Dan Rather has made quite a mess for himself lately, what with his recent comments about the degeneration of CBS' primetime network news broadcast, the awkward potshots directed at Les Moonves, and the highly controversial remarks that may or may not have been targeted at third-place news anchor, Katie Couric.

Fortunately, despite taking on the network bigshots, Rather still has his supporters. Like, for instance, former CBS News reporter Terry Smith, who appeared on CNN's Reliable Source this Sunday to defend Rather's use of the phrase "tarting it up."

From the Reliable Source rush transcript:

[HOST, HOWARD KURTZ: Terry Smith, you were at CBS News for 13 years while Rather was the anchor. He's been talking about the celebrification of news and the dumbing down of news for a couple of decades. But to do it now, was there a kind of an aroma of sour grapes?

TERENCE SMITH, FMR. PBS MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think Dan may be guilty of a lack of originality, but not sexism, as Les Moonves suggested in another of his comments, because six years ago, in an interview I did with him on "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," Rather used the exact same phrase about "tarting up" and "dumbing down".

His reference then was to the pressure he was under at the time from CBS management to lighten up his broadcast and theoretically appeal to a younger audience. So not very original of Dan, but not sexist either.

In other words, Rather may be many things (boring, monotonous, and slightly insane come to mind) but "rampant lady-hater" just isn't one of them.

Besides, it's not like this is the first time Rather got rather wacky/inventive with his phrasing. Does no one else remember the 2000 presidential election? "This race is shakier than cafeteria Jell-O," or "this race is tight like a too-small bathing suit on a too-long ride home from the beach?" Anyone?

So it looks like the mystery may be solved, at least for now. Rather's not a sexist, just someone who felt like pissing off Les Moonves and Rick Kaplan with a couple of off-the-cuff jabs. But there's still one thing we're not totally sure about.

What is the frequency, Kenneth?