I agree with the critics who say Dan Rather was miscast as an anchor.
He was, however, the best TV reporter I have ever seen.
That is a tough job, you know. The TV reporter must see what is happening, consider possible implications and relate it – succinctly and clearly - all at once. That is beyond most reporters’ abilities. Rather did that and managed to be aggressive, too. Aggressiveness is part of the job description. Or should be.
He and his helpers messed up on the Bush-Texas Air National Guard story. I still do not understand why they invested so much in retelling an old tale Molly Ivins and other Texas news folks explored years ago.
But Rather’s punishment seems out of whack to me when I weigh it alongside, say, the free pass given to Fox, a news operation that retails daily a kind of fiction pleasing to the White House.
Happily, Rather plans to keep reporting for Sixty Minutes II. And if he lives long enough, he will some day get his due.