The story that ended Rather's career was the single worst piece of journalism I've seen in 20 years. You didn't need typography or forensics experts -- anyone who had used a typewriter in his life (and Rather and his colleagues are all old enough to have done so) -- could see that the documents couldn't possibly be authentic. I could tell from the photo of the letter in the morning paper that it was a forgery. It was in a Times Roman proportional font (the idiot who forged it should have just picked Courier), it had tiny letters of the sort that Microsoft Word puts in etc. Yet it was supposed to have been created on a Vietnam era typewriter. There were countless other stupidities. There was the source -- a man who said he destroyed the original documents to protect people (wouldn't you do the opposite?) -- and who had previously been revealed as a crackpot by Chris Matthews.

I tuned in that night to see Rather's apology and, to my amazement, he stood by the story! It took two weeks for him to see the light, when most people could see it on the first day. Forget politics, forget the FCC. He and his staff needed to be fired for sheer stubborness and stupidity.