Quotations From Chairman Dan

    Dan Rather, the former CBS anchor-thing and recipient of the What’s the Frequency Kenneth Award for Fearless News Distortion and Gratuitous Lying, has slithered silently from the spotlight into the shadowy realm of those who are soon to be dead.
    
Some of us forget that Dan was famous for more than just purveying forged documents in Prime Time in an attempt to influence the 2004 Presidential Election. He was also a renowned quote-smith, generating a stream of folksy observations that he and his team of writers spent weeks preparing so he could deliver them spontaneously on his evening broadcasts.
    With this in mind, and in recognition of this great American’s lifetime of megalomania and borderline psychosis, Dome of Glass is reprinting and updating some of Mr. Rather’s most pithy sayings so that posterity does not forget this towering Sasquatch of journalism who so bravely demonstrated that having a paranoid personality need be no bar to fame or riches in the wonderful world of. liberal media. Without further ado:

Original Rather Quote: I'm proud to say I've never been anybody's lapdog
Updated Rather Quote: I’m proud to say I’ve never been housebroken

Original Rather Quote:
I've always tried to be fair, even-handed, not an advocate for any group
Updated Rather Quote: I've always tried to be fair, even-handed, not an advocate for any group such as fucking Republican Fascists

Original Rather Quote: To err is human but to really foul up requires a computer
Updated Rather Quote: To err is human but to really foul up requires a computer, a Xerox machine, a lack of common sense, a liberal agenda, and a CBS News Producer feeding you blatantly phony documents obtained from a disreputable source

Original Rather Quote: I had someone at the Houston police station shoot me with heroin so I could do a story about it. The experience was a special kind of hell. I came out understanding full well how one could be addicted to "smack," and quickly
Updated Rather Quote: I had someone at the Houston police station shoot me with sodium pentathol so I could do a story about it. The experience was a special kind of hell. I came out understanding full well how one could be addicted to "truth." Never again!

Original Rather Quote: A tough lesson in life that one has to learn is that not everybody wishes you well
Updated Rather Quote: A tough lesson in life that one has to learn is that not everybody wishes paranoid personalities with delusions of grandeur well

Original Rather Quote: Never eat spinach just before going on the air
Updated Rather Quote: Never do drugs just before going on the air. Do them an hour or two before to give them time to take effect

Original Rather Quote: Despite what many Americans think, most Soviets do not yearn for capitalism or Western-style democracy
Updated Rather Quote: Despite what many Americans think, most Soviets do not yearn for capitalism or Western-style democracy. They prefer living in pig sties, being arrested by the secret police, and rotting in Siberian gulags

Original Rather Quote: Don't taunt the alligator until after you've crossed the creek
Updated Rather Quote: Don’t piss into the wind unless your stoned out of your mind and wearing hip waders

Original Rather Quote: Fear rules almost every newsroom in the country
Updated Rather Quote: Stupidity rules almost every newsroom in the country. If you don’t believe it, check in with Mary Mapes and CBS management

Original Rather Quote: Americans will put up with anything provided it doesn't block traffic
Updated Rather Quote: Americans will believe anything provided a wild-eyed nut says it over and over on a major network

Original Rather Quote: I've tried everything. I can say to you with confidence, I know a fair amount about LSD. I've never been a social user of any of these things, but my curiosity has carried me into a lot of interesting areas
Updated Rather Quote: I've tried everything. I can say to you with confidence, I know a fair amount about LSD, pot, crack, huff, bennies, horse, ecstasy, moon gas, blow, angel dust, meth, magic mushroom, OxyContin, demerol, codeine, and flash. I've never been a social user of any of these things, of course, but my curiosity has carried me into a lot of dark and really bad-smelling places

Original Rather Quote: I don't back down. I don't cave when the pressure gets too great from these partisan political ideological forces
Updated Rather Quote: I don't back down. I don't cave when the pressure gets too great from these partisan political ideological forces. Aren't I an incredibly courageous and really admirable person?

Original Rather Quote:
Only votes talk, everything else walks
Updated Rather Quote: Only I can talk, everyone else should shut up or I’ll get very upset and teary-eyed

Original Rather Quote: Be careful. Journalism is more addictive than crack cocaine. Your life can get out of balance
Updated Rather Quote: Be careful. Journalism is more addictive than crack cocaine. Your life can get out of balance and you can end up a weird laughingstock like me

Original Rather Quote: Courage is being afraid but going on anyhow
Updated Rather Quote: Courage is being afraid, instituting delusional lawsuits, and crawling into a pit to die when the courts toss the case out

Original Rather Quote: The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called "truth"
Updated Rather Quote: The dream begins in a Greenwich Village bar with a forceful older man who is attracted to you, who tugs and pushes and strokes you when you visit his apartment, often poking you with a thing called an "appendage"

Original Rather Quote: An intellectual snob is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture and not think of The Lone Ranger
Updated Rather Quote: An intellectual snob is someone who can listen to me and not think of Anthony Perkins in "Psycho"

Original Rather Quote: And now the sequence of events in no particular order
Updated Rather Quote: And now the sequence of events in no particular order. (Thanks for the quote, Yogi)

Original Rather Quote:
Journalists should denounce government by public opinion polls
Updated Rather Quote: The public should denounce news broadcasts by opinionated crackpots masquerading as journalists

Original Rather Quote: They may have turned this up, whether you had the Paula Jones case or not. But again maybe not, but again that's like if a frog had side pockets he'd probably wear a handgun
Updated Rather Quote: Would somebody please tell me what the hell I was talking about when I said this? I mean, if a frog had sidepockets, I don’t think anyone would expect him to be wearing a gun, right? Walter Cronkite had sidepockets and he didn’t wear a gun as far as I know. Of course Cronkite wasn’t a frog as far as I know. On the other hand, don’t y’all think the quote sounds real gosh-darn dadgum down-home-Texas folksy?

Original Rather Quote: For years Don Imus was just ─ boy, he was merciless in his criticism of me. Maybe it was justified, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt
Updated Rather Quote: For years Don Imus was merciless in his criticism of me. Maybe it hurt, but boy, was he right

Norm Mack, Peterborough, dog@myfairpoint.net

 

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