Rather Stepping Down

I cannot help but wonder if today’s announcement by CBS that Dan Rather is stepping down isn’t the result of negotiations between CBS and the “independent” (wink, wink) investigation. By getting Rather off the table, CBS (in its own eyes) looks proactive and can argue that the difficult decisions have been made and that other recommendations need not be made. If they are actually negotiating the public version of the final report at this point removing Rather as a chip the investigators can bargain with might keep more embarrassing items from surfacing. We’ll have to wait and see.