No doubt Cuban, with Rather at his side and the technological wind firmly at his back, is on his way to incurring a new set of enemies. The broadcast Establishment may be a shadow of its former self, but that doesn’t mean it still isn’t capable of wielding some long knives. Already, Cuban is being called an arriviste, a know-nothing, a dilettante; a guy whose dreams of reforming the news are bound to end in humiliation, if not financial ruin. (As Cuban notes, “Whatever happens, it’s not like I’m going to starve.”)

But then, of course, those very same things were once said about Ted Turner.

E-mail: jheilemann@gmail.com.

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