Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales sticks up for Dan Rather, who got into it with his ex-employer CBS News earlier this week.

From the June 13 Post: (via truthout)

Even critics of Rather would have to admit he has always stood, firmly and stubbornly, for hard news over fluff and for integrity in the newsroom.

Rather insisted by phone yesterday that his criticisms go much, much wider than how badly or well "CBS Evening News" might be doing. "I was trying to make a larger point about dangerous trends I see in broadcast news and I just happened to be asked about the 'CBS Evening News' by Scarborough," Rather said.

"We have enormous life-or-death issues and challenges facing us in this country and the world today," he said. "Everything from the dismantling of civil rights enforcement within the Justice Department to the war in Iraq to news of secret prisons in Europe and, of course, the next presidential election.

"And yet, for some reason, Paris Hilton is the big story on newscast after newscast. She is inescapable. Putting Paris Hilton on the front page is ridiculous, and it is a mistake to load up a newscast with soft features. The corporate leadership of CBS doesn't even know what hard news is supposed to be - not now, and not in the last years that I was the anchor of the broadcast. They know about entertainment, not news, and about kissing up to politicians in Washington who can do them some good from a regulatory standpoint and help improve their profit picture."

Rather did not say the situation was entirely hopeless. He said he likes ABC's "World News Tonight" with Charles Gibson, which is in first place among the three network evening news shows, and he also expressed admiration for Brian Williams of NBC News.

Rather also said that "under Rick Kaplan, the CBS newscast has unquestionably improved."

There has been enough back-and-forth-and-back-again for one day, because there are important, larger issues. They are issues that have dogged the networks since the day "60 Minutes" became a hit and taught the networks that the news could make money, big money, and no longer had to be carried as a loss leader or as a public service to viewers.

Now, instead of investigating ways to build audience, even among the young, the networks have tended to throw in the towel - with such possible and notable exceptions as CNN's lively but solid "Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer and its awesome News Wall.

"Young people will never watch the news" is as sacrosanct a bromide as "Young people will never read a newspaper."

Well, they'd better. Rather isn't being alarmist when he wonders what will happen to a nation addicted to fake news, celebrity gossip and pop-star prattle - when people abandon the very virtue of being informed and instead insist on constant titillation from TV, cable and little gadgets they carry around in their hands.

"Broadcast news, and journalism generally, should not be a sedative," Rather said. "It should be a wake-up call."

Diplomatically or not this week, Rather was trying to contribute to that wake-up call with his remarks.