Dan Rather's Magnum Opus

[WilliamPitt]

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/horsesmouth/2007/09/charge_cowed_by.php

Charge: Desperate To Curry Favor With Bush, CBS Execs Tried Not To Run Abu Ghraib Story
September 21, 2007

I've been going through the big lawsuit that Dan Rather filed against CBS the other day, and there's some stuff in it that's pretty eye-opening and definitely deserving of more attention.

Rather's lawsuit, of course, deals mostly with the scandal around the story about Bush and the Air National Guard. But as TPM Reader KC alerted us, there are some peripheral allegations in the suit that are at least as interesting, and these concern another story CBS broke: The Abu Ghraib torture scandal.

Specifically, buried in the lawsuit is the allegation that top CBS execs, under intense pressure from government officials, refused for weeks to air the torture story, despite mounting evidence that the story was solid. The execs fingered are CBS News president Andrew Heyward and senior vice president Betsy West.

This episode has been referenced in passing here and there in news accounts, and some of the details about CBS' foot dragging on Abu Ghraib have been known for years. But here you have Rather himself making these allegations from the inside, on the record. And the lawsuit spells out the whole episode in ugly detail.

Here's what happened, according to an excerpt buried on page 11 of the complaint:

38. In late April 2004, Mr. Rather, as Correspondent, and Mary Mapes, a veteran producer, broke a news story of national urgency on 60 Minutes II — the abuse by American military personnel of Iraqi prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison. The story, which included photographs of the abusive treatment of prisoners, consumed American news media for many months.

39. Despite the story's importance, and because of the obvious negative impact the story would have on the Bush administration with which Viacom and CBS wished to curry favor, CBS management attempted to bury it. As a general rule, senior executives of CBS News do not take a hands-on role in the editing and vetting of a story. However, CBS News President Andrew Heyward and Senior Vice President Betsy West were involved intimately in the editing and vetting process of the Abu Ghraib story. However, for weeks, they refused to grant permission to air the story, continuously insisting that it lacked sufficient substantiation. As Mr. Rather and Ms. Mapes provided each requested verification, Mr. Heyward and Ms. West continued to "raise the goalposts," insisting on additional substantiation.

40. Even after obtaining nearly a dozen, now notorious, photographs, which made it impossible to deny the accuracy of the story, Mr. Heyward and Ms. West continued to delay the story for an additional three weeks. This delay was, in part, occasioned by acceding to pressures brought to bear by government officials urging CBS to drop the story or at least delay it. As a part of that pressure, Mr. Rather received a personal telephone call from General Richard B. Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, urging him to delay the story.

41. Only after it became apparent that, due to the delay, sources were talking to other news organizations and that CBS would be "scooped," Mr. Heyward and Ms. West approved the airing of the story for April 28, 2004. Even then, CBS imposed the unusual restrictions that the story would be aired only once, that it would not be preceded by on-air promotion, and that it would not be referenced on the CBS Evening News.

Your liberal media.

The lawsuit adds elsewhere that CBS chief Sumner Redstone "considered it to be in his corporate interest to curry favor with the Bush administration."

Again, some stuff about CBS' foot-dragging has been known for years, but the details here are really key. If true, it's pretty surprising that CBS, in apparent response to government pressure, allegedly tried to downplay its own scoop by airing it only once and not precede it with on-air promotion.

Perhaps many of these details are known to some people. But they're certainly deserving of wider dissemination, and suggest that there's much more to the story. What emerges here is a striking portrait of a big news org that, fearful of pressure from conservative critics and eager to curry favor with the Bush administration, allegedly dragged its feet to an extraordinary degree in order to avoid revealing the truths it knew about a horrifying scandal of international dimensions.

Sobering stuff.

===

Rather's Complaint: http://www.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/business/20070920_cbs_complaint.pdf (Adobe doc)

The news media has been our enemy for many years now.

The news media is a threat to our national security and the continuation of our democracy.

An insider from the news media is talking.

Loud.

Dan Rather, ladies 'n gents.

:toast:

[bigtree]

1. Bush gave us a clue when he complained more about the revelation than the abuses themselves

Dan Rather :thumbsup:

[annabanana]

2. This whole dirty business pretty much explains Katie Couric

and her inexplicable rise to the anchor chair.

[tekisui]

14. Yeh, propaganda just needs a few empty vessels.

[Cha]

23. Oh yeah, katie was doin' a bang up

job at the today show..twisting her high heels around and sucking up to repukers and excoriating those who thought bushit wasn't such a good idea.

viacom is like.."oh, we gotta get her!" "Get rid of our real newsman, Dan Rather, and get that fluff couric"..we NEED to Curry favor with the chimphouse or we're not gonna be able to get access(:scared: :scared:)or get our freakin' tax cuts(blubber blubber).

[liberalnurse]

3. I sure hope this "speaking up by media insiders"

become contagious!

[malaise]

4. Great post

On pages 125-6, Al Gore makes some interesting comments.
"The White House also tried to extend its efforts to manipulate the impressions of the American people with a campaign to intimidate the media into presenting a more favorable image of the administration...When the White House became upset with CBS television news, the president engaged in the theatrics of personal intimidation by staging a photo op during his on camera walk from the Oval Office to his waiting limousine, carrying under his arm for the cameras to photograph a copy of a book by a right-wing conservative attacking CBS as biased...Dan Rather, former CBS anchor, said that the post-9/11 atmosphere stifled journalists from asking government officials 'the toughest of the tough questions'. Rather went so far as to compare administration efforts to intimidate the press with necklacing in apartheid South Africa. While acknowledging it as, in his phrase, 'an obscene comparison', he said, 'the fear is that you will be necklaced; you will have a flaming tire of lack of patriotism put around you neck'."

Then we have the author of that rubbish, Goldberg, attacking Rather in a WSJ OpEd.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110005636

[tanyev]

17. Aha! I knew those books he carried were just props.

[malaise]

18. Good spot

but they may have been threats

[Control-Z]

40. Since the chimp doesn't read

why else would he have a book in his possession?

I still have trouble with the fact that the leader of our country doesn't read. Too, too much. It's just one big fat joke after another.

[followthemoney]

50. The new PC is Patriotically Correct.

Look for John K. Wilson's new book entitled "Patriotic Correctness: Academic Freedom and its Enemies."

Too bad it is an overpriced academic press publication.

[cal04]

5. 60 Minutes: Shelving a Story to Boost Bush?

60 Minutes: Shelving a Story to Boost Bush?
CBS puts Niger expose on hold as boss endorses Republicans
In an outrageous politicization of journalism, CBS announced it would not air a report on forged documents that the Bush administration used to sell the Iraq war until after the November 2 election (New York Times , 9/25/04). A network spokesperson issued a statement declaring, "We now believe it would be inappropriate to air the report so close to the presidential election."
9/28/04
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1965

(snip)
Sumner Redstone, CEO of CBS 's parent company Viacom, made an unusual political statement at a gathering of corporate leaders in Hong Kong (Asian Wall Street Journal, 9/24/04):

I don't want to denigrate Kerry... but from a Viacom standpoint, the election of a Republican administration is a better deal. Because the Republican administration has stood for many things we believe in, deregulation and so on. The Democrats are not bad people.... But from a Viacom standpoint, we believe the election of a Republican administration is better for our company.

(snip)
Redstone repeated these sentiments in an interview with Time (10/4/04):
WHAT ABOUT POLITICS? There has been comment upon my contribution to Democrats like Senator Kerry. Senator Kerry is a good man. I've known him for many years. But it happens that I vote for Viacom. Viacom is my life, and I do believe that a Republican Administration is better for media companies than a Democratic one.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,995270,00.html

[307 MMS]

48. Kerry

Denigrate Kerry...why worry? He's f*ckin' Skull & Bones!!!

[PA Democrat]

6. Will, the entire scandal at CBS over the Bush TANG story was eerily

reminiscent of the scandal over the book Fortunate Son by J.H. Hatfield which came out shortly before the 2000 election.

The author was on the trail of a story involving Bush's cocaine use. He had a secret meeting with an anonymous source whom he later identified as Karl Rove. When the book was first released, in typical Rovian style, stories about Hatfield's past criminal record were leaked to the press and the publisher recalled 70,000 copies of the book. Another small publisher was eventually found, but Hatfield's reputation and credibility were badly damaged. He also was reported to have been receiving death threats.

More on the story here:

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/11/1447218

Hatfield had previously refused to reveal the source of his information about Bush’s alleged cocaine arrest. He now to decided to name him. He claimed it was none other than Karl Rove, Bush’s closest political adviser.

If Rove did indeed leak the information, he couldn’t have leaked it to a better subject. Soon after publication of the Fortunate Son, Hatfield’s credibility came under fierce attack.

The media followed the trail laid out for them. They diverted inquiries about Bush’s drug history to stories about Hatfield’s checkered past. He lost two other book contracts and faced financial ruin and obscurity.

The character assassination finally took its toll. In July 2001, Hatfield was found dead of an apparent suicide in a hotel room in Springdale, Arkansas. He was 43 years old. Police said he left notes for his family and friends that listed alcohol, financial problems and Fortunate Son as reasons for killing himself. He is survived by a wife and daughter.

[Joanne98]

7. Greg Palast keeps talking about this texas lottery company called Gtech?

What's that about?
http://www.gregpalast.com/dan-crashes-bush-flies-high/

Barnes, who left office under a cloud of impropriety, stayed on in Austin as a big-fee lobbyist. And the biggest fee he received, maybe the biggest ever in the history of the lobbying art, was at least $23 million for representing a company called GTech when it got the contract to operate the Texas lottery. GTech’s creepy ways of doing business caught up with it in 1997, when, after questionable payments to the Texas lottery director’s boyfriend were exposed, GTech lost its contract by order of the new, uncorrupted, lottery director. The lottery work was put up for bid and GTech’s replacement chosen.

But then something quite extraordinary happened: The new state lottery director was fired, the bids tossed out and GTech given back the lottery work — no bidding required. The governor at the time: George W. Bush. Now, let’s go back to the letter buried at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Austin: Governor Bush through made a deal with Ben Barnes not to re-bid because Barnes could confirm that Bush had lied during the ‘94 campaign. During that campaign , Bush was asked if his father…had helped him get in the National Guard. Bush said no he had not, but the fact is his dad called then - Lt. Gov. Barnes…. Silence has a price and Barnes, the letter says, got his: safety for his client GTech, with whom he maintained hidden ties. I can’t imagine that Barnes would make such a raw demand on Bush.
But the war hero Governor’s team made damn sure that no harm came to Barnes and his business associates. The Governor talked to the chair of the lottery two days later and she then agreed to support letting GTech keep the contract without a bid. Did Governor Bush put in the fix for GTech as alleged?

I wasn’t on the phone when he spoke to the lottery board Chairwoman. Maybe they talked about their newfound faith in the Lord, which they both discovered together at the same time. The Chairwoman? Harriet Miers. We don’t know if Miers gave the overpriced GTech its contract back to help the governor keep his Air Guard secret a secret or simply because she liked GTech’s record of high costs and corruption.

In 2005, George W. Bush’s attempted appointment of Miers to the United States Supreme Court surprised the U.S. media and even the President’s own supporters. But I wasn’t surprised at all.

Silence of the Media Lambs

In 2004, he knew exactly what would happen when he finally asked those questions. He had already delivered his own eulogy.

On June 6, 2002 on the program I report for, BBC Newsnight, Rather said:

“It’s an obscene comparison but there was a time in South Africa when people would put flaming tyres around people’s necks if they dissented. In some ways, the fear is that you will be neck-laced here, you will have a flaming tyre of lack of patriotism put around your neck. It’s 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. Again, I’m humbled to say I do not except myself from this criticism.”

see the video here


The lynching of Dan Rather is a cautionary tale of how news is made in the USA — and unmade — and topics permissible during an election. The story that cannot be reported is not about George Bush’s special treatment but about the special treatment of the specially privileged.

http://www.gregpalast.com/dan-crashes-bush-flies-high/

[Klukie]

8. I have no doubt that Dan Rather was railroaded....

I only hope that he isn't brought down further by this battle. This admin. has a knack for discrediting whistle blowers in a most brutal fashion. Stay strong Mr. Rather!

[TankLV]

53. I hope he stays away from small airplanes!

If he dies before this all unfolds and runs its natural course, then we will know for sure we are no longer in the America of our birth or hype...

[mmonk]

9. Kudos to Dan for his courage.

The broadcast media has a lot of responsibility in where this nation currently is. They need to be accurately made a part of the story.

[0007]

10. bttft and recommend!

[acmavm]

11. Dan Rather was indeed used and abused for doing his job, too well

for some obviously. But CBS isn't the only 'news' source that buried stories that would have ensured that the pointy-earred fuckwit from Connecticutt would never have seen the inside of OUR White House. The New York Times and the Washington Post are two other major players on this horrible fraud on the American people. In fact, the Times has it coming and going. They buried stories that would have harmed bush** and they planted ringers (Judy Judy Judy) to report lies.

The big difference though is that none of the others that lied and covered for bush** has anyone of courage and intellect willing to come out and tell the American people the truth. None of the others have anyone of integrity willing to take the monsters into a courtroom and show strip away the facade and lay the facts bare.

Dan Rather is a patriot.

[H2O Man]

12. Mary Mapes

is a person who has ethical standards, something that has become uncommon in recent years in corporate journalism. She is also an intelligent human being. I think that her involvement adds a lot to the story.

I support Dan Rather.

[mmonk]

16. Her book "Truth and Duty" pretty much lays it out.

I have that in my collection of books about this dark era. In fact, I have a whole bookshelf full plus a file of reports enough to write a definitive story.

[malaise]

19. I need to order her book n/t

[Senator]

13. Dan Rather Is Impeaching CBS, Bushcheney, Euphemedia, et. al.

He's investing very real capital -- financial and personal -- in DOING what needs to be DONE.

He knows he'll lose friends and be unfairly attacked and smeared by those he thought were friends, but he's more concerned with the principles that led him into journalism and the values his father taught him to live by.

He may not have take an oath to protect and defend this nation, but his journalistic ethic -- which derives from the ideals of our founders and the words of our Constitution -- demands that he ACT to oppose the forces that have disregarded and continue to disregard our core values.

He doesn't know if he'll be rewarded for it or not. But he does know there will be consequences of Failure To Act.

He simply chooses to put his faith in the American People who will sit on his jury.

See how it's done DC LieberDems? You simply level the charges. You voice the objection.

Without that, the process of accountability never begins.

--

[DemReadingDU]

15. Recommended for Dan Rather!

[pretzel4gore]

20. we got the government we deserve...

when god smote Sodom he did it after asking for excuse not to: to wit 50 good people (good meaning people who 'turned the other cheek, did to others as they'd have done to them, forgave their enemies, gave in preference to getting, had not in preference to having' etc) But the goddam place was fulla repukes, it was discovered, when Lot couldn't locate 50 'good' men, so God upped the ante and asked for 40 good men, then 30, no...how about 20? 10? then finally ONE good man? But NOOO! Not even one! So kaboom and the rest of it is his tory.
Dan Rather still aint ratting out the pig. He's playacting a role as righteous american newsman preserving the reputation of the pigmedia. Bush wasn't elected in 2k. Rather knows it more then anyone. He could have said, after the race was called for Gore, that 'someone's interfering' with this election, call the police (still under clinton) and upset the preplanned apple cart, but NOOOO!
You people are sweet etc, but Sodom got what it deserved, and so are we. That's not nihilism or provocativenes, it's a fact there was NOT ONE GOOD MAN in all of Sodom on Nov7/00
The entire media needs jailing, with the ringleaders shot. you are god. Lol

[robinlynne]

25. The entire black caucus walked out of congress. remember?

[pretzel4gore]

39. that's right...

it was wonderful, but still only results count. very few people know about the cbc walking out-even today. but Rather had a stage which could have stopped the coup right then. Mind you, the nazipoohs probably had cut outs for all tv and Rather would have committed career suicide for nada, but....

[WillyT]

21. Thank You Dan !!!

Oh, and BTW...

This "leftist" newspaper man, was a Marine!



Just for the record!

K & R !!!

:patriot::kick::patriot:

[Cha]

22. Down with mediawhores everywhere

and cbs in particular, with this suit that Dan Rather is filing for only $70 million. :toast:

I'm saying "Finally" the "Worse than pravda US news" pendulum may be gearing up its rusty self and starting to schwing.

[Gregorian]

24. This had better go to the bigger points, and not the details.

By now I assume that the plaintiffs are not in this to settle out of court. Having said that, this better not turn into piddly ass fines for incorrect and improper editing that resulted in the disemboweling of a major news break.

What this was was the suspension of human beings in the dark dungeons of Iraq. As well as the propping up of a fascist dummy for the winning of a PNAC treasure.

I want this to be the beginning of the end of this conglomeration of so-called news monsters.

This is like our democratic voices being on a ten second delay. Hell, Bush already did his damage. We're talking about an election. It's done. This had better be good!

[bleever]

26. This is a monumental story.

It's going to be a hell of a ride.

Thanks for the details.

[Octafish]

27. ''The news media has been our enemy for many years now.''

Since November 22, 1963.

Rather was in on that story, too.

[Gabi Hayes]

43. guess everybody "missed" your post. I didn't.

and, sadly, you're right

where was he during RFK's hit?

October Surprise, 1980?

the Hunting of the President, 1993-2000?

Grand Theft Nation, 2000?

the run up to the war?

the 911 Commission fiasco?

guess you missed all those stories, too, Dan

way too little, way too late.

why not an expose of Rudy's connection to child molesting priests, or the mob, via Bernie Kerik? those stories might stop a bona fide, died in the wool fascist (with a few hundred thousand more brain cells than B***) from stealing yet another election?

[WinkyDink]

55. Never too late.

[Jade Fox]

28. Go, Dan, go!!

I'm so glad this is happening.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

29. MSM = Enemy

Captors and guards for the wealthy and powerful. Dan is a brave soldier and patriot. We must stand with him and voice frequent and loud support.

Thanks Will.

[tomreedtoon]

30. Not a "Courage" patriot...a Desperate Anchorman.

I have never met Dan Rather, but I work on a regular basis with news readers. I know the species.

If you didn't know, they are actors. They are playing the parts of journalists, but they generally aren't themselves. Their words are written by people too ugly and unattractive to stand in front of the camera themselves - people with writing skills and investigative abilities that few on-air anchors have.

Some of them are nice, some are morons, but all of them are actors. And that means they have large and easily bruised egos. You laughed at Ted Baxter on Mary Tyler Moore but if you worked in a TV station as a cameraman, and you accidentally shot Ted frowning or cursing, he would run up after the news, scream in your face and try to get you fired. I have seen this happen, several times.

Dan Rather went along quite nicely with the stuff CBS gave him to read. He and his attempt to make "Courage" or "Couraje" his big catch-phrase sign-off line, and his "Kenneth, What's the Frequency?" story (which still rings as phony as a teen's excuse for being caught naked and drunk in the woods). He played the game, and played it well, with a six-figure salary and an unquestioned public image as an incisive, questioning journalist.

Oh, he had his moments of real courage, in Dallas 1963 and the 1968 Democratic Convention. That was when he was a reporter. When he mutated into an anchorman that changed. He became a good little puppy for the management of CBS News. And since that became just a part of a megacorporation, that management lost its agenda for independent news coverage and became another neo-con PR organization.

Rather's anger is very much like that of Joan Collins's character on Dynasty. When spurned, Rather or Collins pulls little intrigues to get revenge. That's all this is, a Desperate Anchorman making drama for revenge. If CBS threw a couple of million and a deal to make documentaries towards Rather, he'd smile and shuffle his stilleto heels and say he didn't mean a word of it. Just watch. This is probably in the making right now.

[JDPriestly]

34. No matter!

It's all worth it if we get to read the depositions of the heads of CBS and CBS news. We will get to see all the documents that relate to these stories. Just wait. Whether Rather's anger is just revenge or not, a lot of very important facts will emerge if this lawsuit is allowed to proceed.

[dickbearton]

46. Is that news to you...

Of course their bought by the corporation and your not.

[NashVegas]

56. Whose Integrity Was Compromised

In the TANG story.

Everyone knows it's the producers who put the story together. Rather had a choice whether or not to sign on to the Abu Grahib story, he had a choice whether to sign onto TANG.

Most of your "news readers" get such a choice.

[saracat]

59. Bull shit.Dan was also a war correspondent and even in his 70's was reporting from Iraq.

Dan is a man of great courage who has risked his life for the truth.He is and always will be a true journalist.Your classification of him as a Desperate Anchorman is despicable.You obviously know very little about Dan Rather.

[tomreedtoon]

62. And you can't tell a Reporter from an Anchor. D'oh!

A Reporter has to deal with real people, on the street, to try to get a story. An Anchor sits in the studio, fusses with his hair, and introduces stories...sometimes done by Reporters, sometimes done by the Government (as Video News Releases, or VNR's).

A Reporter has to think. An Anchorman has to learn the pronunciation of hard words like Abu Gareb (but quite often they never do...did you ever really watch your local anchor?)

When Rather was taken off a beat and put behind the desk, he lost whatever skills he had. He didn't have to investigate anything. It was done for him (or not, if those VNR's were used). He just had to look authoritative and sound authoritative. If you don't use your mind, you get STUPID. Rather got stupid.

I don't need to have snuck into Rather's bedroom at night to find out those facts. I work in the leading news station in my city. I've seen it up close in every anchor or would-be anchor. Because after having to be a reporter, having to stand out in the rain and sun and trying to shoo away the derelicts who are trying to be a TV star during your report...who wouldn't appreciate becoming an anchor and not having to think, for more money?

[saracat]

63. Dan was hardly "sitting in the studio fussing with his hair' when he broadcast from Iraq

and Afghanistan. And if he had been, at his age it would have been understandable. Yes , he was an anchor but he remained a reporter as well . He didn't have to continue to go to dangerous places in his 70's. He could have stayed home.You just don't like Rather. Perhaps you are jealous? I really don't get it.

[tomreedtoon]

64. Call it disgust with his ego, as well as his profession.

He's so freaking full of himself. He thinks the sun and the moon orbit around him. In other words, he is like everybody else in the news business in this era; not so much a love for the truth as a love of hair gel.

Saracat, I don't think you've ever really dealt with a modern television newsroom. You don't know what goes on. For example, communicating with your co-workers is never done. If you know something that someone else doesn't, you don't tell anyone. You use that so you can claw your way above the pack, and hopefully stab someone else in the back and plant your foot on the protruding blade to climb higher.

I work in engineering. I have been involved with the engineering part of newscasts ever since 1976, from the old days of running U-matic tapes to the modern era of running stories off video servers. We engineers share information among others in our department. It's the only way to make everything run better. News doesn't share information. They hoard it.

And yes, they don't really care how well the department does. They care how well they personally do, so they can have something to post in their resumes to the next, hopefully bigger, station where they will work. And Dan Rather is precisely that kind of backstabbing jackass.

You, being a civilian out there in the dark, probably don't believe this, and God bless you for your ignorance. You don't want to know how sausage...or newscasts...are made. I have no choice. I can't un-know that knowledge.

[saracat]

65. Actually I have worked with a newsroom and I currently do a local televison politcal talk show..

I am co host and do the interviews. And I still disagree with you.

[tomreedtoon]

66. Ah. Public TV, not Real TV.

My first job was at the second-smallest Public TV station in the nation, in Newark, Ohio. I got to see that stuff close-up.

Although I have real problems with what commercial TV has become in the last twenty years or so, I really detested public TV. For someplace that had "no commercial influence" they did a lot to suck up to their "sponsors." That's why a boring douchebag like William F. Buckley Jr. kept his Firing Line on the air for years; his rich buddies paid for the program and it was cheap for the PBS stations to buy on their poverty budgets. That's also why the Christian Right took over the original "At the Movies" show with the Catholic-controlled zombie Michael Medved.

Outside of that...without any pressure to really communicate to the public, "public affairs" programs are mostly academics talking to themselves. While I solidly believe that commercial TV should be required to run these shows to keep some kind of contact with the community, I have never seen a show with a forceful personality or someone who could keep to a point. Mostly the hosts are just thrilled to be on TV and talking to someone of some importance.

Two cases in point: Bob Hope, at the end of his career, showed up to talk on a "Friends of the Library" show in my hometown. Big celeb, with everyone fawning over him...and aside from a few cynical remarks, after he plugged his awful new book he acted like a man with an upset stomach who really wanted to go to the john. The host was hoping for a laugh riot and got a colic-y old baby instead. The host alone couldn't have gotten a rise out of a retirement home audience.

The other case: A Sunday live talk show for "youth issues." The teens were practically gathered at gunpoint to appear on the show. No teen with real problems, or a real personality, would show up at 10:00 AM on Sunday. They were all drinking, drugging or screwing the previous night. The only ones who would show up were the cheerleader/jock/student council types, the ones who thought "youth issues" were the latest Seventeen magazines on the newsstands. Besides, a kid with something real to talk about would be cut off the air by the junior-pastor type.

It is important for these shows to exist. Sometimes...rarely...they talk about real issues. And their existence reminded TV management that they were supposed to serve the public interest in some way, not just accumulate money. But that also requires academics and intellectuals who run these shows to care about serving the public, too, and I've rarely seen that happen.

[saracat]

68. My family has worked for commercial television for years.

We all were closely involved with CBS. In both NY and Los Angeles. I am very familiar with "real TV" and its underpinnings". And BTW, Bob Hope was family friend. He and Dolores were among the most gracious people I have ever met. I guess we differ in our impressions of the industry. I am by no means a "Pollyanna" but I find it hard to be as negative as you seem to be. Television is like any other industry.It has its good and its bad. I happen to think that Dan Rather was one of the "good guys".

[MasonJar]

31. Kudos to Dan. He has always had my respect. He is the modern

Edward R. Murrow, who likewise lost his job for speaking truth to power. These are the men who may save our country.

[Auntie Bush]

32. So who is sending this to KO? This is deserving of a Special Comment!

[HardRocker2005]

33. surprise, surprise. nt

[Disturbed]

36. Not only did CBS delay the story but they showed only the

least benign photos. These photos got the comment by Limbaugh of "pranks" because the actual Torture photos were held back. The US Corp. Media is complicit with the Fascist Busholini Regime.

[AtomicKitten]

35. Just desserts are especially delicious.

[marlakay]

37. I was so upset at the time, i could see what they were

doing to Rather. It made me sick. He was like the last of the real journalists in my opinion. We have a few now but its not the same either they are on smaller cable networks msnbc like keith or pbs or on blogs.

If only we the people could take back our news airwaves...I know Al Gore is trying to do that with current but that only reaches a very small amount of people.

[Kurovski]

38. K&R. (nt)

[BlueJac]

41. I like your post........

I think Dan Rather is a great journalist and American.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

42. Will my friend

Good to see you again :pals:

Wonder how THIS'll play on the Infotainment Circuit. Heh.

[proud2BlibKansan]

44. Yep CBS sucks

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/proud2Blib/46

[Peregrine Took]

45. I heard Rather say last night that he was hoping for a quick settlement -

that doesn't sound good. Does he just want the cash? I want the whole thing exposed for weeks and weeks and dragged through the headlines.

[RainDog]

47. In May 2004, Sy Hersh noted

...that CBS went ahead with the story because they knew he was going to publish it in the New Yorker the next week. The story appeared in the NYer online two days after it was on cbs. I think Sy Hersh and the New Yorker "forced the hand" of CBS -- they couldn't NOT show the piece b/c they knew Hersh would mention that they had the story too.

The excuse that was used to stop the airing of the program was that there was "heavy fighting" in Iraq... once again manipulation of soldiers to protect the guilty in the highest ranks who sanctioned torture.

Hersh's NYer editor mentions this in the intro to Chain of Command.

Here Hersh also talks about things this whole issue seems to have "missed."

The 10 official inquiries into Abu Ghraib are asking the wrong questions, at least in terms of apportioning ultimate responsibility for the treatment of prisoners. The question that never gets adequately answered is this: what did the president do after being told about Abu Ghraib? It is here that chronology becomes very important.

--the investigation via the army had gone on for a year before it ever appeared in any U.S. news meda.

By the beginning of October 2003 the reservists on the night shift at Abu Ghraib had begun their abuse of prisoners. They were aware that some of America's elite special forces units were also at work at the prison. Those highly trained military men had been authorised by the Pentagon's senior leadership to act far outside the normal rules of engagement. There was no secret about the interrogation practices used throughout that autumn and early winter, and few objections. In fact representatives of one of the Pentagon's private contractors at Abu Ghraib, who were involved in prisoner interrogation, were told that Condoleezza Rice, then the president's national security adviser, had praised their efforts. It's not clear why she would do so - there is still no evidence that the American intelligence community has accumulated any significant information about the operations of the resistance...

-so the issue of Blackwater, as well as "what did they know and when did they know it" is still un- or under-reported.

[Hieronymus]

49. I support Dan Rather .. I just wish he'd get some dentures that fit. It's

so distracting to hear them when he speaks.

[in_cog_ni_to]

51. "General Richard B. Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, urging him to delay the story."

and a General's motives should never be questioned....why? Speaking of Betray Us!

I hope this goes to trial so all the sordid details will be made public. Liberal media, my ass! 60 Minutes was the one show I always felt I could rely on for the unvarnished truth. Their investigative journalism is what made 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes and so well liked and respected.

Wouldn't it be great if Dan Rather did a documentary about this whole story on his new show/network? He could go into the Bush AWOL story, IN DEPTH and include the new info he has about it. Then, follow-up with how CBS tried to kill it. He could go into the Abu Ghraib torture story and how CBS was influenced by the Government and MILITARY. Rather could probably end 60 Minutes if he really wanted to with a documentary like that. I suppose the trial could do the same, if it goes to trial.

[proud patriot]

52. Giving this a kick

[MelissaB]

54. Replying to find tomorrow

at a decent hour.

[orleans]

57. thanks for putting this up. sobering stuff indeed. n/t

[The Wizard]

58. The Fourth Estate

has evolved into a fifth column working against the best interests of the citizens and catering to an all powerful central government like it did in the now defunct Soviet Union. The corporate media's future is as viable as dinosaurs. With each passing day, fewer people rely on corporate media for real information that will help them decide how to address life's challenges. The Soviets knew they were getting propaganda and after a while just ignored it. Dan Rather is ahead of the curve and in the end, truth will emerge. Once confidence is lost, regaining it is damn near impossible. They have willfully decided to work against those who pay their bills in favor of those who threaten them with the power of the State. Fool me once................

[liberalla]

60. Don't forget the Ed Bradley piece on the uranium from Niger

Remember the Ed Bradley piece on the yellowcake from Niger? No? Oh yeah, that's the one that didn't run. It was killed in favor of this Dan Rather piece on bush and the TANG.

The Story That Didn't Run
http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/headlines04/0923-02.htm

The Bradley piece would have been much more damaging to the WH. When the TANG story 'backfired', it insured the Bradley piece on the forged documents (and false claim that Saddam was attempting to acquire yellowcake from Niger) was killed.

That was six months of solid investigation that CBS declined to air to appease the WH. :mad:

[ikojo]

61. Remember when Sumner Redstone said that

he votes for what is in VIACOM'S best interest, not what is in the best interest of the nation. He supported Bush in 2004 because he thought a Republican presidency would be best for VIACOM!

Who says fascism does not exist in the USSA?

For all these many decades we were raised to think the Russians and Communism were the bad guys and the ones to fear when in reality it is corporate America in bed with all three branches of the government who we should fear.

[american_typeculture]

67. Republicans have been after CBS ever since Murrow skewered McCarthy.