CBS News has made the formal announcement that Dan Rather has left the network. To their credit, they did not shy away from the forged documents in their write-up on Rather's career, nor did they dwell on it.
Rather's departure from the "Evening News" was clouded by his high-profile role in a flawed CBS News story about President Bush's National Guard service and some harsh comments from old CBS colleagues, including Cronkite, who suggested Schieffer should have been given the anchor job years ago.
In September 2004, Rather was the correspondent on a "60 Minutes" Wednesday piece that used documents that purported to show Mr. Bush received preferential treatment during his years in the Texas Air National Guard.
The authenticity of the documents was almost immediately questioned, but CBS News and Rather continued to defend the story long after it was broadcast. An independent panel that probed the network's handling of the story concluded CBS News failed to follow basic journalistic principles in the preparation and reporting of the piece.
Although the Guard story was a low point in Rather's career, it was far from his only brush with controversy. There were well-publicized run-ins with two top Republicans, Richard Nixon and President Bush the elder. And in 2001, he made an embarrassing appearance at a Democratic fundraiser in Texas hosted by his daughter.
Ah well, it gives us one more excuse to link to this post and our very own photo-journalistic assessment of Rather's demise.
