Acting Rather Strange

An Open Letter To The Management Of CBS News:

Congratulations, folks. You won't have Dan Rather to kick around anymore. Not that any of you really wanted to be seen with him, anyway. After 44 years with the network, a long and distinguished career, he morphed into something as attractive to you as quills on a porcupine -- something nobody wanted to get stuck with. It used to be four decades of service at a network meant you were the seasoned veteran, someone to be respected and consulted like the wise guru on the mountaintop. But silly me, this is television. Forty years means you're too old.

I won't rehash the Memogate mess. But I'll ask you this -- if you really wanted him gone, why didn't you just request him to leave? Instead, you put on this charade of valuing his reporting skills while slowly pulling the rug out from under him. You took 60 Minutes II off the air while he still had a gig there. You squeezed him into the Sunday night broadcast and then squeezed him out when you needed to make room for your newfound savior Katie Couric. So much for thoughts of a deeper bench. Apparently there's just not enough room at the Sunday evening newsroom dinner table.

Mr. Rather is far from blameless in this sad, sorry state of affairs. He fronted a flawed story instead of tearing it up. That's the risk you take when you put too much faith in a producer to do the heavy lifting. How can Mary Mapes live with herself knowing she helped bring down a giant? And I have to give you some props for not cowtowing to conservatives carping for Rather's crucifixion. As Dan would say, "Courage." Still, that doesn't justify treating him like a human stain.

Poor Dan. He should've seen this coming the moment he stepped off the anchor desk following his final Evening News broadcast, when he was surrounded by crew and colleagues cheering and applauding him. Even that landmark moment was soiled by a Wal-Mart ad between his final words and the newsroom's display of affection. You think the world would've ended if you told the big-boxer "no way" for just one night, so this expression of gratitude could be shown without commercial interruption.

But anchors are anchors and business is business. Just days before Les Moonves kissed Dan goodbye he was crowing about how much ad money Katie was raking in. She's already paid for herself, he says. I'm withholding judgment on whether Couric can cut it at Dan's old desk. I hope I'm surprised. I hope she makes a long, productive and valuable contribution to the network. I hope she earns respect. And I hope she earns a better exit, when the time comes, whether she sails or sinks.