Rather could take over the CBS Evening News) though because this is not the first time Cronkite has been critical of Dan Rather. Cronkite said Rather should have been fired after Rather threw a temper tantrum and walked away from his anchor desk after a tennis match that ran long delayed the start of the CBS Evening News.

While we say goodbye to the old boss, let’s say hello to the new boss, same as the old boss. Bob Schieffer is Rather’s temporary replacement. Based on Bernard Goldberg’s book Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How Media Distorts the News, a book Mr. Surly highly recommends, Schieffer may be just as big a prick as Rather.