OPINION:
Don’t look now but here comes another member of the media to slap down President Donald Trump. Who? Don’t yawn — true, the list is long. But this is a good one.
It’s the man the Hill so cutely refers to as “former CBS News anchor Dan Rather,” but who is more truthfully known as the “Guy Who Tried to Take Down George W. Bush, But Lost Face — and His Job.”
Why bring up old news?
Character, Watson. Goes to character.
Rather, if you recall, lost his reputation, not to mention job, after reporting in 2004 a story about Bush supposedly going AWOL during his stint in the Texas Air National Guard. The big deal with the report was a) it was false and b) Rather reported it as true on the wings of documents of questionable nature. Or, as Team Bush called them: fake.
Anyhow, a very public outcry led to a very internal investigation, after which it was concluded Rather failed to adhere to “fundamental journalistic principles” with the Bush hit piece. He lost his anchor desk perch and, shortly after, left CBS in disgrace, chasing a $70 million lawsuit dream against his former employer that fell flat.
What’s worse is that in December 2015, Rather told the Hollywood Reporter he still stands by the Bush story.
“We reported a true story,” Rather said to the news outlet. “We didn’t do it perfectly.”
So it’s this Rather persona — the master of the understatement and skewer of the truth, and not the one referred to in the Hill as simply the “former CBS News anchor Dan Rather” — who’s now popped in the public eye as the latest to take harsh shots at Trump.
On Facebook, Rather wrote: Trump’s administration is in a “free fall.”
Oh, do tell, Dan. Do tell.
“At some points words fail, or they are starting to fail me. We have an Administration in free fall. Have we passed through the circle of chaos? Are we at the circle of havoc?” he wrote, in his eye-catching opener.
It goes on a while, and hold tight. Because the drama really ratchets.
“The real Donald Trump has stood up, once again. Let no one ever be fooled. Let there be no doubt. The man who sends out a twitter tirade accusing a former President of crimes for which he provides no evidence, the man who doubles down when everyone with any sense pushes back, that man is our Commander in Chief. Every one who normalizes Mr. Trump now, or has in the past, will have to answer to future generations for their acquiescence, silence or sophistry — if, indeed, not outright cowardice,” Rather continued.
He also said this, toward the end: “The sheer level of paranoia that is radiating out of the White House is untenable to the workings of a republic.”
Really? My money would’ve been on the eight years of progressivism-slash-socialism radiating for eight years from the White House under Barack Obama as being more “untenable to the workings of a republic” than Trump’s measly few weeks worth of work. But that’s just me.
He goes on.
“Doesn’t Steve Bannon strike you as an Iago whispering in the ear of an Othello-like Trump, consumed by jealousy and paranoia? As the questions mount around Russia, as the circles of defense begin to falter, the determination to create diversions will escalate,” Rather wrote.
“But if the President hoped he could create a distraction, I think he misjudged the will of the American people. We have woken. We are paying attention. And we love our country too much to let it falter without a fight,” he finished.
Curtain, please. What a show. And with that, another hit piece against Trump, absent factual support, by a member of the so-called unbiased media.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.