Dan, You Did It Your Way
Written by Bob Kohn
March 09, 2005 | 04:13:00 EST
Mr. Rather, as the hour of your retirement approaches, we imagine you are feeling, despite the recent shame, quite pleased with your long career of politicizing the news. Oh, you wouldn't put it in those terms, but in your heart-of-hearts you know exactly what we're talking about.
In your youth, having become so thoroughly enchanted by President John F. Kennedy, you, like a knight-errant anointed, stood ready to wield your mightier-than-the-sword pen to slay all the king's rivals--starting with Richard Nixon and, by association, all Republicans and their policies.
Face it: that's exactly who you are and what you've done.
And nobody did it better.
You knew what few others understood: to lace a political agenda into a purportedly objective news report is to give that agenda a level of credibility it could not earn elsewhere.
And you advanced that agenda relentlessly, under the guise of a trusted source of hard news under the aegis of the mainstream media monopoly. Then, suddenly, talk radio. Next, cable news. Then, Bernard Goldberg. And then, of course, the blogosphere.
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And now, the end is near
And so I face the final curtain
My friend, I'll say it clear
I'll state my case, of which I'm certain
I've lived a life that's full
I've traveled each and every highway
But more, much more than this,
I did it my way
Regrets, I've had a few
But then again, too few to mention
I did what I had to do
And saw it through without exemption
I planned each charted course
Each careful step along the byway
But more, much more than this
I did it my way
Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew
When I bit off more than I could chew
But through it all, when there was doubt
I ate it up and spit it out
I faced it all and I stood tall
And did it my way
I've loved, I've laughed and cried
I've had my fill, my share of losing
And now, as tears subside
I find it all so amusing
To think I did all that
And may I say - not in a shy way
No, oh no not me
I did it my way
For what is a man, what has he got
If not himself, then he has naught
To say the things he truly feels
And not the words of one who kneels
The record shows I took the blows
And did it my way!
>>>
Yes, Dan, you did it your way. But your way stopped working in the new transparency. You never saw it coming.
Yes, you did it your way. And, thank God for journalism, your way doesn't work anymore.
With courage, eager dispatch, and farewell...
-- Bob Kohn
"My Way," lyrics by Paul Anka. Fair use of
Copyright by Chrysalis Standards (BMI).
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