Deep down, this Dan Rather business is about honor. The reason CBS hasn’t laid the problem to rest is because they’ve failed to satisfy the honor of their critics. The bloggers were dissed by Dan and by CBS. What they really need is a show of remorse for the insult they’ve received. The bloggers told the truth about those bogus documents, yet their carefully marshaled facts and arguments were contemptuously waved aside by Rather. On top of that, the bloggers received the insult of the pajama remark. When something like that happens, you can’t resolve the problem without an apology–even if couched in indirect language. The analogy to the Rather affair at this point is the case of the Dixie Chicks. Willie Nelson supported Dennis Kucinich, but conservative country music fans could care less about that. The Dixie Chicks think people punished them for their politics. But what really upset folks wasn’t that the Chicks were against Bush or the war, it was that the Chicks said they were ashamed to be from the same state as the President–and said this to a foreign audience. That dishonored the President, the country, the state of Texas, and the South. That is why country music fans turned against the Chicks. By the same token, Dan and CBS need to satisfy the honor of their critics, which despite this detailed report, they have patently failed to do. Yesterday on NPR, Daniel Schor excused Rather’s original defense of the bogus memo as a well-intentioned desire to stick by his people. That misses the point. In defending his own team, Rather acted in a dismissive and insulting way to critics who had truth on their side. Despite his loyalty to his own, Rather would never have acted that way if he’d honestly scrutinized the evidence the bloggers offered. But Rather refused to give the critics fair consideration, and he made it clear that he was ignoring the bloggers because they were not worth taking seriously. Now Rather and CBS need to show remorse for their arrogance. It’s because they refuse to do this that they have not laid the matter to rest.