Okay, so I was wrong

I figured Dan Rather (D-TX) would take the principled way out of his current mess with the forged Texas Air National Guard (TANG) documents he so carefully showcased on 60 Minutes II on September 8th. I honestly thought that he would realize that the gig was up and that if wanted to teach at one of the major J-Schools in his retirement, he would turn on the source that set him up and attempt to salvage some teeny-weeny piece of his credibility.

Not so.

In a tersely worded response from Andrew Heyword, the President of CBS news, the network stated:

The CBS News report was based on a preponderance of evidence: many interviews, both on- and off-camera, with individuals with direct and indirect knowledge of the situation, atmosphere and events of the period in question, as well as the procedures, caracter and thinking of Lt. Col. Killian, Lt. Bush' squadron commander in the Guard, at the time.

Moreover:

In light of the questions about that original 60 MINUTES Wednesday report, CBS News states that it will redouble its efforts to continue reporting aggressively on all aspects of the story, in an effort to resolve those questions.

In other words, we're not backing off the story and standing by Dan [italics mine].

Yesterday, I wondered when the adults at CBS where going to step in and explain to Dan that his little quixotic crusade against President Bush is doing damage to the company. I figured CBS President Les Moonves or Mr. Heyword would simply take Dan aside and tell him it was time to take his meds and catch a bus to the dog track. Money, in the end, would win.

Well, according to Brother Drudge, CBS execs are now "concerned" about ratings fading in major markets. From Drudge:

NIELSEN numbers this week show Rather fading and trailing his rivals in every Top 10 city, other than San Francisco, with audience margins in some cities of more than 6 to 1 against CBS...

Indeed, one CBS radio affiliate in Houston, Texas is dropping the network's news feed and instead opting for the fledgiling FOX radio network.

It's too late for Dan to do a mea culpa. Somebody in a suit is going to pink slip Dan in a week's time. If they were smart, they'd to try to blame it all on "The Kerry Camp" or "Kerry operatives", or some such nonsense, and try to save the network's reputation through this election cycle.

It really is an ugly situation for the viewpoint of CBS executives. One the one hand, the face of CBS News is becoming or has become unmoored from reality with regards to the Bush / TANG story and has already become a public embarassment. On the other hand, if you deep six him, you run the risk that he does indeed do weapons-grade Howard Beale meltdown on live national television, either on your network or someone elses.

Either way, CBS will be hard pressed to get it's reputation back, ever.

BTW...

The Kerry Campaign appears to be cratering. The latest numbers show Kerry behind Bush in New Jersey by 4 points and behind 6 in Florida. And Kerry's June 28 point lead in New York is down to a mere 6 point lead now.

Wow.

A beautiful reposte from Duncan Maxwell of the NRO

And by the way, even if you're a journalist, the right to forge documents isn't covered by the First Amendment.