Dan Rather's speech to the 2005 Investigative Reporters and Editors conference in Denver is pretty inspiring, especially coming off the year he's had - and the career he's had. It's a very personal speech, and Rather choked up a few time during it's delivery (courage, Dan), but it also provides an amazing context for some of our favorite debates about journalism, especially framed against the tumultuous events of recent weeks. Here are some highlights -- from a guy who's got one hell of a perspective:

It is my honor to be here today. And may I gently and humbly suggest that you might also feel honored to be here, too -- honored to be a journalist in a country where the role and the rights of the press are enshrined our very Constitution. Furthermore, we might all relish a sense of, if not honor, then privilege -- to be able to make a living doing what we so passionately aspire to do, which is to report the news without fear or favor as a public service to our fellow Americans.

I also stand before you with scars and some still-open wounds -- many of them self-inflicted -- from a professional lifetime of being on the line and in the journalistic trenches. I have had successes, but I have also had my failures and made my mistakes -- have I ever. Being in the business for half a century means you can never be absolutely certain that you don't hold the current record for blown chances and bungled opportunities. And, without question, I have never fully lived up to what I longed and still long to be as a reporter.

Do we still believe the dictum that 'news' is what somebody, somewhere wants to suppress...and all the rest is just advertising? And do we understand that, by rough count, nine out of ten stories coming out of Washington, no matter who is in the White House, no matter which party controls Congress, are advertising -- the products of officials and their imagemakers?

More fiery rhetoric after the jump, but seriously, it's a pretty gripping read, especially his account of his first big investigative story. Check it out on Romenesko here, watch it online (on an NBC affiliate, how ironic) here. Props to TV Newser for bringing it to our attention.

"And, speaking of Watergate, do we understand, now that Deep Throat has revealed himself -- not as some mythical creation but as a flesh and blood insider who had a story to tell -- just how valuable the unnamed source is to our craft? Do we understand the need to protect, by legislation if necessary, our prerogative to make use of the unnamed source without fearing censure or imprisonment?"

"Do we believe that too many of us have become, at best, too fearful, hesitant and reluctant...and, at worst, frankly, spineless and gutless?

Do we understand that a war rages daily in American journalism between sensationalism and seriousness...and that sensationalism is winning...that sensation and shouting are prized over explanation and investigation?

Do we understand that every inch we yield on this battlefield makes the serious ground doubly hard to regain -- because serious reporting can only be appreciated by an audience that has been educated to hold and value serious concerns?

Finally, do we understand that we -- and by implication, what we do --are, as I said at the outset, enshrined in the Constitution, no less than any station of government...that our craft and calling is no less essential than any branch of government...that we are an intended and integral part of the system of checks and balances...that we are one more way the American people gain representation in the corridors of power, and that if we do not do everything we can to get to the truth -- for the people -- then we are complicit in burying it?"

I think people will be referring to this speech a lot in the months to come. If not, then I hope they are at least echoing it.