This NY Times article reports that CBS executives are smiling these days, and Dan Rather’s recent resignation as CBS anchorman does not really have much to do with it.
This is further confirmation that the mainstream television networks are really just entertainment venues, and that their news divisions have turned into just another entertainment show that they feel compelled to run for public relations purposes. Thus, so long as the news divisions are marginally profitable or do not lose much money, the networks don’t really care much about the quality of the product.
My sense is that this is not the way that Edward R. Murrow thought that television network news was going to develop.
Meanwhile, this editorial provides The Economist’s view of Mr. Rather’s resignation, including the following observation:

Mr Rather’s retirement epitomises two broader shifts of power. First, the old media are losing power to the new. And, second, the liberal media establishment is losing power to a more diverse cacophony of new voices.