Good riddance to Rather (Thomas Sowell)

Townhall.com ^ | March 11, 2005 | Thomas Sowell

[The Great Yazoo]

Ordinarily, the retirement of a TV newsman would be something to be more or less passed over in silence by friend and foe alike. But the retirement of Dan Rather as anchorman of CBS news has caused so much spin in the media that some of this spin may become "well-known facts" by sheer repetition unless challenged by real facts.

One popular spin is that it is a shame that a long and distinguished career should be judged by one unfortunate error like the forged documents that Rather relied on to question President Bush's National Guard service.

Those who believe this might dig into the records of the CBS News broadcast of March 27, 1991, when Dan Rather said: "A startling number of American children are in danger of starving" because "one out of eight American children is going hungry tonight."

This was a crock -- but it was a fashionable crock on the left at that time and Dan Rather not only echoed but amplified a ridiculous "study" done by leftist activists. He probably didn't set out to tell a lie then any more than he did when he relied on forged documents to try to "get" President Bush on the eve of last year's election.

Neither were either of these or other cases simply a matter of a zealous reporter trying hard to get a story. It was bias -- and bias has long been the besetting sin of the mainstream media. That is why Dan Rather's scandal is bigger than Dan Rather and will justifiably continue to taint much of the media after his recent retirement as CBS anchorman.

If it was just a matter of Dan Rather's zeal for a story letting him get carried away -- another popular spin -- then why was this zeal for digging into what George W. Bush did or didn't do three decades earlier in the Texas National Guard not matched by an equal zeal to dig into John Kerry's military record?

After all, Kerry himself made his military record the centerpiece of his election campaign. We weren't supposed to question his two decades of undermining the military and intelligence services because he was a war hero.

With more than a hundred men who served with Kerry in Vietnam challenging his version of what he did there, why no zeal to dig into that story?

With the honorable discharge on Kerry's own web site dated during the Carter administration, years after his service ended, why no zeal to find out if this was one of the less than honorable discharges retroactively raised to the status of "honorable" under Jimmy Carter's amnesty programs? Wouldn't that be quite a story?

Zeal is not bias and bias is not zeal, regardless of what spin is being put out in the media about Dan Rather.

At one time, when the big three broadcast networks had a virtual monopoly, their spin became "facts" for all practical purposes. The way Dan Rather and CBS News tried to stonewall and brazen out the forged document scandal suggests that they didn't realize the extent to which their monopoly was gone.

With talk radio, Fox News, and the Internet reaching tens of millions of people, no longer could a TV anchorman say "That's the way it is," as Walter Cronkite used to say, and have that be taken as the last word.

What is perhaps most revealing about Dan Rather is that his defenders are mostly outside of CBS News, and such CBS News heavyweights as Mike Wallace and Walter Cronkite have recently spoken disparagingly of him in public. Mike Wallace referred to Rather's "contrived" performances.

"Contrived" is a polite word for phony.

Although Rather is through as anchorman, what he represents is not through, and that is what makes it important to be clear about what he was and what he did, regardless of the spin of those seeking to make excuses for him. We the public need to recognize what is and is not a fact and the media need to recognize the bias and arrogance in Rather's work -- and in their own.

One hopeful sign of changes in recent times is that even liberal media outlets have begun to see a need to have a few token moderate or conservative voices. It's not much but it's a move in the right direction. So is the departure of Dan Rather.

©2005 Creators Syndicate, Inc.

[The Great Yazoo]

Rather damning, I'd say.

[Pharmboy]

Professor Sowell nails it as usual. I love this guy...

[7thson]

I forgot about that children starving bs. Sowell is right and presents a powerful argument. People tend to confuse bias and zeal. Others also defend Rather's actions by saying there is no liberal bias but a cultural one - same schools, same neighborhoods, same parties, same jobs, etc. But if the cultural is liberal than the bias becomes liberal also. Guys like Rather and Brokaw seem proud to come from ordinary roots but looking close you see the first chance they get, they run away from their roots. We all have our Dan Rather stories and anyone who checks closely can see he should have been fired long, long ago.

[Luigi Vasellini]

What about Dans TV special where he interviewed "real live nam vets" that claimed they saw our boys skinning people alive, raping, killin babies etc. It later turned out that none of those interviewed were ever in Nam. What a great propagandist of anti-Americanism!!!

[IPWGOP]

Damning, indeed. And I take special note of this portion:

If it was just a matter of Dan Rather's zeal for a story letting him get carried away -- another popular spin -- then why was this zeal for digging into what George W. Bush did or didn't do three decades earlier in the Texas National Guard not matched by an equal zeal to dig into John Kerry's military record?

It was gutless of Dan Rather and umpteen other journalists of his so-called stature to blatantly stonewall this. John Kerry spent just over 4 months and got 3 Purple Hearts. One of which was by Kerry's own admission accidentally self-inflicted. Another one only required a bandaide.

Truly, when I listened to Dan Rather's parting words, exhorting victims of all kinds of tragedies to have 'courage', well, I could only think of what a gutless, biased wonder he was as a journalist. Hence, my portrayal:

[G.Mason]

"This was a crock --(one out of 8 kids going hungry) but it was a fashionable crock on the left at that time and Dan Rather not only echoed but amplified a ridiculous "study" done by leftist activists. He probably didn't set out to tell a lie then any more than he did when he relied on forged documents to try to "get" President Bush on the eve of last year's election."

Here is where Mr. Sowell and I are at odds.

Of course Rather set out to tell a lie. This was a premeditated attempt to get the president.

Just as premeditated as was the non investigation into Kerry's honorable discharge, issued many years after his service ended, by Carter.

[The Great Yazoo]

On the basis of ratings alone. Cronkite was comfortably number one in 99 out of the top 100 markets in an industry that had no challengers. Rather squandered that inheritance. From a market perspective alone, his performance has been rather poor.

[Hardastarboard]

Dr. Sowell is one of the brightest, most articulate conservative writers on the planet, and totally un-recognized by the left.

[G.Mason]

Great job.

[Pharmboy]

He's the left's worst nightmare: a self-made, conservative African American man speaking the truth, who's smarter than they are.

I've read two of his books, and his clarity of thought and reasoned argument are phenomenal.

[Bahbah]

One popular spin is that it is a shame that a long and distinguished career should be judged by one unfortunate error....

Every time I hear this "long and distinguished career" nonsense, it makes me want to scream. The only correct part of the statement is that his career was long, way too long. There is nothing distinguished about perpetrating the kinds of lies he did. The TANG documents were not an "unfortunate error." They were a deliberate attempt to take down a president by proving that the man sending our military to war was insubordinate and shirked his duty. Thank God for Howlin, Buckhead, Tanker KC and all those who picked up the ball and ran with it. And thank God for Jim Robinson and FR.

[Waco]

CBS and Rather conspired to commit a crime against this nation by using phoney "documents" to throw the election. Throw it to a commie front group at that.

[The Great Yazoo]

THOMAS SOWELL

Thomas Sowell was born in North Carolina and grew up in Harlem. As with many others in his neighborhood, he left home early and did not finish high school. The next few years were difficult ones, but eventually he joined the Marine Corps and became a photographer in the Korean War. After leaving the service, Sowell entered Harvard University, worked a part-time job as a photographer and studied the science that would become his passion and profession: economics.

After graduating magna cum laude from Harvard University (1958), he went on to receive his master's in economics from Columbia University (1959) and a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago (1968).

In the early '60s, Sowell held jobs as an economist with the Department of Labor and AT&T. But his real interest was in teaching and scholarship. In 1965, at Cornell University, he began the first of many professorships. His other teaching assignments include Rutgers University, Amherst University, Brandeis University and the University of California at Los Angeles, where he taught in the early '70s and also from 1984 to 1989.

Sowell has published a large volume of writing. His dozen books, as well as numerous articles and essays, cover a wide range of topics, from classic economic theory to judicial activism, from civil rights to choosing the right college. Moreover, much of his writing is considered ground-breaking -- work that will outlive the great majority of scholarship done today.

Though Sowell had been a regular contributor to newspapers in the late '70s and early '80s, he did not begin his career as a newspaper columnist until 1984. George F. Will's writing, says Sowell, proved to him that someone could say something of substance in so short a space (750 words). And besides, writing for the general public enables him to address the heart of issues without the smoke and mirrors that so often accompany academic writing.

In 1990, he won the prestigious Francis Boyer Award, presented by The American Enterprise Institute.

Currently Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute in Stanford, Calif.

And, I would add, one of the most straightforward writers and clear thinks of our age.

[chainsaw]

When is Kerry going to sign and release his form 180??

He said he would on Tim Russert's show but hasn't done so yet.

[Zacs Mom]

He probably didn't set out to tell a lie then any more than he did when he relied on forged documents to try to "get" President Bush on the eve of last year's election.

"I think you can be an honest person and lie about any number of things."
Dan Rather, May 15, 2001

[chainsaw]

I like to compare Rather's words to Red Skelton's when signing off a program.

"Courage" - "May God Bless"

[7thson]

I did not read Sowell's statement as a defense of Rather. I saw it as saying this with your eyes rolling up, sort of sarcastic in nature.

[Unknown Freeper]

Dr. Sowell bump
Don't you just love him!

[7thson]

Thank you.

[good1]

Thank you for the nice bio on Sowell. I have long admired his writing, and now, I know him better.