Where Have You Gone Dan Rather?

When Dan Rather took over the CBS Evening News from Walter Cronkite in 1981, he was considered a worthy successor to Cronkite. Despite his famed liberal bias, he was a hard charging reporter who searched for facts. We lost that Dan Rather by 2004, and the person who claims the name is not the reporter we knew.

Rather filed a lawsuit against CBS, Viacom, and others claiming to be a scapegoat for the disastrous story about George W. Bush's National Guard record based on unauthenticated documents. He is claiming to a victim, despite stating at the time he wasn't. Many assumed the story was the result of his bias, but now I'm not so sure. Based on his behavior of late, and a recent report he did on HDNet, I think the failing of the story was Rather's ego.

The lawsuit seems clearly aimed at recovering his faded prestige. However a recent report on HDNet about the Boeing Dreamliner calls into question Rather's ability to fact check. It's as though he's saying, "I'm Dan Rather, therefore I'm right."

The story he did questions the safety of the new Dreamliner jet because it is made from carbon fiber instead of aluminum. The core of the story are Rather's claims that the composite materials are brittle, more likely to shatter on impact, and prone to emit poisonous chemicals when ignited. The transcript of the story can be read here

Scientists and engineers have come out stating that this concept is flawed from the beginning. Composites can be every bit as strong as aluminum and are used in race cars, trains and other objects which have survived massive crashes. I don't think Rather has any bias against Boeing. I think he, once again, failed to check his facts.

So I now think it's possible that Rather's bias didn't create the Bush story, although I'm sure he relished the opportunity to report it. I think he has ceased to check his facts because his ego has gotten in the way. That ego lead to him being fired from CBS, and has now created his lawsuit as he tries to reclaim his previous stature.

Dan, if you want to regain your previous stature stop blaming others. Go forth on your new show and produce credible, bias-free news stories. Unless you do that, no lawsuit is going to help.

Imus Should Have Said Money Grubbing

Kia Vaughn is suing Don Imus. As the collective sound of people asking "who" settles down, I'll explain that Kia Vaughn is one of the Rutgers women's basketball team who was referred to as "nappy headed hos" by Don Imus back in April. At the time, I defended Don Imus' right to free speech. Now I say not only does he have the right to free speech, he should have called her stupid and money grubbing.

"This is a lawsuit in order to restore the good name and reputation of my client, Kia Vaughn," said her attorney, Richard Ancowitz, in an interview with ABC News. How was her reputation damaged when no one knew her name? If she had kept her mouth shut, she would have suffered no damage. Now, people know she is a lawsuit-happy idiot. If her ego is so fragile that a comment that didn't call her by name from a shock jock she didn't know caused her damage, deal with that in therapy, not the courts.

Of course Vaughn isn't the only idiot clogging up the courts. Leroy Greer sent his girlfriend flowers, and is suing 1-800-flowers because they told his wife. Customer service followed up on a sale, and his wife saw the note. If he was stupid enough to cheat on his wife, and give 1-800-flowers his home address, that's not the court's problems.

Judge Roy Pearson has refused to let sleeping dogs lie. This is the moron who sued the dry cleaners for $54 million because they lost his pants. After losing the lawsuit, he stands to lose his job as well. But this wasn't enough for him. He has filed a notice of appeal. And this after the dry cleaners dropped their countersuit so that the whole matter could be closed.

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers," Shakespeare, Henry VI.