"Free Republic to Protest Rather “Fair and Balanced” Award"
By Bob Johnson
Posted on 11/04/2003 7:32:43 PM PST by Bob J
"Free Republic to Protest Rather “Fair and Balanced” Award"
By Bob Johnson
This Monday the Museum of Television and Radio will be honoring Dan Rather at the Beverly Hills Hotel for his life long commitment to fair and balanced news reporting.
That’s right.
To anyone familiar with the CBS Evening News, this might come as a surprise. For decades, anyone to the right of John Kennedy is firmly aware of Rather’s outright bias and left wing manipulation of the news. The suggestion is at best, comical.
Of course, the Museum of Television and Film can honor anyone they want for whatever reason, it’s a free country. But don’t insult our sensibility by proclaiming Dan Rather fair and balanced.
Rather, an ardent abortion supporter, devoutly uses the terms “abortion rights” and “a woman’s right to choose” to portray the issue and refers to those protecting life as “anti-abortion” or “anti-woman’s rights.” He refuses to use the term “partial birth,” instead preferring the newspeak of those fond of this procedure, “late term.” He never missed an opportunity to declare it “rarely used”, that is until it’s frequent use was publicly admitted by supporters in 1997.
Another liberal cause held dear by Rather is affirmative action. When California voters eliminated portions of it with Prop 209, Rather described it as “…the big setback for affirmative action. The high court today upheld California's ban on programs designed to fight discrimination against women and minorities...” and called it a “counterattack against affirmative action.” Without shame he compared the passage of 209 with chemical experimentation on humans with this quip. “Earlier tonight, we reported the President's apology for medical experiments that allowed black Americans to die of syphilis. The President noted how badly this hurt public trust in government, especially among minorities. The same criticism is being made today on another score. As CBS News correspondent John Blackstone reports, it's the fallout from California's voter-approved ban on state affirmative action programs.”
Rather’s assault on legislation aimed at ending what many believe to be a racial spoils system did not begin or end with Prop 209. He summarizes the 1995 Supreme Court ruling ending racial gerrymandering of voting districts as “…a ruling that will make it harder for African-Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities to win elective office and a share of political power.” Bill Clinton’s difficulties inserting militant left winger Bill Lan Lee to the nation’s top civil right’s enforcement post did not escape his attention. Rather attempted to smear Lee’s detractors as bigots stating “Lee's opponents cite his support for affirmative action, designed to fight discrimination against women and minorities.”
Socialists, democrats and Dan Rather have never met a tax they didn’t love and any attempt to reduce the power of the state is treated as heresy. Rather has been a good soldier in this battle, stoking the flames of class envy and chipping away at efforts to put a few bucks back into the pockets of taxpayers. Rather does not report on tax reduction proposals without sticking the phrase “give away for the wealthy” to them like a piece of Juicy Fruit to the bottom of our shoes. Reduce tax rates? Give away for the wealthy. Increase the child tax credit? Give away for the wealthy.
Ronald Reagan’s tax cut helped lift this country out of the mire of recession and rocketing interest rates, but is described by Rather thusly, “In America in the 1980s, what former President Reagan and those who support him call the Reagan Revolution put more money in the pockets of the rich. We already knew that. But a new study indicates that those who did best of all by far were the very richest of the rich.”
The word “richest” alone must have lost its punch.
When Democrats reside in the White House, recessions are a sign of prosperity right around the corner while Republican economic recoveries are quagmires spiced with conservative policy condemnations.
In not so subtle attempts to undermine public support for programs and legislation with which he personally disagrees, Rather routinely inserts derogatory comments from unnamed sources and “critics” of Republican efforts while spiking substantive facts from experts and even legislative sponsors themselves. Here’s Rather on Bush’s tax cut plan;
“On Capitol Hill, the Republican-controlled House voted mostly along party lines tonight to pass President Bush's federal budget blueprint. This includes his big tax-cut plan, partly bankrolled, critics say, through cuts in many federal aid programs for children and education."
But Rather doesn’t stop at including Democrat comments and ignoring those from Republicans. In this 1997 broadcast Rather clearly inserts personal opinions into a summary of comments supporting a balanced budget.
“On Capitol Hill, the Senate voted overwhelming approval today for the big balanced budget blueprint. Supporters of the plan say it would balance the budget in five years, provide $85 billion in tax breaks mostly for families with children, cut the capital gains tax which would help immediately the wealthy, and save $321 billion out of Medicare, defense and other spending.”
Yes Dan, I’m certain supporters of balanced budget efforts would include the phrase “which would help immediately the wealthy” into their talking points.
We could go on and on but you get the picture. From campaign finance to global warming to gun control to health care, Rather never misses a opportunity to provide support and cover for left wing ideas and Democrat positions while bashing conservative ideas and proposals.
On Monday, members of the Los Angeles Chapter of Free Republic will be there to meet the Museum’s coterie of fans, supporters and Dan. I think I’ll stroll down to the Beverly Hills Hotel and let them know what I think of their 2003 Award recipient. Hey, it’s a free country.
The author would like to thank the website www.ratherbiased.com for information included in this column.
© 2003 Bob Johnson. The author can be reached at BobJ@freeper.org.
Don't be so sure about that. Look at what happened with CBS and their Reagan hit piece.
These useful idiots were born that stupid because there is not enough weed in the world to get THAT stoned.
*Barf Alert* ping!
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.