Ding-Dong The Witch Is Dead

"She's not merely dead, she's really most sincerely dead!"

I inflate. Dan Rather has resigned his post at 'CBS Evening News.'

Rather said his last broadcast as anchor would be March 9, the 24th anniversary of when he assumed the position from Walter Cronkite.

The 73-year-old newsman said he will continue to work for CBS, as a correspondent for both editions of "60 Minutes."

"I have always been and remain a `hard news' investigative reporter at heart," he said in a statement. "I now look forward to pouring my heart into that kind of reporting full time."

So, if you just make stuff up, you can still prosper at "60 Minutes," but the CBS Evening News is trying to retake some credibility -- Got it!

I think that the bloggers have felled one. Maybe it's a sign, but I was home yesterday with a bad cold and I actually did do some blogging in pajamas. It was a sign.

UPDATE: Kerry Spot's Geraghty notes that bloggers' reaction will fall into one of two camps:

Blogger Reaction One: “Whoo hoo! We won! Blogger triumphalism all around!”

Blogger Reaction Two: “This half-step by CBS is garbage, and they know it. Announcing this the Tuesday before Thanksgiving is comparable to announcing the news late on a Friday afternoon. The internal investigation - which we may never get to see at this rate - probably found that the entire CBS News structure is like the DNC press operations shop, only less accurate and with lower standards, and so this is the Sauronic Eye’s way of sweeping it under the rug. They’re every bit as bad as they were before the memo story ran, they learned nothing from this incident, and they ought to be thanking their lucky stars that an angry mob in pajamas carrying pitchforks and torches doesn’t march down to corporate headquarters like in some black and white monster movie.” (This happens to be my reaction.)

He is right and I am wrong. Nothing has changed at all and what should be a huge scandal has been swept under the rug.

Yet, if they are not going to fix bias at CBS News it is better that they don't pretend. I was predicting a fire-Mapes-and-Dan-apologizes outcome that could be claimed as admission and reform. The juicy beast is still out there, waiting to be taken down. Pajamahadeen, stand ready!

Posted by jk at November 23, 2004 11:36 AM