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| Fifth Column |
| Emotional Rather blasts 'new journalism order' |
| 2005-09-21 |
| By Paul J. Gough NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather said Monday that there is a climate of fear running through newsrooms stronger than he has ever seen in his more than four-decade career. Rather famously tangled with President Nixon and his aides during the Watergate years while Rather was a hard-charging White House correspondent. Addressing the Fordham University School of Law in Manhattan, occasionally forcing back tears, he said that in the intervening years, politicians "of every persuasion" had gotten better at applying pressure on the conglomerates that own the broadcast networks. He called it a "new journalism order." He said this pressure -- along with the "dumbed-down, tarted-up" coverage, the advent of 24-hour cable competition and the chase for ratings and demographics -- has taken its toll on the news business. "All of this creates a bigger atmosphere of fear in newsrooms," Rather said. Rather was accompanied by HBO Documentary and Family president Sheila Nevins, both of whom were due to receive lifetime achievement awards at the News and Documentary Emmy Awards on Monday evening. Nevins said that even in the documentary world, there's a certain kind of intimidation brought to bear these days, particularly from the religious right. "If you made a movie about (evolutionary biologist Charles) Darwin now, it would be revolutionary," Nevins said. "If we did a documentary on Darwin, I'd get a thousand hate e-mails." Nevin asked Rather if he felt the same type of repressive forces in the Nixon administration as in the current Bush administration. "No, I do not," Rather said. That's not to say there weren't forces trying to remove him from the White House beat while reporting on Watergate; but Rather said he felt supported by everyone above him, from Washington bureau chief Bill Small to then-news president Dick Salant and CBS chief William S. Paley. "There was a connection between the leadership and the led . . . a sense of, 'we're in this together,"' Rather said. It's not that the then-leadership of CBS wasn't interested in shareholder value and profits, Rather said, but they also saw news as a public service. Rather said he knew very little of the intense pressure to remove him in the early 1970s because of his bosses' support. Nevins took up the cause for Rather, who was emotional several times during the event. "When a man is close to tears discussing his work and his lip quivers, he deserves bosses who punch back. I feel I would punch back for Dan," Nevins said. Rather praised the coverage of Hurricane Katrina by the new generation of TV journalists and acknowledged that he would have liked to have reported from the Gulf Coast. "Covering hurricanes is something I know something about," he said. "It's been one of television news' finest moments," Rather said of the Katrina coverage. He likened it to the coverage of President Kennedy's assassination in 1963. "They were willing to speak truth to power," Rather said of the coverage. Rather sidestepped the question of what should happen to the evening news in the expected makeover. "Not my call," he said. And he said he hadn't been asked, either. "I gave it everything I had, I didn't hold anything back. I did the best newscast we were capable of doing," Rather said. Nevins, who almost single-handedly has kept the art of the independent documentary on television, said the HBO documentaries show real life and do it with as little damage to the subjects as possible. She said the producers and directors "respect mostly the people on the other side of the camera." Nevins said she didn't shy away from such R-rated topics as "G-String Divas" and "Taxicab Confessions" but noted that sex and passion have been topics of literature since Chaucer's day. "The most R-rated is a body bag, not a naked body," Nevins said. |
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |
| #8 To borrow a line from General Honore....Dan Rather is stuck on stupid. |
| Posted by: Desert Blondie 2005-09-21 13:24 |
| #7 Rather is such a frikkin' drama queen. Dan: STFU and STFD! |
| Posted by: Xbalanke 2005-09-21 12:49 |
| #6 Somebody has to take the mortally wounded old partisan warrior off his high horse and remove his badly perforated armor (never adapted to the new weapons did he). Cradle his crushed little skull in loving arms and then mercifully slit his journalistic throat to end the suffering. Pathetic self-agrandizing big man of "journalism" doth cry too much and too often methinks. Kenneth, what's the frequency now? |
| Posted by: MunkatKat 2005-09-21 12:13 |
| #5 Jeez, Dan, you mean like like having people around that actually try to nail your ass to the wall when you print bullshit and pass it off as the truth instead of not being blinded by the light and giving you a pass like in the Golden Age of the MSM? Would've helped if you people didn't make it so friggin easy... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2005-09-21 11:13 |
| #4 The old pompous asshats are dead or dying. Word Victory is at hand. Never before has the enemy suffered such loses. Some of their best agit-prop organs [network anchors/ NY slimes/etc.] are dead or dying. Keep pressing the attack, no mercy for these bastards. |
| Posted by: Red Dog 2005-09-21 10:45 |
| #3 ""I did the best newscast we were capable of doing," Rather said." And so retirement was a bit overdue. |
| Posted by: James 2005-09-21 09:58 |
| #2 Jeez Dan, I really feel bad that you were caught out in partisan lying (or should I say the old order). Buh-bye |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-09-21 08:58 |
| #1 Actually the New Journalism Order he should respond to is a blogosphere that is agile, internally correcting and most importantly doesn't let Big Media types like Rather get away with making shit up and broadcasting it on the airwaves. It doesn't go unchallenged anymore. The monopoly is kaput. |
| Posted by: eLarson 2005-09-21 08:00 |