December 2, 2004

OpinionJournal - Peggy Noonan

Required reading is Peggy Noonan's incisive commentary on Dan Rather's career (she worked for him for a time) and the demise of the broadcast media monopoly. She allows that Rather was good at what he did, but the institutionalized media bias at CBS infected Rather because it is so pervasive leading to the forged documents episode that did in Rather. Her final and fair paragraph is:

"People are complicated, careers are complicated, motives are complicated. Dan Rather did some great work on stories that demanded physical courage. He loved the news, and often made it look like the most noble of enterprises. He had guts and fortitude. Those stories he covered that touched on politics were unfortunately and consistently marred by liberal political bias, and in this he was like too many in his profession. But this is changing. The old hegemony has given way. The old dominance is over. Good thing. Great thing. Onward."

Noonan is a good balance to the onery and vitriolic Dowd over at the NY Times.

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