Dan Rather Calls for Media Reform to be National Priority

The Aspen Times

Background note/commentary from BFIA editor:  Back in the very dark, dark days of the Bushies, in 2004, the right-wingers pressured CBS to get rid of Dan Rather after he, producer Mary Mapes, and a gaggle of CBS “60 Minutes” reporters got the goods on W's “preferential treatment” in the National Guard and reported it on TV.  While the myth surrounding the story was that the supporting documents were proven fake, they were never proven fake.  Under pressure from the GOP, who did not like the story, CBS stated they were “unable to prove the documents' authenticity” and made it look like Dan Rather did something slimy, like he was a liberal out to get the pResident. 

During
this process, CBS set up an “independent” panel to judge the facts. 
Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter were considered as possible panelists, but they settled for some folks with ties to the Bush family.   Reduced to tears by the GOP, CBS forced Rather to apologize for his alleged shoddy reporting. Rather's famous, mea culpa style, apology was written for him by a CBS executive.   Then, to help CBS save face, Rather stepped down as anchor because CBS said he could still do stories for them, but later, apparently unable to endure continued screaming and yelling from the GOP, CBS reneged on their promise. So there's Dan Rather, reputation ruined and scorned as a liberal, out of work. Hence the lawsuit. 

ASPEN — Former CBS anchorman Dan Rather told an Aspen audience [in July] that journalism has declined to such a point that it is time for the government to intervene.

Appearing at the Greenwald Pavilion as part of the Aspen Institute's McCloskey Speaker Series, Rather said “traditional journalism is under siege” and called for media reform to become an “immediate national priority.”

“A democracy and free people cannot thrive without a fiercely independent press,” he said.

Rather suggested that President Obama establish a commission on public media and independent reporting.

His talk emphasized what he believes is the erosion of quality journalism, because of the corporatization, politicization, and “trivialization” of news. Those three factors, Rather argued, have fueled the “dumbing down and sleezing up of news” and the decline of “great American journalism.”

Likening media consolidation to that of the banking industry, Rather claimed that “roughly 80 percent” of the media is controlled by no more than six, and possibly as few as four, corporations.

The decline of newspaper jobs — at least 10,000 have been eliminated in the last 18 months— demonstrates the need for new media business models to “save the craft of journalism,” Rather said.

“The newspaper business is in a free fall,” he said.

“We have to help the slipping media and aid the new,” he said, in reference to the Internet.

As for the Internet, its potential has hardly been tapped, Rather said, calling it one of the “great innovations.”

Even so, he said he has concerns about online blogging and reporting, chiefly because of the lack of accountability.

Rather called on news outlets to look at themselves as “running a public trust,” “to tell the truth without fear or favor,” and “present news as straight as you possibly can.”

Important news is not getting the coverage it warrants, Rather said, citing the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as two of the most neglected stories by the press.

Rather briefly touched on his fraud lawsuit against CBS.

Last week a New York judge reinstated part of the $70 million suit, which accuses the network of launching a biased investigation into his controversial 60 Minutes report about the military record of former President George W. Bush. The report, which aired in 2004, generated criticism about the authenticity of some documents used by Rather, and led to his termination from CBS.

“This is a lawsuit in which it will be two years in September,” he said. “I am alone and by myself. I knew going into it that it would be a long, hard, expensive fight.  We're coming up on two years. We're still standing, we're still fighting.”

(click here to read the entire article)