Dan Rather Slams Press Coverage Of War And Corporate News

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Dan Rather addressed the 2008 National Conference On Media Reform in Minneapolis on Saturday, where he warned of the dangers of corporate media ownership. Rather told the crowd:

Now, I have spent my entire life in for-profit news, and I happen to think that it does not have to be this way. I have worked for news owners who, while they may have regarded their news divisions as an occasional irritant, chose to turn that irritant into a pearl of public trust. But today, sadly, it seems that the conglomerates that have control over some of the biggest pieces of this public trust would just as soon spit that irritant out.

So what does this mean for us tonight, and what is to be done?

It means that we need to be on the alert for where, when, and how our news media bows to undue government influence. And you need to let news organizations know, in no uncertain terms, that you won't stand for it...that you, as news consumers, are capable of exerting pressure of your own.

It means that we need to continue to let our government know that, when it comes to media consolidation, enough is enough. Too few voices are dominating, homogenizing, and marginalizing the news. We need to demand that the American people get something in exchange for the use of airwaves that belong, after all, to the people.

It means that we need to ensure that the Internet, where free speech reigns and where journalism does not have to pass through a corporate filter... remains free.

We need to say, loud and clear, that we don't want big corporations enjoying preferred access to - or government acting as the gatekeeper for - this unique platform for independent journalism.

Watch Rather's address below:

Comments

[sirenadellopera]

Go Dan!! I want to make my voice heard on this topic, want to pursue this. I don't know exactly what to do, though. Suggestions? Anyone, anyone?

[eastutican]

Went and looked up comments by BOOGALOO. The "tits at Huffpo" ? Comments laced with abusive language and typical internet rage. Aint anonymity great ?

Is there any good reason why Huffington Post allows this type of trash talking ? Cant a computer program string together irrelevant ad hominem attacks based on the text of a story ??

I thought these comments were moderated.

BOOGALOO is a serial internet-rage sad sack. Unable to engage the content of articles or of critical commenters, BOOGALOO resorts to taking dumps on a regular basis in lieu of saying anything meaningful. PLEASE CONSIDER SCREENING OUT THIS THOUGHTLESS CRETIN. And that, by the way, is not ad hominem since the issue is the posting of abusive, hate-filled comments and not the content of those articles but the content of BOOGALOO's screeds.

[Boobaloo]

It's funny how you rage and hurl insults and reveal your own hypocrisy.

Breath big guy. Breath.

[eastutican]

BOOBALOO: ever hear of an ad hominem ? what the White House and RNC is doing to McClellan and what you are doing in your comment. the man made points, deal with them. your pique at his continued existence, while sort of funny, is irrelevant. and, ultimately, boring.

Rather's observations are right on the money. So to speak. Interesting, in a propaganda-drenched environment, that he would talk about media manipulation for war and money while Brokaw picks up the Hillary whine.

[Boobaloo]

When you learn to use the 'Reply' button ... we can talk.

In with the positive, out with the stupidity. You can do it!

[vandegrasse]

Go get 'em Dan. We need journalists like you who tell it straight!

[Boobaloo]

Here's another gasbag hypocrit who just will not fade off into the sunset ... and , listen Rather, you got canned because your story was poorly researched and it turned out the memo was a fake ... I'm no fan of Bush Co but, you deserved to get a good pummelling for such lousy "journalism".

Your just throwing one hissy fit after another because you dont get to play in the sandbox with the other inflated egos of the white man anchors club.

GO AWAY.

Stop with your stupid lawsuits that keep getting thrown out of court and stop with positioning yourself to pontificate in the coming years about how you battled for truth and journalism and was sacrificed by an evil administration hell bent on silencing you.

You aging white guys sure know how to re-write history.

[Taaj]

Thank you Mr. Rather the last of the Mohicans!

[FilthyPerson]

Great idea you stumbled upon.
Have him get a mohawk.
It's all he's lacking to complete his Travis Bickle persona.
"You talkin' to ME?"

[gladys46]

Really!!??

[FilthyPerson]

Somebody ... anybody ... PLEASE give Rather a tumble.
Cuban gave him a job but that's going nowhere.
He's so desperately trying to tap into Olbermann's niche audience.
The screwball can't quite find it, but he keeps looking for that frequency.
So, c'mon.
Is it really gonna hurt you lefties to bring one more lunatic on board?
It's not like he'll stand out.

[Norge]

Dan Rather has always, though the years stood for what he believed in and has never strayed.

A remarkable standard of ethics and solid value system supporting human rights.

Rolf Krogsæther

[not one of the sheep]

Smoke what? He actually manufactured news to meet what he believed in as everyone knows. Standard of ethics? More like a lack of ethics and finally got caught promoting his agendas. Dan Rather will go down in history as the immoral weasel he has proved himself to be.

[Racetracker]

You completely distort the facts of the story on GWB being a slacker in the Texas Air National Guard. He did not manufacture evidence, he went to broadcast with a document that had been obtained from a source which turned out to be apparently fraudulent. He got the story right, though. Conspiracy theorists might suggest that he got set up with the forged document in order to allow the right-wing echo chamber to take the story off message by having a legitimate attack on a piece of the evidence. There was plenty of other evidence that GWB was a slacker: he lost flight status by failing to take a medical examination (with drug test), that nobody saw him when he was supposed to be completing his service in Alabama, etc. It was a good story, unfortunately the one document killed both the story and Rather's career.

[ProgressiveBum]

Dan Rather is the last true journalist. Today, I only trust Keith Olberman.

[gladys46]

Dan, well hmmmm .... But, K.O. ... no fear!

[thebeerdoctor]

Funny thing about the freedom of the press, the internet has provided platforms (including The Huffington Post) so that other views can be expressed. Although I do not support Senator Barack Obama, I have heard him say that he believes in internet neutrality. If he really means that, it is a very good thing. I do agree with Mr. Rather's notion that journalism should always ask tough questions, the why? and if not, why not?
http://thebeerdoctor.newscloud.com

[esperanza01]

I stand and applaud this man.

Thank you Huffington Post for bringing it to my attention. Without any hesitancy, I will point my children to it. I pray they will make the time to watch, listen, digest and converse. If they chose to question me about this information, I pray I can answer with an unpolluted truth.

Thank you again.

[RoloTomassi]

A good thing for Dan to make a public stand, but it's too little to late. I hope Dan wins his case, and I certainly bear him no ill will; that said, this is the man we all should applaud, as he is the #1 national treasure in the realm of true journalism:

BILL MOYERS

View this program and understand that Bill Moyers had the media on the ropes a full year before McClellan's book and the MSM's recent completely dishonset self-approval of their dire and disgusting coverage of the war in Iraq:

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html

[ErnestineBass]

Moyers IS a national treasure. Well said, Rolo.

[nofltwlt]

Would the person with hard evidence of Dubya's draft dodging please come forward?

[JDHART]

Would any person who actually remembers serving with Dubya during his military service please come forward.

[dadw5boys]

The Major who came forward was reassgined and no one ever heard from him again.

Meyers went thru Texas like a hot poker collecting everything on Busn and destroying it.
She even got the pictures off the walls in bars in Brownsville where wild parties always had Cocaine.

In leaving the post while "ON DUTY" and refusing to take a blood test saying "My doctor in in Houston" makes you AWOL.

When you report for duty in the reserves You are "ON DUTY"!
Leaving must be approved. If not your AWOL and you remain AWOL till you have had a Hearing!
Without a counrt being conviened and a ruling made you are still AWOL no matter how much paper work is forged or created. Military Law is the Rule Of Law when you are a member of the Reserves.

[dadw5boys]

You got any hard evidence that the earth actually rotates?

[protagonia]

AWOL is not draft dodging.

[ErnestineBass]

You're right, protagonia.

After 90 days it's called "DESERTION".

[pahpah25]

GEORGE BUSHS MILITARY RECORDS WERE 'SET' ALONG TIME AGO.....THERE WILL NEVER BE ANY EVIDENCE OF ANYHTING 'DISAGREEA­BLE'......­...THE FACT THAT, DURING VN WAR, SONS OF 'INFLUEINTIAL' PARENTS WHO COULD EXERT PRESURE ON THE MILITARY, MOST ALWAYS WERE MOVED TO FRONT OF THE LINE TO GET INTO THE VARIUOS NG UNITS......ANY EXISTING RECORDS OF BUSHS TIME WERE 'CORRECTED' ALONG TIME AGO.

[musselmanm]

Regulation of corporations which would tend to turn Facist, are the main way to protect the citizens of the world, not just the United states. This de-regulation started whith the election of Ronald, the corporate savior, Regan. It has continued unabated for the years to follow, including the Clinton administration.
RE-regulate starting now!

[gerrylong]

With all of the comments and articles on gas prices no one talks about the Ronald Reagan's 
responsibility in the entire mess. 


Jimmy Carter had put in place programs which would have made us independent of middle east oil by the year 2000. Mr De-regulator Reagan disposed of those when he came into office in 1981.
His first act as president was to remove the solar panels from the White House, a deliberate "in your face" rejection of Carter's efforts. Hundreds of alternative energy companies went out of business because of Reagan's hostility to the oil independence efforts of Jimmy Carter.

Thank you, Ronald Reagan for $5.00 per gallon gas, and our disastrous foreign policy in the Middle East.


And let's not forget that Reagan also disposed of the "equal time" requirement of broadcasters, giving way to the success of the hate merchants such as Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Beck, Ingraham, and Hannity, etc. Why are we a less civil society today? -- thank you Ronald Reagan.

[Crozier]

Ronald and especially Nancy Reagan became enamoured of General Electric when Ronnie and she became spokespersons for GE on his television programme. I still remember the "ALL ELECTRIC HOME" that Ronnie and Nancy and the kids toured on their show.

It was GE who rescued a failed actor and his retired actress wife from destitution in the fifties. They realised then that they could use the Reagans to create a much larger canvas to market their real business..­....global arms deals.

Kitty Kelley and her book accurately described the real Reagans, and yes, they are the ones responsible for the undoing of our Republic. He was the antithesis of FDR, not his emulator. He was the man who singlehandly told conservative blue collar bubbas nationwide to vote for the very Corporatists who would eventually destroy them.

[Crozier]

"De-regulation" is a fascist "newword" just like other disingenuous new expressions for old FDR laws that stopped the nation's fall into either communism or fascism in the thirties.

Yes, Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton, and especially Bush 43 have allowed or been openly complicit with the global NWO and corporatists. Their reward have been untold hundreds of millions of dollars and promise that the press will never bite the hands that feed them.

There is the anecdote in Jack Welch's book whereby the General Electric Chairman and CEO went to the first NBC board meeting after the purchase of the network(s): The GE chairman came in and told the NBC board that they would "retain the independence" needed for " a free press" but always to remember " that you work for General Electric and we pay you."

[Counterglow]

Perhaps a good place to start would be to fire the news director or editor in chief of every single news organization that allowed those Pentagon propagandists to pose as legitimate, disinterested experts on the Iraq invasion.

A good second step would be to charge broadcast media that attempt to use their news departments as moneymakers a fair price for their use of the public airwaves. Currently, they pay only a tiny fraction of the real value.

[dadw5boys]

How can the Jorunalist hear this call to arms to save their Professional Ethics and reclaim Freedom Of The Press when their incomes and social status are currently threatened just like the rest of Americans.
The ones who do take the challenge and refuse to be cowed by the Political Machine will be real Patriots.