Dan Rather to Endorse Family of Secrets

[Jan Klimkowski]

In the wake of the "W"-related incident -- which was a set-up from the very beginning -- that led to his ultimate downfall at CBS, Rather has been portrayed by his alleged colleagues as an emotionally unbalanced and untruthful egomaniac.

(snip)......


My point: An endorsement by Dan Rather almost certainly will be the kiss of death for Family of Secrets insofar as it will permit the MSM to make the "If Rather likes it, it must be crazy!" charge over and over again.

I don't know enough about the internal politics of the JFK community to comment on some of Charles' specific JFK comments.

However, at the broader level, endorsement by Rather would mean the kiss of death from MSM.

Rather - deliberately or not - walked straight into a trap with the piece over Dubya's cowardly wartime service record.

Here's what would happen if Rather endorsed the book:

i) MSM would portray Rather as fighting a personal feud against the Bush family. Rather would be characterized as a bitter man seeking revenge and clutching at straws;

ii) one or two aspects of "Family of Secrets" - either incidents which are largely irrelevant to the broader thesis or which have relatively weak or contentious sources - would be attacked and ridiculed. Events where the evidence is strong and compelling would be totally ignored;

iii) the MSM story would be "the rise and fall of Dan Rather" into "conspiracy theory" aka insanity.

Still, it's interesting that Rather may be prepared to endorse the work.