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A reasonable person must, must I say, side with Dan Rather.

The poor guy's career was, WAS I say, absolutely destroyed by vicious lies. The fact that he told the lies has nothing to do with this.

Since when is a TV "journalist" supposed to be a slave to facts? TV "journalism" is INFOTAINMENT. It is supposed to be free and creative, fun, even! (And to keep Republicans in their place) It is unfair for a named partisan, like Dan, to be destroyed by "anonymous partisans," over a trivial difference of creative news opinion.

The poor guy's career was, WAS I say, absolutely destroyed by vicious lies. The fact that he told the lies has nothing to do with this.

I may be misunderstanding your post. I've read it a few times and pride myself on being objective. But Dan Rather pressed the story. The initial information he was given by a secrete source may have spurred the idea. But Rather was reported to have pitched and produced the story that got him where he was. Remember, the story came out in the heat of an election cycle. After questions arose and no corroborating evidence could be produced and several folks came forward to say the information was false, Rather doubled down. He wielded a great deal of influence at the network. He was not innocent of just reading what someone put on a teleprompter. He took credit for the investigative reporting that "broke" the story. It was his source. He had ample opportunity to correct the story or move it in a different direction. I doubt anyone counseled him to say the document was "fake but accurate." Whether he owned the story at the beginning or not, he took ownership of it when he stubbornly and repeatedly tried to defend it.

He doesn't get a pass from me. He was fired because his credibility was gone and it severely diminished the credibility of his employer. They stood by him at first and when the story was obviously fabricated, they dumped him.

If it were any other way, Rather would have placed blame on his employer for forcing him to report the fabrication based on shady sources and forged documents. He would have thrown orphaned children under the bus to save his pride and career. Fortunately, there were no children within reach after he dug himself a crater.