Rather: Couric trying to "tart up" CBS News

Dan Rather blames the ratings slide of CBS News on the decision to bring in Katie Couric: "the mistake was to try to bring the 'Today Show' ethos to the evening news and to dumb it down, tart it up in hopes of attracting a younger audience."

Far be it from me to defend Couric, but Rather dumbed down his network's news long before the tart era began. WND founder Joseph Farah writes in his book, Stop the Presses!: The Inside Story of the New Media Revolution, that Rather was one of his journalistic heroes until he realized the man was little more than a partisan who was tough on conservatives while giving liberal politicians a free ride.