Dan Rather's Day of Reckoning: It didn't start with Rathergate. (Highly recommended!)

The Weekly Standard ^ | October 4, 2004 | John Podhoretz

[quidnunc]

-snip-

CBS News airs a report about a Vietnam-era controversy. Almost immediately the report comes under harsh attack, its credibility and essential honesty challenged. There's a huge uproar, complete with calls for a congressional investigation. CBS is compelled to acknowledge certain errors in its handling of the story, though senior officials say pointedly that no one has challenged its basic thrust.

Does this sound familiar? It is, but this is not just a quick-and-dirty recap of the current mess at CBS. For the few CBS News staffers who have been at the network for more than 30 years, the events of the past few weeks must make them feel they're trapped inside Nietzsche's "eternal return." This is the third occasion over the past 32 years in which CBS News has been caught behaving unethically and irresponsibly in the reporting and editing of a hot-button issue involving the United States, the Vietnam war, and the behavior and conduct of senior officials in Washington.

One of those CBS employees with a long memory is Dan Rather, who has been with the network's news division for 42 years. If you want to understand why Rather is being so recalcitrant and finding it so difficult to make a full acknowledgment of his role in perpetrating a colossal journalistic and political fraud — and why he was so adamantly opposed to an internal investigation of his now-infamous story about George W. Bush's National Guard service — you need to understand that Rather saw his network weather two previous and surprisingly similar tempests.

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[Cosmo]

I posted to another thread that I think Rather is being blackmailed to keep up the charade, lest his complicity in this whoe sham is revealed. His nuts are in a vice in my estimation.

[blackbart.223]

"His nuts are in a vice in my estimation."

After forty two years? His ratings are in the crapper and yet CBS hangs on to him. I don't get it but CBS better figure it out.

[Paleo Conservative]

[ForGod'sSake]

Wow! Podhoretz does homework. Stirring the pot here boss ;^)

FGS

[ForGod'sSake]

FGS

[Jenya]

[Dont Mention the War]

After forty two years? His ratings are in the crapper and yet CBS hangs on to him. I don't get it but CBS better figure it out.

Regardless of what the CBS organizational chart says, Dan Rather is the de facto head of CBS News. Only Andrew Heyward could even challenge him, and Heyward's neck-deep in this scandal as well, so he can't make a move.

On top of that, CBS has been the worst network news organization for many years now. They have few resources and no bench strength, so nobody is there that could take over for Dan and have any near-term positive effect on the ratings, or the newsroom morale.

Their only hope is if Viacom would allow a big payout to lure somebody else to jump ship from another TV network. And considering what a cesspool CBS News is in its current form, I doubt anyone at Viacom is interested in spending the funds.

[blackbart.223]

"And considering what a cesspool CBS News is in its current form, I doubt anyone at Viacom is interested in spending the funds."

I guess Viacom is rational enough to avoid a loss of money.

[ultima ratio]

This is John Podhoretz' finest essay--well-researched, irrefutable, full of fire. Magnificent piece of work.

[nathanbedford]

This is a seminal article despositive of the conservative view of liberal media bias and it is destined to become a classic.

[AWestCoaster]

[gpapa]

[Ukiapah Heep]

Did you catch Letterman tonight? "Tonight on the CBS Evening News - 30 Minutes of Horses*&t".

[Mo1]

It stands even today as a monument in the history of American broadcasting, an award-winning subject of veneration in journalism schools--despite the fact that the producer lied to sources when he assembled the documentary and used some astoundingly dishonest editing to change the meaning of statements by two Pentagon officials caught on film by CBS (one of whom later sued the network to little effect).

Oh my ... I don't know about this ... but yet .. I'm not surprised

[nopardons]

Thanks for the oping! The article is absolutely brilliant and enumerates facts not known by the younger FREEPERS.Those of us who lived through those times,as adults,remember the putrescence of cBS news and the rancid fictionmentories.

[Mo1]

The article is absolutely brilliant and enumerates facts not known by the younger FREEPERS.

This has all be very educational for me ... I knew there has been bias in the media/press for years ... I just never knew how bad it really was

[nopardons]

Being one of those old enough to have lived through ALL of this,though admittedly I was young when that HARVEST OF SHAME POS was aired,I remember it all. And I have hated cBS for ALL of it,for decades!

That's why some of us are SO thrilled and happy and yes,ecstatic over Rathergate. Vengeance is a dish best served cold and since HELL just froze over,dandy Dan's just desserts are icebergs.

[restornu]

It is like a piece of yarn that is starting to unravel many of us suspected something was not kosher for years.

When callers would call talk shows or pundits spoke they were careful about not allowing this thought to escape listeners lips!

Many have been so traumatized by anti-ducks labels, now we learn the truth that there was UnAmerican Activities (UA)!

Those who were promoting UA thought it was their right to be able to do so, while at the same time trying to over throw this Great Nation. They coerced many to believed UA's had a right to maintain their livelihood as they continued to commit treason!

People like Rather and Co were called moles, in the early years 40, 50 etc were pockets of UA cells which like germs infiltrated and under mind our pillars and halls of culture!

America I knew it changed during the Assassination of JFK and the under minding of the Vietnam battle, we were not allowed to call it a war for it was not declared a war!

Over night hippie sprang up all across the nation like a choreograph it seem every major city had a seedy place where Tie dye clothes, bears, & weed etc.

This was the beginning of the break down in the way this nation dressed. In the work place, going out, church etc we used to dress accordingly but that all changed throw protest and the standards of life changed to slovenly attire being acceptable.

I am sure it was the work of UA cells who would unite the undiscerning to do their bidding, as UA's strolled around in business cloths and the American citizen was none the wiser!

JFK was killed because he brought the interest rates down to 3% our money was backed by gold, he was concern about our agriculture, he also wanted to bring the troops home.

Now as those who lived through it, can look back, as the yarn continued to unravels how this nation was being duped by UA perception!

[Cuttnhorse]

Excellent article Mo.