Dan Rather was in tears Monday night describing the culture of fear in the newsrooms now.
Further proof that the corporate world rules and the big boys (Dick, Baker III, Bush) hold the cards. Money rules all.
But at least some are starting to speak truth to power. We need to continue to encourage those with courage and a voice to use it. Chastize when they could do better and praise when they done good.
Tighten the ownership rules and get shareholder value out of the equation for news — the news is a public trust that should not be beholden to the whimsy of the market. And, hello, the public lets the networks use the airwaves, it’s not their right to.
Finally, for Isis’ sake can we please, please, get a liberal counteraction to the RWCM propaganda machine already?? Hello, Soros, Gore, Spielberg…
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Addressing the Fordham University School of Law in Manhattan, occasionally forcing back tears, he said that in the intervening years, politicians “of every persuasion” had gotten better at applying pressure on the conglomerates that own the broadcast networks. He called it a “new journalism order.”
He said this pressure — along with the “dumbed-down, tarted-up” coverage, the advent of 24-hour cable competition and the chase for ratings and demographics — has taken its toll on the news business. “All of this creates a bigger atmosphere of fear in newsrooms,” Rather said.
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Nevin asked Rather if he felt the same type of repressive forces in the Nixon administration as in the current Bush administration.
“No, I do not,” Rather said. That’s not to say there weren’t forces trying to remove him from the White House beat while reporting on Watergate; but Rather said he felt supported by everyone above him, from Washington bureau chief Bill Small to then-news president Dick Salant and CBS chief William S. Paley.
“There was a connection between the leadership and the led . . . a sense of, ‘we’re in this together,”‘ Rather said. It’s not that the then-leadership of CBS wasn’t interested in shareholder value and profits, Rather said, but they also saw news as a public service. Rather said he knew very little of the intense pressure to remove him in the early 1970s because of his bosses’ support.
Nevins took up the cause for Rather, who was emotional several times during the event.
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Rather praised the coverage of Hurricane Katrina by the new generation of TV journalists…
It’s been one of television news’ finest moments,” Rather said of the Katrina coverage. He likened it to the coverage of President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963.
“They were willing to speak truth to power,” Rather said of the coverage.
So true. So true. If only he had not backed down during TANG. That was also an opportunity to speak truth to power… but I suppose no one is perfect eh.
