Merely suggesting that the network is looking elsewhere is enough to put ants in the pants of Messrs. Pelley and Roberts, and now Bill O’Reilly, the chief spinmeister at Fox News, has mailed in his resume with a remarkable hymn to both CBS and Dan Rather, published in the New York Daily News, the fiercest rival of the New York Post, which is owned by Mr. O’Reilly’s current employer. (You have to use a good map to follow these media intrigues, and pay close attention.)“I worked with Rather and have known him for more than 20 years,” writes Mr. O’Reilly. “Listen to me: There is no way on this Earth that he would have knowingly used fake documents on any story…. Dan Rather was slimed. It was disgraceful.” The slimer slimed? The disgraceful sliming, as everybody else in America recalls, was of George W. Bush. But if a chair is big enough, somebody will want to sit in it, even if there won’t be room for both his bottom and his ego.
If Brave Sir William actually replaces Dan Rather at CBS, I will be happier than the brave one himself. Now, there would be a lovely Christmasa present!