What's the Frequency, Dan?



(image via tvpepredictions)

What’s the Frequency Dan Rather? We thought –incorrectly -- that hooking up with fellow Texan Marc Cuban in that unprecedented HDNet News thingie would be the perfect face-saving exit strategy from CBS. Everyone could have held their heads high on that deal. How could one be bitter, despite those acrimonious Last Days, about the ending of a glorious career at CBS News, and, afterwards, a new gig in an emerging medium just as the Network Evening News ship appears – as the Futurists tell us – on the verge of sinking. So – Why can’t everyone live Happily-Ever-After, Dan? All Dan had to do at this point was to diligently go about his business of doing the news now in a deeper context in crispy Marc Cubanized high-def while studiously shutting the fuck up about the doings at Black Rock.

But Rather couldn’t, like Ralph Macchio’s Karate Kid at the Halloween party with the garden hose, leave well-enough alone. Dan had to push it. Unlike Macchio, however, there was no skeleton-ized Cobra-Kai’s flinging sign-splitting Death kicks against Rather as he was up against a barrier fence. There was only Les Moonves. And, in many ways, Moonves is more dangerous than a bunch of Cobra-Kai’s angry about their ruined weed. From NYTimes

"The uproar began on Monday when Mr. Rather, speaking on MSNBC by telephone, said CBS had erred in handling the evening news broadcast by 'dumbing it down, tarting it up' and emphasizing celebrities over war coverage in 'hopes of attracting a younger audience,' The Associated Press reported. Although he referred to Ms. Couric as a 'nice person,' he said 'the mistake was to try to bring the Today show ethos to the Evening News.' Ms. Couric, in nine months as the first woman to anchor a network news broadcast on her own, has been unable to lift 'CBS Evening News' out of last place among the evening news programs. 'Let’s give her a break,' Mr. Moonves said at an appearance in New York where he was asked about Mr. Rather’s remarks and called them 'sexist.'"

Dan Rather, to be sure, isn’t the only silvery-haired Voice-of-God that has taken to dishing out potshots at Katie Couric when the ratings are down. What is being lost in all of the CBS Evening News shadenfreude is that Katie has only been at it 5 months. Yes, ratings are significantly down, but starting countdowns as to her firing are premature and – dare we say it? – not without whiffs of sexism. It pains us to agree with that alleged aspirant to the Ambassadorship to Spain and all-around Master of the Universe, Les Moonves. He’s right; there is something sexist about the virulent intensity of the anti-Katie sentiment in the blogosphere. But CBS, to their credit, is fighting back. From (TVNewser):

""CBS Evening News EP Rick Kaplan's take on Dan Rather: 'This is someone who should go through his life quietly.'Kaplan also tells Roger Friedman: 'We had to build back from when Dan left...'"