Bill Wineke laments the loss of Dan Rather in a blog post over at madison.com. Wineke says that Rather's departure from CBS will "give the Rather-haters on the right some sense of joy". Of course it will, but not, as Wineke implies, because Rather was some kind of fearless reporter "who had pounded the bushes (no pun intended) for years digging out news no one wanted them to dig."

People on the right don't dislike Rather because they fear his truth-digging ways, they dislike him for something Wineke's post omits entirely: he was willing to broadcast made up news to support his own political views. Rather's career wasn't ruined because time had passed him by or anything romantic like that. Rather's career as a serious journalist is over because he manufactured news. He has no credibility left. CBS, or any other news organization, can't afford to employ someone that much of the public doesn't believe.

The problem I have with today's journalists isn't that they're insufficiently partisan or nonpartisan, it's that I don't believe they're telling me the whole truth and nothing but the truth. That's the rather important lesson being missed from the inglorious end to Dan Rather's career.