Posted on 05/17/2006 7:21:07 AM PDT by george76
The American press needs a spine transplant in an age when reporters seem reluctant to step on toes and ask the tough questions, says former CBS news anchorman Dan Rather.
Speaking as part of the Headlines and Biographies lecture series at Roy Thomson Hall Tuesday night, the veteran U.S. television journalist lamented a trend in today's news that sees reporters rely on euphemisms and tact as though they were conducting international diplomacy instead of telling people exactly what is happening in places like Washington or Ottawa.
"I don't know where this urge to be so polite, this mandate not to offend anyone - anywhere, anytime - came from, but in a journalistic sense, I wish it would go away,"
Speaking on a mostly bare stage, backed by mounted blow-ups of newspaper pages, Rather also admitted to a sense of unease over all the new technologies that are emerging for the news media, from blogs to podcasts.
The many new platforms for delivering news, he said, are not expanding the flow of information.
"For the most part what we are seeing, at least in the States, is the same news and the same people delivering the news, in more places at more times.
"They are no longer by necessity out there fishing for stories as much as they once were."
(Excerpt) Read more at canada.com ...
Be nice if Rather had remembered some old journalistic values before becoming a spin doctor himself.
. . . no wonder Gunga Dan is longing for the good old days when he could lie, cheat and steal unhindered . . .
I suppose he means "fabrication of stories" Rather's own legacy, is lacking in the new media.
You are not supposed to fish for stories, Dan. You report them. Just go away.....
He must be spending all his time at DU. ;)
Oh, what? Values like abject bias? Disinformation? Subversive activity? Yeah, right, Dan.
Who is Dan Rather, and why should anyone care what he says on this subject?
Thankfully, those "old fashioned journalist values" have given way to say, The Truth!
Liberal charitable acts consist of stealing conservatives' tax dollars and spending the money on liberal causes.
Whenever, this disgraced liar cites ethics, we get to laugh at him even more.
Traitoristic Turd, blathers again. Moveon
You ought to know Dan, you've been sleeping in the same bed with them for 40 years
Don't answer those. They are merely rhetorical questions. The truth is that Rather in the real world is dumb as a hoe handle, thick as a brick, and really should donate his ego to Harvard Medical School before it gets so dinged and dented that it's no good to anybody any more.
I'm not being TOO critical here, am I?
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Congressman Billybob
Hahah, remind us, Dan, what ARE those values? Kind of hard to pick them out these days. Or are you talking about Yellow Journalism values? And doing a kind of historical revisit of those days?? Get back to me ...
Dan can not stop himself.
The more he talks, the more he hurts himself.
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