Beldar on Noonan on Rather

I have long been an unabashed fan of Peggy Noonan's skills as a speechwriter and a political columnist. The woman is sometimes a fuddy-duddy, as I suspect she'd be the first to admit. But she can do more than just turn a nice phrase. At its worst, her prose is still very readable and distinctively voiced; at its best, her prose absolutely sings, and angels gladly harmonize.

From 1981-1984, Ms. Noonan worked for Dan Rather, whom she describes in an op-ed column in today's Wall Street Journal as "a great boss." In this and many other respects, her column is respectful, sympathetic, sometimes even flattering, to Mr. Rather. It's almost certainly the most positive assessment of Dan Rather that's likely to be written by a prominent pundit of the right, and it's worthwhile reading.

Because in this column, as almost always in Ms. Noonan's writing, she allows her first-hand experiences to not only tint but fully color her opinions — and because, I think, Peggy Noonan is fundamentally a very kind and decent person — she therefore gives Mr. Rather the benefit of quite a few doubts. She paints Mr. Rather as a product of his times, which saw the rise and fall of TV network news as an oligopolistic shaper and maker of American public opinion. She ascribes blame to the eastern liberal elites, whose approval and recognition Mr. Rather coveted and who made political liberalism a prerequisite for his and his peers' career advancement. She analogizes Mr. Rather to Richard Nixon — well, that's one well-meant bit that bites rather than soothes, I'm sure, from Mr. Rather's perspective. And she emphasizes the need to weigh the accomplishments of his entire career on the way to, and then while he broadcast from, the network anchor's chair.

But Ms. Noonan's column also expresses ambivalence — both in the text of what she says, and in the shouting subtext of what she leaves unsaid. "Life is complicated," she begins her column, "people are complicated, and most of us are a jumble of virtues, flaws and contradictions." Of Mr. Rather's willingness, eagerness, to swallow whole the mindset his media bosses demanded as the price of his success, she acknowledges that her portrait is "not very nice but I think it is true." And she concludes with:

People are complicated, careers are complicated, motives are complicated. Dan Rather did some great work on stories that demanded physical courage. He loved the news, and often made it look like the most noble of enterprises. He had guts and fortitude. 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.

This is very gracious and generous. It reflects well on Ms. Noonan. But it's far, far better than Dan Rather deserves.

The Ra^thergate forged documents scandal was not just an aberration as part of a long and otherwise distinguished career. It was simply the capstone of a long series of incredibly biased and dishonest incidents. This one was deliberately timed and intended by Mr. Rather and his co-conspirators, upstream and down, to change the outcome of a crucial presidential election. Mr. Rather and CBS News ignored — nay, brazenly flouted, and then tried to cover up their breach of — practically every fundamental written principle of journalistic ethics. Was he alone is this conspiracy? Of course not. Does that in any way excuse him? Of course it does not.

Dan Rather and his cohorts didn't just make a mistake. They didn't just have a lapse. They didn't just let their biases color their reporting. They didn't just make an error in judgment. Instead, they conspired together with should-be felons, with forgers, to pass off as genuine, as truthful "news," a set of bogus documents that defamed the record and the integrity of the President — and in so doing, they fundamentally betrayed the entire reason for their profession's existence. They actively hid the fact that their own hired experts were telling them — before the first broadcast — that the documents were fakes. Then they tried to demonize those (including me and my fellow bloggers) who'd helped expose their ploy, and to justify their lies as "fake but accurate."

If I tried to win a case, to earn a fee, to gain glory in the legal profession by poisoning the judge before whom my client and I were appearing — and if I were caught at it, red-handed in the way Mr. Rather and CBS News were caught — then my long and somewhat distinguished career as a trial lawyer would not just be tarnished. It would be forfeited, and deservedly so. For the rest of my life, the only law books I'd see would be those handed to me between the bars of my cell, with a big stamp on the spine reading "Property of the Texas Dep't of Corrections Law Lib'y."

Dan Rather didn't try to poison a judge, but he tried to poison an election. He tried to murder the truth. He got caught, and he's shown no remorse. If that's not the journalistic equivalent of a capital crime, I don't know what is.

Mr. Rather continues to insist that his departure from the CBS News anchor's chair is coincidental. CBS News' internal investigation, the results of which were ostensibly to be withheld until after the election, is still presumably pending. Justice delayed is justice denied.

And in the meantime, Dan Rather will continue to draw a seven-figure paycheck. As the "Sixty Minutes" second-hand ticks to the close of each hour, his treacherous face will still be on camera, and when they cut to commercial at each broadcast's end, Mr. Rather will pull a fine handkerchief from one of those expensive London-made pinstripe suits that Ms. Noonan's column tells us he learned to wear, and he'll wipe his brow and say to himself: "I got away with it."

I lack Peggy Noonan's graciousness and generosity. Grace is a gift from God that follows repentance and penance, and I'm content to let God decide in due course whether Mr. Rather has earned it. For now, I still want to see Dan Rather brought to earthly justice — political and commercial justice, at least. And I lack Peggy Noonan's eloquence to express just how deeply I despise CBS News for continuing to shelter him, and itself, from that justice.