Posted on 03/14/2005 10:47:04 AM PST by WaterDragon
When Dan Rather departed on March 9, at least he beat his competitors at ABC and NBC for the first time in five years. What seems to have been overlooked by media managers and journalists in their exhaustive discussion of Rathergate and Easongate is what news organizations are supposed to do for a living--- report and publish the news “without fear or favor,” as The New York Times' owner, Adolph Ochs, once put it.
Whatever CBS and CNN may have done wrong originally, both organizations compounded it by going into a coverup mode worthy of the Nixon White House or Bernie Ebbers’ Worldcom board room. The “suits” simply ran a classic corporate crisis-management operation to prevent the important news about what had really happened in their organizations from ever seeing the light of day.
Both The New York Times and USA Today, faced with their respective newsroom fantasists, Jayson Blair and Jack Kelley, felt obliged to send their news teams back to re-report the stories in question. They then detailed their errors in full. What should CBS and CNN have done?
At least at CBS, Dan Rather’s initial instincts were right. Last September he told Howard Kurtz: "If the documents are not what we were led to believe, I'd like to break that story. Any time I'm wrong, I want to be right out front and say, 'Folks, this is what went wrong and how it went wrong.'" So far there isn’t a shred of evidence that Rather ever followed up. He may well have been prevented from doing so once corporate took over. As another journalist, Hemingway’s equally impotent Jake Barnes, put it: “Isn’t it pretty to think so?” ....(snip)
....The bloggers did it! Rather and Jordan went down, he said, because: "The salivating morons who make up the lynch mob prevail."
If it takes “salivating morons” to get major news organizations to clean up their acts and remember Journalism 101, may they slobber on -- before the American people stop paying any attention to big media at all.....(snip)
Is this the same Lipscomb who wrote about John Kerry's presence at the Kansas City VVAW meeting where the group discussed assassinating U.S. Senators?
Yoooo Hoooo .. check this out
So he is trying to draw parity between a conservative non scandal and Rather's intentional lie?
The conservatives dropped him like a hot potato when he was exposed.
When Rather was exposed, the MSM Mediot circled the waggons. They came up with "fake but true".
And the investigation team at See BS could find noooooo attempt at bias or election manipulation in their final report.
We're making progress, but we have to keep hitting and hitting and hitting the MSM again, until they either learn or bleed to death (metaphysically, of course).
Congressman Billybob
CBS probably found conclusive evidence to the existence of the tooth fairy too. Seriously, the "investigation" was a shame before the first person was selected.
Is was the suits engaged in CYA same as when CBS had "thereagans" fiasco on their hands.
Old Media has so abdicated their responsibilities that the bloggers took over and now the MSM is left with reporting the tabloid news. It's all they have left.
not only that, the MSM and particularly the networks are broadcasting OLD news. By the time NBC, CBS, or ABC do their nightly "news" the news is out of date. All three have the same source of information. I and ANYONE can get the entire content directly off the AP or wires from drudge in five minutes. The only difference between them is the hairstyles.
Newspapers provide news no less than 24hours old so they are dead but for minor local stuff and sales flyers.
AND to add insult to injury, if a MSM story is not posted on FR or other FORM, it might as well not exist. Then again some leftists probably may wish certain stories never existed.
LOL
.
The man behind RATHERGATE
http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1362451/posts
.
bttt
The MSM was chin-deep in doo-doo the morning after Rather dropped his load--Tom Harkin (IIRC) was on the floor of congress calling for an investigation; Terry McAwful was issuing memos as fast as his fax machine could send them; and the major MSM news outlets were publishing their tongue-clucking prepared stories. Little did they know that the virtual world had already blown up their train and was standing around commenting on the disaster.
Long-story-short, the Bush/ANG story was not just about CBS; it was about the MSM/DNC Complex attempting to throw a presidential election. Of course they circled their wagons and turned on Danny Boy & Co.--they didn't want to get any on themselves.
"Her publisher, Random House, will not release the book to reporters or critics in advance,
and Ms. Fonda will not give interviews
before her appearance on "60 Minutes,"
scheduled for April 3."
Hanoi Jane's imminent autobiography
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1360385/posts
60 Minutes ALERT!
Anybody think Dan Rather will do the interview?
Rather, 73, is returning to full-time reporting for CBS’s “60 Minutes” broadcasts.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7137959/?GT1=6305
It certainly is the very same Lipscomb! And he was relentless on Kerry's Vietnam record!
Thought he might be. I always thought that the senator assassination plot would be Kerry's undoing, but it never seemed to get beyond Lipscomb for some reason.
Salivating morons, take a bow.
I can't do that! The splashback from the droolstream might drown me.
Hey Freeps! I recommend you all read "Rather Dumb" by Mike Walker. He slices and dices Danny Boy with great humor and accuracy.
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