Dan Rather was Richard Nixon’s least favorite media person, quite a distinction since he disliked many media members intensely. It was Rather who exposed as a field reporter the futility of the Vietnam War and later aggressively covered the Watergate story, which led to Nixon’s resignation under disgrace, for which the right never forgave the CBS reporter.

Lately, in the midst of some of the same type of protect Bush reportage that marked major media coverage of the 2000 presidential election, it was CBS that showed signs of life by pursuing two stories with vigor, the ongoing bloodbath and anarchy in Iraq and Bush’s no show activities in the Texas National Guard. In the midst of pursuing the latter story a document was sent over to the White House. The result prompts one to wonder if the grimy hands of Karl Rove have emerged in a sensitive area.

In the wake of charges that CBS and Rather were hoodwinked and a document purporting to be authentic was really a fake, the reporter explained that one of the reasons why the network felt confident about running the story without further vetting was that the White House sent it back without protest. Rather and his colleagues believed the network could proceed, under the circumstances an instance of acting under a cloud of false confidence.

Not only have the Bushies responded by declaring that Rather and CBS were dead wrong over placing emphasis on a particular document; the shrill media howl is that the veteran anchorman should be forced off the air. This has to be one of the media’s most hypocritical postures coming when it has, after a chief executive lauded by so many of the submissive minions as “tough” and “decisive” blatantly lied to send America’s military into battle in Iraq. While we hear nothing about impeaching Bush, the constitutional remedy for such misconduct, we listen to the strident chorus demanding Dan Rather’s scalp.

Last week loquacious Bill O’Reilly not only asserted that Rather was through; he proclaimed himself to be his replacement, the mainstream media’s new voice. O’Reilly criticized Rather for using his position to mouth liberal propaganda while his network Fox , with himself following in the same tradition, operated in a “fair and balanced” fashion. This was clearly exemplified in 2000 when John Ellis called the election in a “fair and balanced” manner for his cousin, George W. Bush. Such absurdity as O’Reilly spouts would be genuinely hilarious but for the tragedy that so many in these dire times take him seriously.

By Sunday Howard Kurtz, media guru for the Washington Post and CNN, was singing the same tune as O’Reilly and others. Yes, Kurtz declared, it could well be that Dan Rather is through based on the Bush National Guard document fallout.

When the White House issued no objection to a document so potentially damaging to Bush it should have alerted Rather and CBS that something was amiss. A skilled dirty trickster such as Karl Rove might well be behind a ploy that could accomplish no less then three objectives: 1) make Bush look like a victim in an otherwise no win situation since the White House obviously cannot refute criticisms concerning his AWOL status; 2) get rid of someone the right has considered a thorn in its side for years; 3) neutralize CBS coverage of the current campaign.

Rather than following the brigade of sycophants lauding Bush for dodging a potential Iraq fallout bullet and proclaiming his purported decisiveness, CBS has recently engaged in some tough reporting. Barry Petersen’s coverage from Iraq has focused on facts rather than hype. The reporter has declared the Iraq War to be a failure, emphasizing the anarchy that reigns throughout that troubled nation.

On the second front, rather than roll over and do nothing as occurred with the mainstream media as a unit in 2000, this time CBS was determined to investigate whether or not George W. Bush performed his National Guard duties. Remember that it was on Sixty Minutes, CBS’ long running documentary series, that former Texas Lieutenant Governor Ben Barnes revealed how he had used his considerable political influence to catapult Bush over a list of more qualified candidates into the Texas National Guard. Do you suppose that George Bush the Elder and his Carlyle Group allies were just a tad incensed about that?

As Rather’s scalp is demanded post haste and more Bushie-generated smoke poisons the air, those who have kept their eyes on the ball know one thing for certain. Even if the document in question was false, as the secretary who was in the midst of the entire furor operating under Bush’s commanding officer revealed, the sentiment expressed in the document was entirely accurate. Bush was receiving preferential treatment, as the lady explained, and the incident was the number one Texas National Guard topic of conversation at the time. The secretary corroborated the statement of Barnes and the thrust of CBS’ reports.

As for Dan Rather, progressives should not take this effort to bounce him lying down. Contact CBS and declare your support for Dan Rather and the type of tough reporting that the network has been doing recently concerning the two topics in question, the Iraq War and Bush’s National Guard service.