[RonDog]

Well, he still has me and Doctor ZIn confused, and I think that he may have garbled what I said about Dennis Prager when he called Dennis for his response to what I said, but the REST of this article is fairly accurate.

As they say, ANY publicity os GOOD publicity, if they spell your name right.

And he did:

I learned there were 10 of them and they were connected by a conservative Internet news site called Free Republic.

Thank you, Alex Ben Block!

[RonDog]

See also from Cinnamon Girl's "after action" thread:

DOWN AND OUT (AND FREEPED) IN BEVERLY HILLS
[LA Chapter FReeps Dan Rather!]
Cinnamon Girl
Posted on 11/10/2003 8:26 PM PST by Cinnamon Girl

What have you got when a bunch of right wing extremists are standing on a corner in North Beverly Hills, in front of the Beverly Hills Hotel, wearing crazy costumes and holding signs while a nearly endless stream of RICH, OLD, WHITE GUYS IN SUV's and luxury sedans pull up the driveway? Why it must be a GOP FUNDRAISER, RIGHT?!?!!?? After all, if it was a gathering of progressive, environmentally concerned, liberal people of conscience celebrating the achievements of DAN RATHER, they'd all be driving hybrid vehicles or riding their ten speed bikes up the driveway, RIGHT?

Welcome to the land of celebrity activists, and DNC activists-- otherwise known as journalists. Tonight was the big night for Dan Rather, who is being honored for his "steadfast commitment to fair and accurate news reporting" by the Museum of Television and Radio. How apropos that Dan's big night is taking place on SUNSET BOULEVARD.

Freepers RonDog, DoughtyOne, diotima, DavidDennis, absalom1, DoctorZin and Outraged were there with some fabulous signs: "CBiaS", "Losing Share? Try the Truth," and RonDog was dressed as Sadam being pitched "softballs." I was dressed as Blind Justice holding a scale with one side reading "left" and the other reading "far left." Hopefully, DavidDennis will be putting up the pictures soon, and he also took video.

We were standing right at the foot of the driveway, on the intersection of Beverly, Crescent and Sunset so we got a lot of traffic, and the attendees not only drove by us, but sometimes the cars on the driveway got backed up and they were forced to be at a standstill next to our signs. One lady started waving her hand at us as if to say, "oh stop it, just go away."

-- snip --

From left to right: daviddennis (with videocamera), Outraged, diotima and Bob J (seated),
Cinnamon Girl (and her young daughter), Doctor ZIn, absalom01 (in the back),
RonDog (as Saddam, holding a "softball" from Dan Rather)
(Photograph courtesy of DoughtyOne)

CLICK HERE for the rest of that thread

[Mr. Mojo]

"Part of being a journalist," he [Rather] said, "and trying to be a journalist who pulls no punches and plays no favorites...",

Dan, cut the crap.

[Prodigal Son]

Thanks for the publicity Mr Respected Writer Dude.

[Travis McGee]

Somebody has to post those disgusting pics of Rather hugging Castro, and double-hand-shaking Saddam with those orgasmically blissful expressions on his face.

[NYCVirago]

What a sanctimonious suckup this "reporter" is. Could his nose be any further up Dan Rather?

[Mr. Mojo]

"CBS Evening News" may be in third place

Third place, but there are only three teams in the division.

[RonDog]

"Television has its uses," Mr. Metz Smith added. "Me personally, I'm like an alcoholic. If I get started, I'll watch it all the time, and it's just a bad thing for me. Especially TV news. It's too emotional."

He then told me you can't believe anything you hear on the network news in any case. He said he learned that on talk radio, from Dennis Prager: "If you have to stop one thing in your life, he says, stop television news."

The next morning, I called Mr. Prager and reached him at an airport in the Midwest, where he was on a book tour. "It's good you checked with me," he said, "because I have never said, 'Everything you hear on the news is a lie.'"

Mr. Prager told me he does believe CBS, NBC and ABC all have a liberal slant and that he had criticized Mr. Rather for his interview with Saddam Hussein: "I thought he prostituted himself by asking serious questions of a tyrant."

"If [Mr. Metz Smith] had said, 'Dennis Prager says it's a waste of time to watch the evening news,'" said Mr. Prager, "he would be right."

Sorry, Dennis.

In the heat of the moment, I may have mischaracterized your position on television news somewhat, but I am fairly confident that I never said that YOU said:

'Everything you hear on the news is a lie.'

Not sure where THAT came from, unless it was a PARAPHRASE of what Alex Ben Block thought that I said about you.

I intended to say what YOU said:

'Dennis Prager says it's a waste of time to watch the evening news.'

I guess that I will have to work on my CLARITY! :o)

[PeaceBeWithYou]

What's the frequency Kenneth?

Someone had to say it.

[KellyAdmirer]

The writer carefully, very carefully, never even attempts to examine whether Rather actually IS biased.

Just why are people so upset with Rather, Oh Wise Writer? Because he doesn't know his frequencies, Kenneth? And, bottom line, what exactly DOES not having watched tv for years have to do with anything? Rather also does radio shows and other formats and his remarks are widely transcribed so as to be, well, laughed at. And maybe guys like this WOULD watch tv if it weren't a liberal wasteland caused by biased hacks like Rather.

The author just relays Rather's little self-promotions ("I'm just taking the heat" - yeah, right, Mr. Overpaid Saddam/Castro Lover) as part of his little hero-worshipping schtick. Some reporter!

Nice you Freeper folks got mentioned, but otherwise this tripe could have been written by the CBS PR department.

[RonDog]

Stunned by that revelation, I soon learned the Free Republicans were abuzz about the event and my interest. In addition to some e-mail, I got a call from Matthew Sheffield, 25, an unemployed student in Virginia. He and his brother Greg, 22, operate the Web site Rather Biased, which began around the time of the Clinton impeachment. They focused on Mr. Rather, said Mr. Sheffield, who they felt "carried his [opinions] over into his reporting."

Mr. Sheffield told me he considered Fox News Channel biased as well, but to the right. "We're equal-opportunity," he explained.

I asked if he ever tried to contact Mr. Rather. Mr. Sheffield said no, although he did talk to someone at CBS once. "I really haven't thought of that," he added. "I would interview Dan Rather [for the Web site] any day of the week if he would have an honest dialogue about bias. He hates talking about it. If he had a real honest dialogue, we'd probably go away. That's all we want. We all want our voices to be heard."

Thank you www.ratherbiased.com for being the INSPIRATION for our FReep!

[L.N. Smithee]

I was left saddened that Mr. Rather and CBS News might be hurt and the public might be misled by these silly, noisy, publicity-hungry protesters, some of whom don't even watch TV. What a contrast with a dedicated, hard-working journalist like Mr. Rather, who has spent his life serving the public and his profession.

Well. Mr. Block isn't biased, is he?

He began the evening with sweaty palms for Rather, and worked really hard to poke holes in the protestors without once addressing the legitimacy of the charges. Did Mr. Block even visit RatherBiased.com? He doesn't say -- he just suggests that people who aren't TV news junkies should not be taken seriously, somehow forgetting that the crew at RatherBiased.com watch Rather constantly -- like a hawk.

Congratulations, Mr. Block. You are more honest than most journalists who seek to obscure the existence of Free Republic. But speaking personally, for what it's worth, you have joined Rather on MY list.

[RonDog]

I was left saddened that Mr. Rather and CBS News might be hurt and the public might be misled by these silly, noisy, publicity-hungry protesters, some of whom don't even watch TV.

What a contrast with a dedicated, hard-working journalist like Mr. Rather, who has spent his life serving the public and his profession.

O.K., THIS PART really chaps my hide. :o)

[kcvl]

Wednesday, 26 May 1999

RANTING & RAVING

IN OTHER LAWSUIT NEWS: Alex Ben Block, who left the editorship of The Hollywood Reporter to go be top flack (is that term offensive to our Ethnic Publicistian friends?) at Morgan Creek Productions, is now suing after being summarily fired by notorious rage-monger (and Morgan Creek topper) Jim Robinson. The rumor is that Ben Block was fired for tardiness. After just a few weeks work (That part is a fact.) Two lessons here. One, if Ben Block left The Reporter for a $250,000 a year job, the pay in this business isn't that good. Second, never leave a boss as mellow and self-contained as Bob Dowling. Sure, you have to smooch a lot of butt over a career there, but Bob would never fire anyone for being late. In fact, as far as I recall, the only way to get fired at The Reporter is to put Bob directly into harms way and then, you only get suspended until you curse him to his face. Good job.

http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:ZpH_vxGyHR4J:www.thehotbutton.com/today/hot.button/1999_thb/990526_wed.html+Alex+Ben+Block&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

[Mo1]

Well Mr. Block, I have watched Dan Rather .. not because I like giving myself a headache .. but because I like to get both sides of the story and form my own opinion

I've watched him on his evening show as well as other stations where Mr. Rather has done interviews

I can honestly say Dan is an idiot who wouldn't know the truth if it smacked him upside his tiny head

Oh and Mr. Block .. you may one to get a Kleenex to clean up your drooling over Dan Rather

[jagrmeister]

Dan Rather will have to live with being a purveyor of lies and being tone deaf to common sense suggestions to correct his biased journalism. I think in your twilight years you would want to remember your contribution to society as being more than having lied to the American public for most of your adult life.

[RonDog]

Mr. Rather, who turned 72 on Halloween, has taken the heat throughout his world-class career. "CBS Evening News" may be in third place but his standards remain first rank.

O.K., THIS PART kinda frosts me, too. :o)

That he is among the best but not the most-watched reminded me of his remarks before the Press Club:

"We take some slight encouragement from the evidence, faint as it may be, that there may be some good fight to be fought against the growing proliferation of soft news, news you can use, celebrity news … and all the other market-tested filler that is increasingly crowding out a shrinking news hole."

But, Alex has performed a VALUABLE public service HERE, and this may countenance a MULTITUDE of sins. :o)

He has documented Dan Rather's own personal view of his position in the world of journalism. :o)

It looks like we now have a new promo for CBS News:

Dan Rather: the "shrinking news hole."

[Drango]

I asked if he ever tried to contact Mr. Rather.

This question left me puzzled. Does Alex Ben Block believe for a second, that Rather cares what conservaties think about him. They are indeed tone deaf to the criticism.

And for the record, I've tried to contact the elites at CBS/ABC/NBC/PBS countless times only to be ignored. No thanks Alex, your charge rings false...

[Tall_Texan]

"We take some slight encouragement from the evidence, faint as it may be, that there may be some good fight to be fought against the growing proliferation of soft news, news you can use, celebrity news … and all the other market-tested filler that is increasingly crowding out a shrinking news hole."

First of all, Dan, the news hole is not shrinking, it's expanding. Anyone who wishes to find it can get endless information through the internet, free from the time pressure of television news to get the story summed up in 45 seconds, and free from the inefficinet ink-stained infobits of your local newspaper.

Not even television news is shrinking. My cable system has eight 24-hour all-news channels offering everything from "Headline News" to local news to news from an international perspective. You can get your news filtered through the left's biases or the right's, Dan. It's a cornucopia of news - to the point of distraction. And I haven't even touched the four major networks or public broadcasting.

As for the fascination with celebrities, "happy talk" and consumer news, it's a sign of the dumbing down of education but which side (left or right) is busy teaching our kids how to put on a condom rather than engage in logical or critical thinking, Dan? That's right - the union-dominated left which indoctrinates then passes on their best to a college or university for more leftist dumbing down. Can't have it both ways, Dan. You can't have the stupid America you want voting for your liberal friends and also have them hunger for hard news that they are barely capable of understanding or contextualizing.

So, by pushing a leftward agenda, Danny Boy, you're succeeding in making your own chosen profession extinct. And in the classical sense of irony upon ironies, you pull down millions in salary for delivering last-place newscasts while getting awards from Hollywood and kudos from your adoring lackeys like Mr. Ben Block.

For someone who doesn't even have the sense to believe that Clinton lied under oath, you've done quite well for yourself, Daniel. Your handlers must be quite proud.

[henbane]

"I was left saddened that Mr. Rather and CBS News might be hurt. . . ."

Alex Ben Block should be even more deeply saddened by the slimey trail of leftist bias that has disfigured the face of TV journalism over the decades of Rather's tenure.

This simpering piece of "reportage" by Block is an embarassing example of pure self-serving toadyism.

From the evidence of this article and some of his bio material, this Block guy seems to have a Ph.D in butt-smooching.

STOOGE OF THE WEEK

[RonDog]

See also THIS wonderful commentary from Dennis Prager, at www.townhall.com, which originally inspired my "Softballs for Saddam" parody:

Dennis Prager (archive)
(printer-friendly version)

March 4, 2003

Dan and Saddam

CBS News constantly referred to Dan Rather's interview with one of the world's cruelest tyrants as a "coup."

A coup? For whom? Was it a coup for the American viewing public? Of course not. Other than the lengths to which Dan Rather went to be obsequious to a tyrant, Americans learned nothing from his interview with Saddam Hussein. Was it a coup for the news profession? Again, no. No news was learned, nor was any likely to be.

No, it was a coup solely for CBS News and Saddam Hussein. That the world of television news (not only CBS) regards it as a major achievement shows the depths to which television news has sunk. Obviously, the industry sees ratings as its reason for being.

The moment it was announced that Dan Rather had secured an audience with Saddam, I suspected (and said so on my radio show) that the only beneficiaries would be Saddam and CBS. The only way it could have been newsworthy is if Rather had asked hard questions.

For example, Rather might have asked the world's most powerful sadist:

• You claim to have received 100 percent of the vote in your last "election." Do you think the world believes that in a nation of 24 million people, there aren't 24 people who want another president in Iraq?
  
  
• Eight years ago, your two sons-in-law, Hussein Kamil, the former minister of defense, and his brother, defected to Jordan. We are quite certain that they were told that their entire extended families would be murdered if they did not return to Iraq. And when they did return, they were killed and their bodies dragged through the streets of Baghdad. How do your daughters feel about what you did to their husbands?
  
  
• Was it you or another Iraqi official who came up with the idea of having the children of suspected dissidents tortured in front of the parents?

• Have you seen any photos of the thousands of Iraqi Kurdish families you ordered gassed?

• Do you regret having invaded Iran and causing the deaths of about one million Iraqis and Iranians?

• How many more hundred-million-dollar palaces do you plan to build for yourself while Iraqi children die of malnutrition?

• Where are the billions of dollars Iraq has been allowed to earn for humanitarian needs?

Now, of course, few, if any, reporters would have asked Saddam Hussein these questions. (Television reporters tend to restrict tough questioning to democratically elected leaders they don't like.) But if one is not going to ask a dictator anything approaching the truth about his actions, why bother interviewing him? Isn't the whole thing morally compromised and journalistically meaningless?

CLICK HERE for the rest of that article