DAN RATHER: "American journalism is in need of a spine transplant"

[kpete]

Rather: Journalism needs new spine
Thursday, March 9, 2006

By JIM WALSH
Courier-Post Staff

CHERRY HILL
TV newsman Dan Rather, who stepped down as CBS anchorman in the wake of a discredited report, on Wednesday night said the press "ought to be doing a better job."

"American journalism is in need of a spine transplant," Rather told about 600 people at the Star Forum at Cherry Hill High School West.

The newsman proposed "Rather's rules," saying reporters should "ask more questions, especially the tough ones." He said the media should offer less sensationalism and "more real analysis." It should also pay more attention to international events, he said.

Rather said media improvement was needed for society's well-being.

"American journalism at its best is a public trust and is deeply bound up in our system of checks and balances," he said.

http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?...

[European Socialist]

1. Where were his stories on the stolen elections and WTC#7. He could

still redeem himself.

[Javaman]

2. What we have now is a media that's afraid of confrontation. period. nt

[reichstag911]

3. Sorry...

...no sympathy for Danny Boy here; he's fat (financially) and happy in his retirement. He was one of the progenitors of the "star"-driven news transformation, and the concomitant slashing of staff so that the anchors could get their multimillions. Also, the shoddy work on the TANG memo eliminated it as a credible attack on Bush, despite the inherent validity of the charges.

[spanone]

4. Hey Dan! It's REALITY News! Don't have time for facts!

[Norquist Nemesis]

5. Dan, Dan, Dan. You're just reinforcing the myth

that journalists are all Liberals.

[tularetom]

6. Where was Dan's spine when the pubs attacked his TANG story

not for the story itself but for the way it was revealed. I seem to remember a groveling apology. As far as I'm concerned, good riddance to fake journalist Dan Rather.

[BootinUp]

8. Thats not the way I remember it.

Dan stood his ground while he did more investigation of his source. A big piece of his story was a document that he could not stand behind, so that tended to discredit the rest of the story and CBS was relentlessy hammered by every other News/Media corporation. At some point he had to end it.

[tularetom]

11. You're right I'm wrong about the unprovable document

but I still don't think he needed to end it with a tearful mea culpa on national tv which made it appear as if the entire story lacked credibility. He sure folded awful quickly and basically let them chase out of a job he'd held for 20 some years. That doesn't indicate a lot of spine to me.

[BootinUp]

7. This is a spine meme I can get behind!

Tell em DAN! We have enough enfotainment, give us the real news.

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. Actually, I think some are quite happy to whore themselves.

We need to start painting them as anti-American.

[harpo]

10. I love you Dan!

[JohnyCanuck]

12. The Mass Media Serves the Right Wing Agenda

There is no media
By Mike Hersh, May 1, 2003

What masquerades as a free press is largely the propaganda arm of the right wing of the Republican Party. Few brave souls still present the news in a balanced way. Most of them are "opinion" writers like Paul Krugman, Joe Conason and Molly Ivins.

Few liberals get to speak out on television - where most Americans get their "news." When they do, it's on "roundtable shows" where right wingers shout down their comments. Bill O'Reilly, Joe Scarborough and other rabid right wingers pontificate without any counterbalance.

The Mass Media Serves the Right Wing Agenda

Who can forget the spectacle of a U.S. soldier scaling a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad? Reuters news service's David Morgan quoted Harper's magazine publisher John MacArthur revealing "It was absolutely a photo-op created for (U.S. President George W.) Bush's re-election campaign commercials." And, "CNN, MSNBC and Fox swallowed it whole."

MacArthur, author of "Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War," added, "The concept of a self-governing American republic has been crippled by this propaganda." And, "The whole idea that we can govern ourselves and have an intelligent debate, free of cant, free of disinformation, I think it's dead."

http://www.mikehersh.com/printer_There_is_no_media.shtm...


A hallmark of a banana republic is that the junta controls the press and lies with impunity to the people. In any true democracy, the Bush junta would have been impeached--for high crimes and misdemeanors, but the Republican-owned media have destroyed the safeguard of an American free press...

http://www.hermes-press.com/banana_rep.htm