There are none so blind

I won't blame the Houston Chronicle's Mike McDaniel for the ridiculous headline on his story today about Dan Rather: "Rather climbing down from the pinnacle." But it's fair to say, I think, that the editor who wrote it and Mr. McDaniel both fall into the category of "those who will not see."

If the "pinnacle" in question were meant to suggest the highest point of arrogance, incompetence, barely-concealed bias, and willful duplicity, I'd agree that Dan Rather once stood at the top of that mountain. But that's clearly not what Mr. McDaniel or the headline writer intended. They used "pinnacle" to mean a lofty, admirable, well-earned and -regarded position in the world of mainstream media journalism. To suggest that Dan Rather "climbed down" from that position presumes that (a) he was ever there to begin with, and (b) he came down of his own accord. Neither of those premises is true, and the second one is laughably false.

Just how clueless is Mr. McDaniel? A quick indicator is when he refers to last fall's controversy as "Memogate." A quick Google search does indeed produce 55,000 hits, but "Rathergate" produces more than five times as many. It's not a trivial distinction: That someone would forge (ineptly) a set of memos to try to blacken a presidential candidate's reputation is neither surprising nor of cosmic significance by itself. That the "face" and principal symbol of a major network TV news organization would actively conspire to spread the fraud, and then to conceal that conspiracy, is of cosmic significance.

Mr. McDaniel buys into Dan Rather's spin bigtime:

Rather initially stood by the report. Twelve days after it ran, he issued an apology. He's been tight-lipped about it since.

Rather's is the most public face of that report, and his many critics think he championed it. An internal investigation came down hard on CBS but spared Rather and CBS News President Andrew Heyward.

"This is my personal view, but there are two things that have not gotten the attention they deserve," Rather says. "One, this panel found that whatever mistakes were made, they were not born out of political bias. No. 2, after spending four months and $5 million trying to establish that the memos were 'forgeries,' as so many have called them, the panel was unable to do that.

"I think it's fair enough to say that the documents weren't conclusively authenticated. I've acknowledged that, said I'm sorry and taken steps to see it doesn't happen again."

Oh, please. Even for a puff-piece, even for an op-ed, this string of distortions would be beyond the pale, but Mr. McDaniel's article is published as "news." Rather's defiant self-defenses outnumber his "apologies" by a huge margin, and he's been anything but "tight-lipped." The panel report inexcusably stopped short of saying that the documents had been conclusively proved fraudulent; Rather turns that on its head to say that they weren't "conclusively authenticated," and Mr. McDaniel signs on to that distortion without comment. The panel likewise refused to draw a conclusion, one way or the other, on whether Rather and his team's motive was self-glory or craven political bias; Rather paints that as exculpation and a ratification, and Mr. McDaniel swallows and then regurgitates that line of crap just as eagerly. Mr. McDaniel writes that CBS "spared" Rather and CBS News president Andrew Heyward, as if they were exonerated when in fact they've hung onto their employment by their fingernails and linger on in disgrace (which, itself, is another disgrace).

That Mr. McDaniel can quote a Rather phrase like "'forgeries,' as so many have called them" without blushing or refutation puts Mr. McDaniel quite near the pinnacle that Rather actually occupied.

If the panel had written, "Dan Rather is unquestionably the worst disgrace to journalism since the invention of the printing press," Rather would have spun it as "The panel compared me favorably to my peers from the classical ages of Greece and Rome!" And flacks like Mr. McDaniel would nod and smile and applaud — as the American public collectively rolls their eyes in disgust, and leaves in droves to look for other sources of news and commentary.

Reading a piece like Mr. McDaniel's, I'm left with equal parts of outrage, revulsion, pity, and regret. What's missing from my reaction is any sense of surprise.