Rather Treasonous Dan
Tom Marsland
Friday, Feb. 28, 2003
Before discussing Dan Rather's seditious behavior while interviewing the Butcher of Baghdad, let us reflect on a more pristine, though equally dangerous era.
May 20, 1944 (with heels clicking): "Entschuldigen Sie, wenn ich unterbreche, Herr Fuehrer! The American newsman Mr. Edward R. Murrow is here to see you ... und you'll receive him now, mein Fuehrer?"
"Ja, Ja, Major Bucholtz, show him in."
"Willkommen to the Fatherland, Herr Murrow."
"Most kind of you, Herr Reich Fuehrer. May we begin?"
"Ja."
This dialogue seem alien to you? It ought to! The date, May 20, 1944, was less than three weeks away from D-Day, the Allied counter-invasion of Adolf Hitler's Europe.
Hitler's Third Reich brandished the original moniker 'Axis of Evil.' Germany and its co-conspirators, Italy and Japan, plundered, tortured, raped, massacred and executed their way through the Balkans, Mother Russia, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Scandinavia, the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Middle East and on into history's annals of depravity.
No legitimate American journalist would EVER have visited this evil barbarian who sought our extinction. Especially one of such high standing as Edward R. Murrow.
Had that occurred, I daresay his professional life would have lasted about six seconds. He may even have faced a firing squad back home ... I really think he might have met a traitor's demise!
Which brings us to the topic of CBS TV's alpha male, Dan Rather. Comrade Rather did more than meet with this generation's Hitler, he delivered a softball interview to human history's No. 1 murderer of Muslims, Saddam Hussein.
Can we agree that Islam has done little to promulgate good will in the West these past 20 months? That being said, I truly wish only health and prosperity upon all peace-loving Muslims. I will go out on a limb here and state my belief that these same conditional warm fuzzies are shared by an overwhelming majority of Americans.
However, this group hug ought not be extended to embrace terrorists, rapists, mass-murderers, robber-barons, torturers or Democrats. OK, so I'm just kidding about the Democrats ... sort of.
(Note for my friends on the left: This is the part of the article dedicated to humor – a decidedly Republican concept, I've observed.)
That Rather is comfortable in these ideological environs is disturbing at least, traitorous at most.
What has happened to our American press? It is the "American press," is it not? It's not the "World press" or the "Euro-press" ... or is it? CBS, ABC, NBC and CNN have all at least toyed with these notions of 'hyper-PC-ism.' Not sure that’s a word, but you get the point.
Back to our 'Rather treasonous Dan.'
What does one ask a Hitler hours before D-Day or a Hussein hours before Desert Storm II? Shall we bury our heads in the sand and pretend the stench of Auschwitz was non-existent?
It was in fact repugnant, even to the olfactory deficient, and though the chimneys spewed their purulence night and day, there existed even then anti-war-peace-loving-pacifist WWII protesters, albeit in modest numbers.
I believe our intelligence services know of Hussein's Auschwitz and the world will soon know, too. But Dan rather has no 'common man' defense. Mr. Rather is a highly compensated (seven figures per year) super-journalist at the top of his trade ... nary a courtroom on the planet would excuse his ignorance, much less his hyper-tolerance of ill-doing.
'Evil,' as our president espouses in unusually poignant moral clarity, given his top-dog status in the body politic.
I am not certain Rather committed treason – perhaps sedition. Perhaps he even has the force of First Amendment law on his slimy side. But is it moral? NO, NO, NO! Does he care about morality? I'll let his actions speak for themselves.
In a few days, thousands more people will die because of Rather's mass-murdering, Neilson-rating pal. When the war commences, watch Dan Rather! He called the mass murderer Hussein "Mr. President" and disrespectfully referred to his own President Bush as simply "Bush."
I put nothing beyond him. He is the perfection of modern enlightenment. Moral idiocy in the embodiment of a learned buffoon. In my opinion, a 'Rather treasonous Dan.'
