Oh, the storm of protest! The horrors! Dan Rather messed up. Yes, he aired a story that rested on documents that may have been phony.
No matter that the story was true. (True and old, related four years ago by Molly Ivins and others!)
Shall we contrast the reaction to Rather's screwup with what happens when a major network – Fox – daily promotes President Bush and his Administration?
Or with the revelation that the Executive Branch paid three – count ‘em – three so-called journalists? Each talked or wrote in favor of White House policies, perhaps coincidentally.
The third, according to the New York Times today, is Michael McManus, author of a syndicated column and director of a nonprofit called Marriage Savers. Health and Human Services confirmed paying him $10,000. HHS said it was to train counselors about marriage, not to write columns praising the Administration.
You will remember Armstrong Williams (Education Department, $40,000) and Maggie Gallagher (HHS, $21,500).
Now that the Administration has owned up to a hat trick – three paid "journalists" – I will look for outrage in "the media" of the kind that greeted Rather’s serious mistake.
But I will not hold my breath.