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Wow, people say stupid things sometimes, but sometimes someone makes a statement so inane you have to wonder if it was an ill-fated attempt at ironic humor.

Dan Rather, yeah, the disgraced former anchor who broadcast some pretty terrible things about Bush without a source, had this to say about online journalism…yeah the same people that busted him for his unsourced attacks:

“…you can put something on the internet that’s really terrible about your neighbor or about a friend or a competitor and it’s almost impossible to find out who the source is. And you can say anything about them. That part of it troubles me.”

I don’t suppose that would be at all similiar to an anchor who can put something on TV that’s really terrible about their president and it turns out to be impossible for him to come up with a credible source for it. In fact, it took online journalism to find out that the source is someone just made it up and Rather didn’t bother to source it.

In other words, people in their pajamas working out of their basement is more ethical and trustworthy than a long time highly paid journalist with a professional staff and a certificate on the wall from a fancy journalism school.  THAT is the part that should probably be troubling Rather, or rather that should have been the lesson he pulled from his experience.

Congrats Rather, this is such a boneheaded statement that I’ve decided to resurrect a gimmick award I had long ago discontinued as being too goofy, even for this goofy gimmicky blog.   But now it just cries out to be awarded and I can think of a title no more benefiting you.  I hereby grant you the Red Foreman Dumbass Award.

You’ve certainly earned it because to be quite honest I can’t really think of an appropriate response to your statement other than “Wow, what a dumbass”.  Keep it up and you may very well replace Red’s face on the award.

Congrats bear it with all the honor it’s worth.

RUNNER-UP : Would be this Obamateurism….in which Obama claims that he gives better gifts than he gets.  This would be the same Obama who gave a collection of DVDs to visually impaired Gordon Brown, while Gordon Brown gave him a pen holder carved from the oak timbers of the HMS Gannet, the sister ship of the HMS Resolute, from which Obama’s desk is carved.