Rather vs. Moonves

It's funny that the news business that icon Dan Rather helped shape is amid a transformation that, without it, his verbal spat with CBS chief Les Moonves would not be news at all.

Don't let his new dot-net business card fool you; Rather is clearly old school. Which explains his criticism this week of Moonves and CBS' decision to lure news cheerleader Katie Couric to fill the network's evening chair last year.

Rather meant no -- OK, only a little -- slight to Couric by saying Moonves has been trying to "dumb it down" and "tart it up." He definitely, however, meant to jab Moonves when he said of him that Moonves "doesn't know about news."

This really isn't that big of a deal. You've got old-school news guy calling out a network chief exec. Is that surprising? Of course Moonves doesn't know news. You can't know about news and simultaneously be an effective network chief. If you come from the news side, you stay in news and you don't aspire to such an executive position, nor would you attain it if you so desired. And if you're on Moonves' salesy side, in most cases, you only know statistics, numbers, demographics, viewers and shares. You make decisions based on research -- albeit limited -- not on your gut. Those are two very different things. More often than not in today's newsrooms, the right news decision is scarcely the one made because it grabs fewer viewers. And low ratings means a constant updating of the resume. Sadly, less real news means more viewers.

These days, it's all about reaching younger audiences who have newer, faster, cooler, more numerous options now at their disposal. Rather doesn't think the 6:30 p.m. institution should change as much as the options have. But the New School says we need to Paris Hilton-ify our news every chance we get. Whether Moonves slides to the left on that scale, or even if he's in the middle, the Rathers see little to no need for the side of celebrity with their meat and potatoes.

These are legitimate criticisms by Rather, and while Moonves wasn't inaccurate in the words he used to react, that there was a reaction at all was probably the wrong move. And after he spoke, the company directive was to refer media inquiries to the network's EP of the "The CBS Evening News," who just poured more gas on the fire, making the network look no less cheap than Rather, who, by the way, wasn't looking for a microphone; he just happened to make his honest remarks during the course of an interview with MSNBC's Joe Scarborough.