Dan Rather is among the most famous news professionals of this lifetime. Maybe ever.
The most famous could be Walter Cronkite. Or maybe Woodward and Bernstein, or even their famed Washington Post editor, Ben Bradlee, during the Watergate scandal.
But Rather's name is not far from the top, no matter who you may rank ahead of him.
He's 88. In his decades-long career, he covered some of the biggest moments in history. But for the first time in quite a while, Rather was trending on Twitter on Monday. And in this time, he had to reassure his followers that he had not contracted COVID-19 or worse.
Rather posted this on Twitter to his more than a million followers: "For all of you who woke up worried to see my name trending, thank you for your concern. I'm still here with all of you fighting for the decency and justice of our democracy in a spirit of #WhatUnitesUs. Steady!"
He believes that the way Donald Trump has portrayed the media - blaming the "messenger" in short, and the way those attacks have affected our society - are the biggest threat to journalism we have ever faced.
"There's no comparison to be made. We, as a country, as a people or society, have never been through anything like this," he told The Independent. "And the press has not been through anything like this."
That's too easy, in my opinion.
Trump is an easy donkey on which to pin the tail, or tale, of hardships our country is facing. Yes, he puts himself in that spot - often on purpose - because that's who he is. He relishes the spotlight, the attention, the battle.
But Rather gives the president too much power.
We, as journalists, chasing clicks and viewers, have to share some blame for the state of the state.
If it's deciding to tell the stories people want to read rather than the stories people need to read, well, that started with us. If it was cable news operations loving the ratings of the faux news coverage of Jon Stewart and Comedy Central and overhauling their coverage to be entertainment more than information, that's on us, too. And the media struggled with how to deal with the internet and the massive disruption it caused in advertising.
In fact, those transformations were occurring about the time Trump was a celebrity TV host rather than a celebrity candidate.
People in power - especially those elected by the people – have become adept at closing off access to journalists (except when it suits them or they have an ax to grind). That's more damaging than being called "fake news." Letting powerful people get away with it, well, that's on us.
Trump's style of blaming the media and his followers' embrace of his words have seemingly made every story suspect. That undercuts the profession and those journalists who work every day to practice their craft properly.
A lot of the national media organizations have made the most of the Trump era, so exploiting Trump's notoriety and polarizing popularity is understandable, especially in a time of extreme financial uncertainty most media groups face.
But then to blame Trump for journalism's woes is at best an overstatement.
At worst, it comes across as the "fake news" accusations that so lather Rather.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com.
Jay Greeson