For all the bad things Dan Rather did during his career at CBS, I'll personally miss the guy. After all, few people who follow him will be as easy to kick around as "Gunga Dan" was during his time at the Tiffany Network.

My favorite Dan Rather story dates back to Sept. 9, 2004, when I was working at Cybercast News Service. After arriving at work mid-morning from a doctor's appointment that day, I was greeted by the news that the alleged National Guard documents aired the night before on "60 Minutes" might be fake. With word spreading quickly on blogs, I quickly assembled a list of typographers to interview, shared with them the alleged Bush documents (which CBS graciously provided on its website), and drafted my story, "'60 Minutes' Documents on Bush Might Be Fake."

Within minutes of its appearance online, the Drudge Report had linked to my story, shedding light not only on Dan Rather, who reported the story for CBS, but also on me. From that moment forward, we'll always be linked.

What followed in the days to come was an exciting period in my life, never knowing who was going to call (I didn't know there were so many conspiracy theorists in this world) or what I'd be asked to do (I was on Fox News twice and spoke about the whole episode to a group of college journalists). It was remarkable to play such a role in the story, and the experience taught me plenty about reporting in the age of new media, when timing can mean everything.

Meanwhile, as I continued to pursue the story over the next few days, Dan Rather took swipes at me and others who challenged his reporting. Eventually, of course, he was forced to leave his job as anchor of the "CBS Evening News." My friends like to joke that "You brought down Dan Rather." That's not true. Dan Rather brought down Dan Rather.

And now, on this day when he leaves the network where he spent so many years basking in biased reporting, I have for you a menagerie of farewell clippings from the Media Research Center (parent to Cybercast News Service).

The face of the CBS Evening News for decades and the poster boy of liberal media bias, Dan Rather, is parting ways with the “Tiffany Network.” Mr. Rather’s long history of liberal bias is documented in the MRC’s Profiles in Bias section and in a February 2005 Notable Quotable: Dan Rather’s Legacy of Liberal Media Bias, which includes both audio and video clips of some of Rather's worst bias.

Also: Dan Rather's Downfall: Forged Documents reviews MRC documentation of the 60 Minutes National Guard story that helped torpedo Rather's smarmy partisan approach to the news.

See & Hear the Bias! Updated June 20, 2006
Media Bias Classic: Rather's 1988 Ambush of VP Bush