Thank You Dan Rather

Thank you Dan Rather. It's balls to the wall time, and as a fellow Texan, you sure came through.

As an investigative journalist who worked as both a reporter and anchor for the San Francisco Bay Area's highest rated newscast for 22 years, I can only say what happened to you nationally was also happening locally. You were told to conform to a Republican agenda or shut up. When you refused to march in step, you got Bush-whacked.

I read your brief and I know the drill. The erosion was slow and many of us barely noticed the small chiseling away of who and what we once were. Anchors and reporters depend on high ratings. If ratings fall in television, people get fired. In the months following 9/11, the President's approval rating was 86 percent, and that's when many in commercial journalism lost their way. To disagree or even ask a disagreeable question regarding the President and his decisions was interpreted as disloyal by many media corporations.

But now we have learned. Get the trashcan ready to catch the chips, because the chisel is swinging back the other way and we as journalists are about to regain our voices and America's trust. Dan - the Man - as we call him in Texas is reminding the media conglomerates how it is supposed to work. News and those who report it are not supposed to be for sale. Dan remembers, and he's about to explain it to us on a national scale, but first some explanations from my field of vision as to how we got here.

On January 2003, President Bush delivered his State of the Union address. Osama bin Laden turned into Saddam Hussein, and Afghanistan turned into Iraq. The press knew this was a bait and switch, but fearing reporters and anchors might appear unpatriotic, the corporate media made it clear that even if George W. Bush played twister in the nude while a few sheets to the wind instead of going to constitutional law classes at Yale, we were not allowed to talk about it.

Viacom and CBS, according to Dan, wanted to curry favor with the White House. There are very few media conglomerates that didn't. Cox Broadcasting banned the Dixie Chicks from radio stations because their lead singer made a remark under her breath criticizing the president! Not wanting to appear unpatriotic, the town criers did not cry out. Many corporate media reporters became stenographers, not reporters on that State of the Union day. Those in television journalism, particularly those working for a Fox affiliate, were not allowed to ask questions that could be perceived as unpatriotic, and every question was seen as unpatriotic. Monarchs and dictators don't allow questions. They also destroy those who speak ill of them. "Scooter - Valerie." "Rove - Anyone." Blackwater was running around in the name of the United States shooting first and asking questions later like third world rebels, and back at home, Fox became the fastest growing network with fearless leaders who believed in not only reporting the news but spinning it as well.

Just seven years ago, I looked up from my desk and saw my image on the MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour as our staff of independent journalists was described as the best local news in the country. But war broke out and the Internet took off and all over the country local news ratings dropped as viewers turned to the national networks for news from the war fronts. Contrary to all logical thinking, local reporters looked at their retirement plans and their kids in college and promptly puckered their lips on the behinds of corporate media and smooched. If my kids were still in college I would not have the courage to write this now. In response to fewer viewers, local television panicked into a downward spiral and many a trusting viewer decided to go elsewhere. Corporate media was demanding reporters adapt to the point of our own extinction.

Morphed into propaganda machines - cheerleaders with pompoms - it was heartbreaking to watch the demise and media corporations always bass-akwards responses. With two wars on two fronts they decided to go "Local." Only local news. The war and the profound implications of it were relegated to 30 second stories buried deep into the newscast. (they don't need to know about that.--but there's a grass fire up the road!) If that's not manipulation, I don't know what is.

Here are some other sad results of this corporate bullying toward some of the best journalist in the country:

Anchors and reporters stopped asking why. The corporate media demanded nationalism without skepticism, believing ratings would fall further if reporters did their jobs.

Anchors and reporters starting taking their stories from satellite feeds coming directly to their desks and then standing in front of a chroma key delivering a story they did not collect and sometimes did not write. If viewers think every newscast looks the same that's why. It is.

Anchors and reporters allowed chroma key pictures of conflict areas to appear behind them giving viewers the false impression they were on the scene of the conflict instead of demanding to be sent there. Some could not even point out on the map behind them where the conflict was.

Anchors and reporters allowed management to hire entertainment reporters and producers. It's cheaper to entertain than to inform because an informed public makes wakes from slumber and makes noise.

Anchors and reporters began allowing precious hours meant for journalism to be filled with helicopter shots of the latest grassfire, traffic jam, or car chase, ala O.J.

Anchors and reporters allowed news directors and sales people to dictate their "look." Good journalism does not have a "look."

Anchors and reporters did not fight back when their investigative pieces were dropped. Managers feared losing advertising dollars and reporters acquiesced.

Anchors and reporters and producers agreed to story counts. Tell the story no matter how complicated in thirty seconds - throwing random and massive amounts of information at viewers without context.

Anchors and reporters started wearing American flags on their lapels. Some of whom never voted in any election.

Anchors and reporters began using genetically altered language: "War on Terrorism," without explaining that many people in the world think Americans are the terrorists.

Anchors and reporters started referring to the United States government as "We."

Anchors and reporters were handed press releases regarding corporate "mishaps" and began reading them verbatim. Like so: "Blank Oil Company had an explosion today; shelter in place, close the doors and windows, and don't go outside. However, the 'You've Got To Be Kidding Me Oil Company' says everything is fine."

Anchors and reporters agreed to report news that was already reported in newspapers and radio. Doing their own stories or advancing others creates controversy and potential lawsuits, betraying the sacred oath of corporate cronyism.

Anchors and reporters agreed to be physically altered in photographs, and airbrushed with make-up like playboy bunnies, as the media corporations ignored the news and invested in High Definition - hoping a grassfire on HD might look like news.

Anchors and reporters started advertising. "If you liked that story there will be more at six." "If you want to get more information go to www. you're_an_idiot.com. Makes you just want to scream: I'm here now; tell me now!

Anchors and reporters allowed producers to lead with Annie Nicole Smith instead of the "Scooter" Libby trial - making it clear that all sense of proportion and good judgment had been lost.

Corporations in this country are always a reflection of those in the White House. This White House is the Wild West, and corporations, even those who are charged with helping the public gain knowledge, are mining for gold. But today, when we had almost given up, Dan put his holster on.

Comments

[cuddletuffy]

i've seen ktvu for years, though admittedly i gave up years ago, when i got tired of watching breaking news about kittens wandering intersections while bay area public schools in ktvu's oakland backyard are decimated. what a joke!

leslie griffin an investigative journalist? to say that is to proove that she has no credibility or intellectual honesty. she reads a teleprompter that is filled largely with local news stories written by corporate PR firms. To pretend like, or worse to believe that, all the problems in our media started on 9/11 is irresponsible or unbelievably stupid. Leslie Griffin is like the majority of Americans in this regard.

the march to fascism has been long and slow. the entire cold war was largely a fabrication used to keep america militarized and rob us blind. Vietnam? the media was largely a willing shill. Watergate? the pardon of Nixon healed our nation though it destroyed justice. Reagan and Iran/Contra? he said it was morning in America, Oliver just followed orders and a lot of those criminals are back in very high cabinet positions. Panama and Gulf War I? totally complicit media. Waco? totally complicit media. remember the yellow press? it never went away.

the worst thing we could do now is to act like journalism was fine until 10 years ago. the building went ablaze in that time but it was knocked off of its foundation a long long time ago. do we want to go back to 1999 or do we want to go back to the days of Common Sense? If we don't do the latter, things are not going to change much other than continually for the worse.

Hopefully with the Internet people can actively inform themselves and in 10 or 20 years, botoxed communications majors reading PR bulletins from a teleprompter will be looking for jobs that are productive and constructive for society.

[aleco]

Well said, my friend.

[taxiq]

Always a huge fan of yours. You handled all kinds of news with intelligence & compassion,where warranted. I was very sorry to see you leave KTVU. But let's face it, the money anchors make is outrageous. If deciding to abdicate the responsibility that comes with being a journalist because you can't send your kid to Harvard rather than a state school (like most of your viewers do, if they can afford it) is a piss-poor excuse. I was never a fan of Rather, but he got the Bush NG story right - documents or not. It's a crying shame the American public is so uninformed. Something like a third can't read above a 5th grade level. If so, that tells me they are not critical thinkers & most likely getting (& believing) whatever the news the networks are spoonfeeding them. Our Republic is at stake & the MSM makes sure that all we hear about are the murderous OJ & skanks like Hilton, Spears et al. If it weren't so scary if would be pathetic.

[dobberdoss]

When was this not the case?

[realitytrumpsbull]

Now all we need is Dan high on a rooftop in a cape with a big "I" on his chest...he can be
the Yellow Hornet hehehehe

[RBlechman]

The recent $70M lawsuit brought by Dan Rather against CBS is being billed as a violation of contractual obligations, but it actually stems from a change in broadcast journalism standards that moved the audience's focus from the news story to the news reporter.

Prior to 1982, the reportage of CBS News was based on certain standards of print journalism. Tisch believed the new information environment of broadcast journalism required a change in practices. This is to say that CBS News, under William Paley, aspired to the print model of journalism, while CBS since Lawrence Tisch has adopted broadcast standards that have more to do with ratings than with writings. Tisch decided to exploit the gap between what the public wanted to know and what the public needed to know.

Rather's case highlights the differences in the narrative biases of print vs. broadcast media. Print allows the author to create a scene, to develop a narrative based on complex situations and subtle character interactions. Broadcast narratives don’t have time for this. Instead, they focus on creating a hero.

Dan Rather, who once was featured on the cover of Time Magazine as CBS News' "Six-Million-Dollar Man," ascended to the CBS anchor chair during this "print to broadcast" transition period. He tried to stay true to print journalism standards but his stint as a highly paid anchorman often descended into personal heroics.

Rather once walked off the news set when his time was pre-empted to carry the end of a sporting event. He thought he was making a stand for journalistic standards, but it was generally interpreted as a celebrity hissy-fit. The stress of working under new broadcast assumptions led Rather to end his nightly broadcasts with the admonition "Courage." Compare that with Edward R. Murrow's "Good night and good luck" or Walter Cronkite's "And that's the way it is."

It is ironic, though not unexpected that, in being pilloried by the CBS brass, Rather has followed the path of the hero (see Joseph Campbell) and now returns to tilt at the corporate windmill.

[thatvisionthing]

Are you guys reading the same lawsuit? Greg Palast doesn't think so highly of Dan:

"Just three months before the election, Rather had a story that might have changed the outcome of that razor-close race. We now know that Dan cut a back-room deal to shut his mouth, grab his ankles, and let his network retract a story he knew to be absolutely true.

"...The story is stone-cold solid. I know, because we ran it on BBC Television a year before CBS. BBC has never retracted a word of it.

"But CBS caved. So did Dan.

"That’s according to Rather’s written confession, his law suit, which is as much a shameful set of admissions as it is a legal complaint.

"...Had Rather stood up to the Viacommunist thugs and defended his story, President Kerry and our nation could today express gratitude for his public service. Instead, Dan traded the public interest for airtime on 60 Minutes. Yuck.

"Now Dan is shocked to find that the network snakes didn’t live up to their slimey bargain with him.

"...This is what’s so frustrating about Dan Rather. He’s two people: a real journalist locked inside a television news-actor begging for air-time. Indeed, disgustingly, in his law suit, he conceals his inner reporter by claiming he only “narrated” the draft dodge story. For shame."

http://www.gregpalast.com/dan-rather-tased-and-confused/

[mudslide]

Good comments but I would take particular exception to your commentary about the journalistic "style makeover" of CBS News under Lawrence Tisch.

The transitional presidency of Paley's successor, John Bakke, was far more substantial if you're tracking the degrading trajectory of broadcast news standards. It was during those years that corporate considerations previously finessed by Paley rather abuptly and fatefully shifted- as anyone familiar with the truly Joseph Campbellesque saga of Bill Moyers can attest. Chillingly.

Rather's travails.... Not so much.

[MinM]

Rather was prevented by CBS (subsidiary of Viacom) from going after the GOP operatives who doctored the documents
http://www.onlinejournal.org/Media/100105Madsen/100105madsen.html

Rather stated it was his desire to continue to delve into the story and the set-up. According to CBS insiders, the original TANG files were scanned by GOP dirty tricks operatives using a sophisticated text scanner that changed the original IBM typewriter Courier font to a Times Roman font, automatically created a "th" superscript for date numbers, and created margins and pagination. An independent panel commissioned by CBS and headed by former GOP Attorney General Richard Thornburgh never concluded the documents were bogus.

In fact, the GOP operatives had to be very careful in their dirty tricks operation: forging or counterfeiting official government documents is a felony. However, scanning original documents technically does not fall under the category of counterfeiting. Nevertheless, the GOP quickly tipped off right-wing bloggers, including Free Republic.com, that the CBS documents were forgeries. In doing so, Karl Rove and his team successfully refocused attention away from Bush and his AWOL status in the Guard and on to Dan Rather and 60 Minutes. People like Karl Rove and, as reported by The New York Post, long time GOP dirty tricks operative Roger Stone, got away with the entire caper, thus eliminating Bush's phony military record as a campaign issue.

[ZingoBonMot]

"For more on this story, go to_____.com."

Ironic, isn't it, that that's exactly what we decided to do.

And the MSM wonders now why their viewership stats are in freefall.

[HBeachbum]

You must use extra tin-foil in your hat.

[noamjunior]

"tin foil hat" the mating call of right -wing losers that can't face the truth

[GenericBlogger]

Leslie Griffith, you succinctly summarized most of this decade's media problems.

I am old enough to remember when the media was controversial but respectable. Today's media is controversial but disrespectable.

In addition to using newspapers for news sources, some TV anchors now use web sites and blogs. They have redefined news gathering from a noble activity to a pejorative. Disproportionate salaries between top anchors and the majority of the hard working staff unknown to the public forced fewer reporters to be hired while the population and the number of potential stories increased. Case in point, Katie Couric's annual salary is about 1/4 of the total CBS news budget and she devalued that division.

It's not only the anchors and reporters who lost their way. News producers and directors embarked on a road to you know where paved with bad, not good intentions. Those voices in anchors' ears are just as culpable.

I am not convinced Dan Rather will succeed because his sometimes theatrical and controversial nature are a handicap that CBS and others can and will use against him. To be fair, no one person is sufficiently powerful to start reversing the MSM trends of the last two decades No one person can compel employees of networks, newspapers, magazines, etc. to convince their corporate owners and reinstate solid investigative reporting on relevant issues.

I understand your admiration of Dan Rather. He is the Lone Ranger when other heavyweights such as Tom Brokaw, Ted Koppel, Bob Schieffer, Sam Donaldson, Bill Plant, etc. remain silent. Collectively they can force some changes but one individual alone cannot. The same corporate owners they should oppose or educate are the ones that gave them lavish multi million dollar salaries, benefits, retirement plans and enough other incentives to keep them in line.

Those edgy reporters with a slight chip on their shoulder who relentlessly pursued stories despite risks seem to be an extinct or a silenced breed. I dare say if Nixon was covered by today's MSM, Woodward and Bernstein would have been investigated, intimidated and stopped before they could reveal the truth.

[Marlyn]

Tom Brokaw? Don't expect him to stand up for the truth.

I totally lost respect for him after an interview he did with John Kerry, asking Kerry "Did you know that George W. Bush has a higher IQ than you do?"

Oh sure, Tom. What crap.

[GenericBlogger]

I agree, I don't expect anything smart, ethical or sensible from Tom Brokaw, he is another MSM sycophant.

I lost respect for Brokaw when he kept mumbling during his broadcasts, he just couldn't speak coherently and sometimes was hard to understand.

The straw that broke the camel's back was in 1992 when our troops landed on a Somalian beach during the night. The purpose of a night landing is to penetrate undetected yet Brokaw, Dan Rather and other journalists were there and turned on their lights revealing the location of the our troops landing. Brokaw also had the nerve to stop a few marines while they were belly crawling on the beach to ask them questions. That's not journalism, that's stupidity, theatrics and disregard for the troops. Fortunately the enemy wasn't around at the beach landing to start a fire fight. The arrogance of these anchors and journalists there that night interfering with a military operation was astounding.

The next day the Pentagon appealed to the news organizations to stop interfering with military operations. I was perplexed why so many in the news business lacked the common sense that kept them away from the beach landing.

Peter Jennings was the only major anchor with enough wisdom to remain in America.

[felixrandom]

buy, intimidate or neutralize. the entire national media might be a few thousand people and karl took them out first. who's running pbs? even now.

as rawk limpburger and horseface ann live only because the fairness act was retracted.

but a fine journalist is a treasure to the nation hence the administration sighted them in early on and as stated ms. griffith is still threatened with unnamed retribution for wanting to do an honest job.

best thing i've read for some distance

[DonL]

Thank you for the apology. However, when it really mattered, the entire press corps rolled over. Now that the emperor is naked, they regain their integrity. Sorry, it doesn't work like that. I'm going to have to see a lot more real reporting and hard questions and speaking truth to power and ignoring attacks on the messenger in order to analyze the message before I forgive.

[shaefromTn]

Dan Rather alot of Americans are standing behind you! We all know what a honorable courageous man you are and what these criminials have tried to do to you for speaking the truth!

One of these days these blind stupid people will wake up to what has been done to our country!!

I hope and pray for you and pray you win your law suit!!!!

God Bless Dan Rather the most respected man on TV!

[ikkytito]

Great post from somebody in the business. Corporate power is greater now than in the times of the Robber Barons. We got Upton Sinclair then. And Teddy Roosevelt. I still have faith in America. Hang in there -its a fight worth dying for.

[ikkytito]

We are waiting for the next American Hero-Like Judge Sirica. To expose the lies. Maybe it will be Dan Rather. but trust me the hero will appear and the entire can of worms will be opened. Fascism will not prevail in America.

[rain39]

I'm from Texas. I have always believed Dan and have stopped watching the MSM because of the corporate influence on their broadcasts. I read news from all over the world, blogs from multiple sources and perspectives and have some hearty debates with people who don't always think the way I do. After all that, maybe I get a little closer to reality but sometimes, I even doubt that. I just learned a lot of new perspectives on the war and warring while I am in Brazil for a month meeting my new Grandson.

Thanks, Leslie. Keep talking and supporting Dan. I see other big time journalists dancing around him and it makes me sick!

[John]

Griffith uses the past tense throughout her description of the degradation of the MSM. I'm afraid most of the things she describes should remain in the present tense. We are still in the middle of this mess folks and we have a long, long way to go to get out of it.

[Rebelfriend]

When "leaders" and "heros" have no ethics, if they believe "greed is good" and have the power to do as they choose with no controls, we have Orwell's 1984. It is fascism, not democracy, and that is what America has become. The American people have been lazy, and they have allowed themselves to be manipulated by an irresponsible media. And so we have become what we have done. Lazy, self-satisfied, ignorant, and pathetic. The Founding Fathers knew that an informed public and a free press were the bulwarks of our Democracy. We are now waking up from the nightmare, only to find it is real. Will the media find the courage to face down the dangers we now have staring in our face, and self-interest be damned as the great Dan Rather did? Will we as Americans stop being lazy, and seek out the truth, and take a stand if it means being the only one standing in front of that menacing tank? Just as the neocons and the complicit corporations intend to control what is left of our battered Democracy, those same forces that destroyed Dan Rather's position of prominence, they have been and are now controlling, with the cooperation of the media, the outcome of our Presidential election. Because they are determined to see a President elected who will play ball, one who will continue this corporate greed over the well-being of our nation and its people. That is why the corporate-controlled mainstream media has ignored John Edwards, and attacked him, and lazy Americans have allowed them to try to bury the candidacy of the one candidate who will change things. One who will stand up for the working people of this country and put them before corporate greed. If Americans wake up and fight for our Democracy, they will see that John Edwards is the Democratic nominee, and the next President of these United States.

[Seattle34]

Dan Rather tried to pass fake documents off as real. Some citizens picked up on this, and blew the whistle.

This is much better than 50 years ago, when the country was told what to think by the media.

We have so much more information at our fingertips today. Dan Rather is simply upset that he was caught and didn't have the bully pulpit to shout down the naysayers.