On Dan Rather

Back in the summer of 1968, when students were protesting the War in Vietnam and taking on the establishment during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, I thought Dan Rather was pretty darned good with his interviews from the floor of the convention. Over the years, I began to wonder about this assessment, though. Here's a recent take of Canadian David Frum writing for the National Review on-line (link courtesy of Instapundit):

At CBS
What would the world be saying of Dan Rather if, say, he managed an automobile manufacturer? Over his 24 years at the helm of CBS News, he has led his program from first place to third, losing more than half his audience along the way. Throughout his career he has been embroiled in controversy and scandal, culminating in his broadcast of forged documents - and his insistence that they might well be genuine long after the falsehood was obvious to everybody else. He leaves his news program in worse editorial and economic shape than at any time since it was launched five decades ago. If CBS were a car company, Rather would be universally condemned as a business and moral failure, one who broke faith with his colleagues, his customers, and his shareholders. Fortunately for Rather, CBS is a media organization. So he will exit the scene hailed as an American legend and a hero for our time.

Well, now, let's not go overboard. After all, the 3 major news networks have all lost market share to CNN and Fox.