Katrina vanden Heuvel: It Ain’t about Dan and Katie (The Nation)

[marmar]

BLOG | Posted 06/13/2007 @ 4:24pm
It Ain’t about Dan and Katie


When asked about his view of CBS Evening News during a radio interview with MSNBC's Chuck Scarborough on Monday, Dan Rather said network execs had tried to boost ratings by "dumbing it down and tarting it up."

The media firestorm that's followed illustrates the very point--the larger point--Rather has consistently tried to make about the degradation of the mainstream, corporate news biz and the obliteration of the line between news and entertainment.

Watch as CBS dances, deflects and dodges the valid and valuable criticism levied by Rather and plenty of other media watchdogs. Les Moonves, CBS CEO, called Rather's remark "sexist" and said, "Let's give a break."

But it's got nothing to do with Katie Couric. Nor does it really have anything to do with the messenger, Rather (whose colorful, native Texanspeak has gotten him into hot water in the past--much as it did for the late former Governor Anne Richards). It's about the message.

Rather's predecessor at CBS, Walter Cronkite--no fan of Rather himself--offered a similar take in a recent keynote address. According to the Associated Press, Cronkite suggested that the pressure for profits is "threatening the very freedom the nation was built upon."

"It's not just the journalist's job at risk here," Cronkite said. "It's American democracy. It is freedom."

...snip...

We desperately need a news media that raises the tough questions, acts as watchdogs of the public interest, questions authority--performs the basic duties required of a free press in a democracy. A flawed media leads to a flawed democracy. And in these past six or so years, with some notable exceptions, the media has been too easily intimidated by an administration that used fear to make its case for war, labeled its critics un-American, quashed dissent, perverted the meaning of patriotism and brazenly--on all fronts--subverted the Constitution. As longtime White House correspondent Helen Thomas wrote in The Nation," lapped up everything the Pentagon and White House could dish out--no questions asked."

So, now, when Dan Rather talks about dumbing down news in order to tart it up--it ain't about Dan, and it ain't about Katie. It's about consolidation, conglomeration, and the impact on the Fourth Estate and our democracy. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?bid=7&pid=204994

[Cha]

1. That's right! And Dan knows this,

but les disingenuous moonves and couric don't.

[yurbud]

3. I don't think couric knows anything that isn't on a teleprompter

[DemReadingDU]

2. evening kick

[Uncle Joe]

4. Bummer, too late to recommend,

vanden Heuvel hit the nail on the head with this column.

Thanks for the thread marmar.


"Rather has also described a culture of fear that permeates the newsroom. In an interview with BBC he said, "It is an obscene comparison--you know I am not sure I like it--but you know there was a time in South Africa that people would put flaming tyres around people's necks if they dissented. And in some ways the fear is that you will be necklaced here, you will have a flaming tyre of lack of patriotism put around your neck. Now it is that fear that keeps journalists from asking the toughest of the tough questions, and to continue to bore in on the tough questions so often. And again, I am humbled to say, I do not except myself from this criticism."

And, speaking to Moyers: "Fear is in every newsroom in the country. And fear of what? Well… a combination of: if you don't go along to get along, you're going to get the reputation of being a troublemaker. There's also the fear...particularly in networks, they've become huge, international conglomerates. They have big needs, legislative needs, repertory needs in Washington. Nobody has to send you a memo to tell you that that's the case…. And that puts a seed in your mind of, well, if you stick your neck out, if you take the risk of going against the grain with your reporting, is anybody going to back you up?"