Power to the People

Capitalism works. This week has seen two of the most prominent news anchors of my generation leave the professional careers that made them famous. I suspect we all find the latter resignation the more interesting one. Apparently, CBS and Dan Rather agreed last summer that the best time for his resignation would be after the November 2 election of W. Bush. While I find it doubtful that a Bush election was an explicit term of the resignation agreement, I'd like to imagine Mr. Rather throwing his weight and trying to convince top CBS execs that his little snafu earlier this year really worked in Kerry's favor, and trying to convince them to let him stay on as anchor if Kerry won the election. I guess he'd also then need to explain why his subtle and not-so-subtle biases over the years have placed CBS convincingly in the bottom slot of the ratings race among non-cable news organizations, and why young voters seem to have much more confidence in the honesty of Comedy Central host Jon Stewart than in Dan Rather.

What I find intriguing is that Rather is going to stick around as a 60 Minutes correspondent. Hey Dan, take a hint, it's time to get out of the business. Cut your losses and run. Go hang out with your buddy Michael Moore. I guess CBS finally mustered enough chutzpah to push him out of the anchor role, but didn't have the heart to fire him altogether. After several decades as a news anchor, I guess Rather has earned enough professional capital to pretty much go or stay where he chooses.

Yet, not even several decades of professional capital were enough to overcome the will of the people. Capitalism rules.

P.S. For fair and balanced reporting . . . you already know where to go.