"ABC is a pimple on the elephant's behind" Koppel on Rather- Squeezing Out Newsman was a ‘Travesty'

[kpete]

September 24, 2007

Koppel on Rather Suit: Squeezing Out of Newsman was a ‘Travesty’
By Chuck Ross

Calling the ouster of Dan Rather from CBS News in 2006 a “travesty,” newsman Ted Koppel said today that he hopes the $70 million suit filed by Mr. Rather against CBS and Viacom will bring Mr. Rather “relief from his (emotional) pain.”

Mr. Koppel said he “hurt” for Mr. Rather, whom he characterized as a friend. Addressing the “60 Minutes” report about President George Bush’s National Guard service that preceded Mr. Rather’s departure from CBS, Mr. Koppel said the story was “much more correct than incorrect.” Mr. Koppel said that those responsible for the incorrect parts of the report deserved to be chastised and punished.

It is a “travesty” that “Dan Rather was squeezed out” with such little class from CBS News, Mr. Koppel said today at a forum at Fordham University in New York City that was put on by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

..........................

Mr. Koppel also spoke about the difficulties that network news departments face as parts of media conglomerates. Speaking of his former employer, he said, “ABC News is a pimple on the elephant’s behind”—the elephant being ABC parent Walt Disney Co.

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more at:
http://www.tvweek.com/news/2007/09/koppel_on_rather_suit_squeezin.php

[BootinUp]

1. Mildly surprised

that Koppel made some of those statements.

[cali]

4. Do you listen to him on NPR? n/t

[BootinUp]

14. No, I haven't n/t

[MiniMe]

2. A weird analogy, a pimple and squeezing in the same sentence

Does that mean that ABC is full of pus?

[Hangingon]

13. To follow the analogy....

wouldn't it be the pimple full of puss?

[whoneedstickets]

3. Elephant = GOP?

Is there a not so subtle message there?

[Nickster]

6. That's how I read it.

[KharmaTrain]

5. News As A Profit Division

We have the best "journalism" corporate money can buy...or at least get a return on. News went from being a "load" a "drain" on a broadcast company's "behind"...no longer a public service, but yet another entertainment division. Costs were cut...bureaus were shut down, newreaders vs. journalists were hired and expenses held tightly in check. Dare to step out of line and the next station you work at will have "Full Serve" on the front of it.

This CBS suit will be interesting if Rather can show that Redstone, Heyward and Moonves were politically pressured into squashing stories and forcing Rather out. This may be an important case to prove that we no longer have a fifth estate...they moved into the estate at 1600 Pennsylvania with the rest of the greedy.

Kopel got a similar exit at ABC...as Disney saw their "Path to 9/11" and began getting their news "scoops" from Drudge.

[gratuitous]

7. Yeparoonie

And Rather and Koppel benefited quite handsomely while they rode that handcart straight to Hell. Just like so many generals who finally discover their ability to speak as soon as their first pension check cashes, both Rather and Koppel are speaking out about what the commodification of the news departments has meant: Not just the writers, not just the reporters, not just the behind-the-camera grunts, but even the highly-paid readers in front of the cameras are nothing more than parts to be used up and scrapped.

How's it feel to be treated like a Wal-Mart wage slave, boys? And why didn't you do stories about that when you had the megaphone? Couldn't identify with disposable workers and their plight?

[KharmaTrain]

10. I Can't Argue With You There

I admired Rather when he stood up to Nixon, but I agree that while at the helm of CBS News, the network's news division went to hell. The movie Broadcast News was a direct shot at what happened when Tisch took the company over and began the "star system" that Rather and others profited from.

Working in "the media", I saw unions busted out of local stations, companies downsized and consolidated that eliminated news departments...the gateways that people like Murrow and Rather and Olbermann and others used to gain their experience...in place of "happy talk" or no news whatsoever. Those who held on did so by "not rocking the boat"...and helping create the lazy corporate media we "enjoy" today. If it bleeds, it leads...or creating their own narratives that were far easier to "cover" and cheaper, too.

[qdemn7]

15. Excellent post, thanks

That is so neat and succinct it's pathetic. And I have little sympathy for Rather. He certainly was apologizing THEN. Now suddenly we are supposed to believe he has developed scruples?

[Toots]

8. that those responsible for the incorrect parts of the report deserved to be chastised

Excuse me but exactly what parts were "incorrect"? There was a document that could not be verified but that does not make the document incorrect...I would like to know what part of that report which was never aired was considered to be incorrect..

[kskiska]

9. Koppel deserves credit for refuting the Swiftboaters

by taking his show to Vietnam and verifying John Kerry's version of events by interviewing local people who remember them. It didn't matter anyway. No one paid any attention to this program.

He prefaced the program by saying he had no idea what the locals would say, but that he would report whatever they did say. It turned out that Kerry's version was the truth.

[gratuitous]

11. Kerry's "version" was also the Navy's version

For all the hoopla over the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, it boiled down to one bitter guy denying Kerry's story which had been verified by the Navy, and which was supported by every other person who served with Kerry. But for some strange reason, all the media attention focused on one very well-funded loudmouth and his very well-funded pals (who weren't in Vietnam) who all claimed without evidence of any kind that the Navy, Kerry, and everyone else who served with Kerry were wrong.

Another instance of our bulldog liberal media granting everyone not only the right to their own opinion, but the right to their own facts, verifiable or not.

[blm]

12. That's what they do - one will get the WHOLE TRUTH and the rest will IGNORE their

report.

This happened repeatedly on major stories.

The day after Koppel's report we all thought that news would be wall to wall on all the networks. NO OTHER NETWORK repeated that report.