Reply #26: Corporate "marching orders"--yup! You know what they said to Dan Rather?

[Peace Patriot]

It's in his lawsuit against CBS. Rather was onto the story of Bush Jr.'s AWOL during Vietnam--in the months before the 2004 election. Someone spiked his documentation with one re-typed document (of many), the contents of which were true, and verified by the original secretary for the Texas Nat'l Guard, but the re-typing raised questions. Freeperville exploded with uncanny swiftness about how the whole story was fake, because this one document was re-typed (and went into all that crap about the vintage of IBM typewriters--all ultimately irrelevant, when the secretary verified the content of the paper, and evidence of that particular IBM typewriter during that era emerged). In sum it was a TRUE story. Bush had skipped out on his TNG service (champagne service, at that) during wartime. So Rather wanted a panel to examine the evidence and this spiking of one document, to find out who did it/how it happened (suspicion: Rove), and to help verify the story, which he strongly believed in. CBS stacked the panel with extremist rightwingers; Rather objected; they fired Rather. In the discussions between Rather and CBS execs about all this, they told him, quote, "It's in our interest for Bush-Cheney to be re-elected," unquote.

Marching orders. You help Bush get re-elected, because it is "in our interest." This is a classic example of what Reagan's killing of the Fairness Doctrine hath wrought: corporate executives dictating their political agenda to reporters.

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Do check out Dan Rather's superb news documentaries, since his firing by CBS, at www.HD.net. His "The Trouble With Touchscreens," about corporate control of our voting system, is especially great.