Rather reaches the end after staying too long

ANALYSIS

By Frazier Moore

updated 6:19 p.m. ET June 26, 2006

NEW YORK - With Dan Rather’s departure from CBS News, the tectonic plates of TV journalism have shifted on a historic scale.

But does anybody feel it? Or care?

Well, CBS cares. It comes out ahead. With a minimum of fuss, it is freed from Rather — scourge of the right wing; proselytizer of Murrow-era ideals on which CBS is all too happy to close the book; and, at 74, a senior citizen in a business where youth is revered. Let the age of incoming anchor Katie Couric (still barely within the 18-to-49 demo) begin!

Meanwhile, the right can count his exit as its victory. After decades of demonizing Rather for the misbehavior, real or perceived, of any media outlet this side of Fox News Channel, Rather can be claimed, if he wasn’t already, as its latest scalp in the culture wars.

Of course, some viewers might have preferred to see Rather continue at the network he devoted his life to — and to have been spared the scandal that led to his ouster from the “Evening News” anchor desk a year ago, and, now, from “60 Minutes” and CBS altogether.

Those viewers might have preferred that, when he took his leave, he would go out on a high note, befitting his decades of great work and unflagging devotion — not set aside with little to do as his contract was allowed to run out.

Rather’s admirers may have found it sad to read, in last week’s New York Times, his bullish description of a possible new job establishing a newsmagazine for Mark Cuban’s HDNet cable channel.

But any clear-eyed Rather watcher knew this was destined to end badly. Dan Rather just wouldn’t (or couldn’t) have had it any other way.

Rather's tragic flaw

FREE VIDEO Rather be fishin' June 20: Dan Rather has officially left CBS. "Countdown" host Keith Olbermann talks with political analyst Craig Crawford. Countdown

The strengths that set him apart — drive, defiance and endurance — were exhibited by Rather with no recognition that times were changing and his years were piling up. Even entering his 70s, he refused to adapt. Just wasn’t his nature.

There was an alternate, happier scenario. And despite Rather’s incorrigible nature, there were Rather observers (me, for instance) who had fantasized that he might seize on it.

Just a few years ago, he might have initiated steps to guarantee his future at the network (and guarantee his legacy). He might have negotiated an end date (months or years down the line) to his anchor reign, with an ironclad set of on-air duties part of the deal that would have kept him as busy as he wanted to be into his 90s.

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