The perfect Dan Rather epitaph

After reading Ken Auletta's Dan Rather article in the March 7 New York, Hugh Hewitt makes a statement about Rather that I think, more than any other thing I've read about him, sums up the man:

Rather emerges in Auletta's piece -- really -- as Ted Baxter. The loutishness of everyone at CBS, but especially of the old, old guard assembled to take a whack at Dan as he went out the door is triply revealing -- of Dan's "stature" within the network; of his colleagues' near uniform pettiness and self-absorption; and of the almost epic irrelevance of the entire television "news" process to public opinion.

When I read the article, I just picked up the image of a posturing buffoon, but I couldn't put a name to it. To compare Rather to the self-satisfied, fatuous newsman of Mary Tyler Moore fame is perfect, just perfect. If only, of course, Rather had been as innocuous as Ted Baxter, rather than being mainstream media's much lauded, and scarily influential, Pooh Bah.