Noonan on Rather

I think it appropriate to link Peggy Noonan's essay on Dan Rather. Many have maligned Peggy for her generally positive spin on Dan after his retirement announcement. I agree she is more complimentary for my taste: I despise the liberal slant Rather always showed in his reporting and editorial choices; the unfairness of his approach and views. But, I do agree with some of the things Peggy said about him:

• "Dan Rather did some great work on stories that demanded physical courage."


• "He had guts and fortitude."--don't doubt the difficulty of covering Vietnam. . .very gutsy

But she appropriately notes the changes in the media taking place which Rather could or would not recognize:

Those stories he covered that touched on politics were unfortunately and consistently marred by liberal political bias, and in this he was like too many in his profession. But this is changing. The old hegemony has given way. The old dominance is over. Good thing. Great thing. Onward.

And in some ways, this underscores the natural changes taking place in our media culture. And without the balance caused by fighting the bias of a Dan Rather, a more conservative opinion is more effective in its delivery through news and the internet because it had to clearly counteract the liberal hegemony which existed until the 90's in this country. Rather was effective in his approach, now we can take that torch from him and let it shine with liberty rather than socialist liberalism (no pun intended).