This is the perfect time for a documentary honoring Dan Rather. Really.
We’re watching the collapse of NPR as a trusted news source in real time thanks to Uri Berliner’s withering expose on the far-Left platform. Most mainstream journalists are covering up the fact that the U.S. President is in obvious mental decline.
Media outlets have yet to account for promoting the Russian Collusion hoax, one of many Fake News stories that eroded trust in the Fourth Estate.
Reporters now all but cheer on free speech repression, burying scandals like The Twitter Files.
What better moment to honor an anchor who still won’t cop to getting a massive story wrong?
Netflix Acquires ‘Rather,’ the Frank Marshall-Directed Documentary About the Career of TV News Icon Dan Rather (EXCLUSIVE) https://t.co/UdBP8Ycxzv
— Variety (@Variety) April 12, 2024
“Rather,” to debut on Netflix May 1, by all accounts is a hagiography. Consider this comment from the film’s director, Frank Marshall.
“This is a very personal project for me … When you look at Dan’s body of work, it’s remarkable. The collection of stories he has covered, it’s my history too, and the history of our country over the past 60 years. I’ve always admired his passion, his intelligence, his humor and his commitment to the truth and it’s been an honor to get to know Dan and tell his extraordinary story.”
Need more? Here’s the film’s official description via Rotten Tomatoes:
This unprecedented documentary will weave the past, present and future of journalism as it delves into the man behind the legend. We’ll revisit Dan Rather’s 60+ year career and the biggest moments in American journalism. With unrestricted access, we’ll offer an unfiltered look at both his esteemed career — exploring where and how he became one of journalism’s resounding forces — and his present renaissance as the last beacon of quality reporting, unfettered and in direct contact with Americans through social media.
Tim League, the Alamo Drafthouse founder, also lauds the film and, by extension, Rather.
“Watching ‘Rather,’ I saw a North Star of what American journalism is meant to be, driven by a thirst for the truth and the desire to share that truth with the people,” League said. “We are honored to have the opportunity to screen this wonderful film and honor a true American hero.”
Said “American hero” tried to interfere with the 2004 presidential election.
Rather infamously peddled one of the greatest examples of Fake News in the modern era. He used phony documents to say President George W. Bush went AWOL while serving in the Texas National Guard, among other false charges dropped weeks before Election Day via “60 Minutes II.”
Shrewd bloggers, including Powerline, quickly shredded the memos in question, leading to Rather’s ouster as the face of CBS News.
The Washington Examiner, citing an internal CBS investigation into the scandal, sums up Rather’s work:
“…an attempt by a prominent organ of the mainstream media to influence the outcome of a presidential election with a false and fraudulent story just two months before Election Day.”
Today, Rather might be given a promotion.
We’re still waiting for a single media outlet to apologize for burying the Hunter Biden laptop story. In the 2000s, the media was both left-leaning and willing to criticize itself.
This isn’t the first cinematic love letter to Rather. Robert Redford portrayed the biased journalist in “Truth,” the 2015 flop that pretended he got the story right.
Today, Rather serves as a freelance journalist via social media, embracing his hard-Left views for all to see.
NY AG Letitia James is now allowed to seize Donald Trump’s assets, starting Monday.
I hear Mar-a-Lago may have some value.
— Dan Rather (@DanRather) March 19, 2024
BREAKING: NBC News plans to drop former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel as a paid contributor, per Puck News.
This is a good decision.
— Dan Rather (@DanRather) March 26, 2024
Had he come clean with his Bush-era mistakes he might have spent another decade behind the CBS News desk. At the time he apologized for elements of the story but stood by his false report.
Publicly, he hasn’t budged from that position. He said as much during the 2015 rollout for “Truth.”
“Everybody’s entitled to their own opinions, but they’re not entitled to their own facts…And the fact is we reported a true story, and we lost our jobs because of that.”
He’s being honored, again, all the same.
Why?
Why not?
Hollywood isn’t a stickler for the truth. Showtime’s “The Comey Rule” proved that. It pretended the Russian Collusion narrative was real even as it began falling apart mid-production.
Narrative matters above all, and reviving Rather’s hard-Left legacy is more important than getting the story right.