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Posted on 07/28/2003 12:05:24 PM PDT by RatherBiased.com
We post our latest site additions on this page. It's regularly updated as Dan Rather gives his updates. For older update information, see our Previous News section.
CBS Knew of Featured Activist's Background
2003-07-28 14:39:20 ET
In an interview with RatherBiased.com, Mary Hager, a producer with the CBS Evening News who works primarily with Capitol Hill correspondent Joie Chen, said that CBS News knew of activist Viola Quirion's background but claimed that it had informed viewers of it in an earlier report.
"Yes, we knew that. But we had pointed out her background during an earlier piece that we aired earlier this year," Hager said. She did not say how viewers of Friday's Evening News would have remembered an identification from months earlier.
Despite this claim, however, CBS News has never told viewers of Quirion's past and when presented with evidence proving this, Hager backed off, saying that CBS had identified Quirion in a story which was produced but never aired. When presented with other reports in which CBS failed to disclose Quirion's background, Hager claimed she was not familiar with them.
"I didn't do that May 19th piece," Hager said, referring to a piece by CBS correspondent Cynthia Bowers which featured Quirion. "I don't know if I did the other one since I don't produce every one of Joie Chen's reports."
Asked if she or her colleagues had erred in portraying Quirion and several other liberal activists as common citizens, Hager became defensive.
"You're giving me a hard time about something that I try very hard to be careful about," Hager said. She did not respond when asked why CBS has not featured any elderly Americans who oppose federal subsidies for fear of losing their more desirable private pension plans. When RatherBiased.com asked Hager if she would agree with NBC News's statement that not labeling activists is wrong, Hager terminated the connection, citing pressing business.
While Hager would not admit error, in an earlier interview with CNSNews.com, Quirion said the network "probably" should have informed viewers of her political activities, even though no one from CBS ever asked her about them.
"I just got interviewed and answered their questions and that's it," Quirion said. "They didn't ask anything about it and I didn't mention anything."
Rather Ignores Clinton's Support of Bush
2003-07-25 23:07:45 ET
In a July 22 telephone call to CNN's Larry King Live, Clinton lent support to President Bush, saying that he believed the news media were dwelling too much on an overblown story. The former president also urged the media to consider more important topics.
"Mr. Fleischer said that on balance they probably shouldn't have put that comment in the speech," Clinton said. "I would say the most important thing is we should focus on what's the best way to build Iraq as a democracy? How is the president going to do that and deal with continuing problems in Afghanistan and North Korea?
"We should be pulling for America on this. We should be pulling for the people of Iraq," Clinton said. "The thing we ought to be focused on is what is the right thing to do now. That's what I think."
Despite the newsworthiness of Clinton's comments, Dan Rather has decided to ignore them, while his colleagues at NBC, CNN, FNC, and all of the wire services and major papers have covered them. Rather has chosen to disregard Clinton's current statements, but he did not do so back when then-president Clinton was urging the media to move on from discussing his impeachment.
At that time, Rather was very sympathetic to such sentiments. Talking to his colleague Bob Schieffer at the start of the Senate trial, Rather wondered if anyone in Washington was sensing that "there's other very important business that needs to be attended to? Saddam Hussein has his aircraft in the air threatening U.S. fighting men and women in the military. There are questions about Social Security, what to do about health care. There's a long line of the people's business that seems to have been put aside and apparently is going to be put aside for weeks if not months now." (For more quotes of Rather wanting to "move on" from impeachment, see Clinton's Impeachment.)
Not careful enough.
No surprise here. It's not like she's going to admit that she doesn't mind seeing a lot of old people lose their retirements as long as the DNC/CBS continue to give her a paycheck.
And didn't mention it.
Ba$tard$.
That means that every story MUST be presented as it affects PEOPLE. So, to tell the story you need those people. Where do you get them? The networks are in the habit of not telling how they get their story subjects, and for good reason.
The vast majority fit into the category of DNC plants, activists, activists for left-leaning organizations, and reliable sycophants that are not terribly well-known outside their small local circle. None of them are labeled in the stories done about them except by name, age, and hometown.
Let's say that a story involves a tax cut proposal. Since we know that the media is full of pipple whose worldview is that tax cuts are bad, we know that any story they do on the subject will fit that Story Template - tax cuts are bad.
So as to save time and speed the process, the producer calls up someone from their Rolodex - someone at the DNC or some "progressive" group with a deceptively benevolent name. The call goes like this.
"Hi, this is Jane at ABC news. We're doing a story on the tax cut plan and we need a couple of families who would be hurt by it or at least not helped. We need 'em white, attractive - you know what we like. We can have crews in Denver, St. Louis, Atlanta or Dallas in a hour. What can you get me?"
The staffer says he'll be back with them in 5 minutes. The return call comes, and the producer gets names, addresses and phone numbers. While the producer is dispatching the crews, the DNC or organization staffer is telling the interview subjects exactly what to say. Soon, the camera crews arrive and get the footage and quotes that was prearranged while they were on their way to the scene. The tape then gets bird-fed back to the HQ and the reporter does the story.
It's always possible that the actual reporteer doesn't know the full story on the subjects being interviewed, but the producer certainly does. But that part gets left out of the story because to disclose it would demonstrate how tainted and corrupt the process is.
And this happens every single day on almost every story they cover.
Michael
Damn Clinton Broadcasting System!
Un-reality TV.
Pass it on.
Let's not forget the biggest one of all - the woman who started The Million Mom March. She was shown on TV, billed as "an average mom," and video'd working out of her home with very little equipment and resources. All very convincing.
Until it was pointed out that this gal USED to be very high up in one particular news organization which I won't mention - so high up that she was a personal expediter for one TV anchorman on a large Amellican network. She'd had decades of media experience and had connections out the gazzotch. She was so far removed from "an average Amellican mom working out of her kitchen" as to make the description laughable.
But it stuck, because none of the other networks wanted to expose the fiction - because their worldview is ALSO anti-gun.
To this day, almost no one knows that the MMM founder is a big-time PR pro.
Michael
***************************************************************FYI...please respond by Friday to: Karen Conner at EPI (Direct line - 202-331-5542, kconner@epinet.org
Dear Colleagues: CBS Evening News is doing a series, Making Ends Meet, to air this month. They seek to interview individual, single parent, or family who went from welfare to work, and then to being unemployed without any safety net- meaning they lost their job for reasons other than quitting [LB annotation: e.g. family and/or medical leave-related issue?], are not eligible for unemployment insurance, and/or they hit their limit for receiving welfare benefits. Reporter prefers the individual/family NOT be African-American. If you know anyone who might fit the bill - [LB annotation: particularly someone for whom a family or medical leave issue was involved!] - please contact Karen Conner at EPI (Direct line - 202-331-5542, kconner@epinet.org)
* * * DEADLINE - End of this week JULY 25th * * *
The left is not honest. This ,no doubt, is most of their programming.
Liberal TV -- You will watch us. You will listen to us. You will obey us.
No ... it's called lying to the public
The public trust them to report the truth and they abuse this trust
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