Rathgate happened before?

According to the NY Times, Dan Rather is in a familiar place: he's being accused of being partisan. Jim Rutenberg, the author, seems to be rather dismissive of this, calling Rather "the television presence conservatives love to hate."

In fact, he does a pretty good job of substantiating the charges (they relate how Rather has tangled with all of the Republican Presidents and none of the Democratic ones) while still giving Rather the more powerful position in the article.

But whether or not Rather is partisan is not really the issue right now. Sure, partisanship goes to motives (if he is partisan it would help explain why he would not properly vet the documents), but partisanship does not explain if he allowed forged documents on his show.

However, since the evidence demonstrates that the documents used on the show were forged and since this NY Times article inadvertantly shows that Rather has been involved in partisanship in the past, a conclusion can easily be drawn about the entire situation.