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thedrifter
01-16-05, 03:34 AM
Liar, Liar, Now You're Fired <br />
January 12, 2005 <br />
Ann Coulter <br />
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If CNN doesn't hire them, Dan Rather and his producers can always get a job teaching at the Columbia School of Journalism. The...

OLE SARG
01-16-05, 08:53 AM
dan rather is a piece of work, isn't he? He's got as many faces as kerry has. The SOB should have been ridiculed publicly for what he did and fired completely. It is my understanding that rather is still going to be employed by cbs as as advisor (that's a laugh).

Ain't politics grand????????????????????????????

Politicians or lawyers - which is lower?

SEMPER FI,
OLE SARG

yellowwing
01-16-05, 10:17 AM
Politicians, lawyers, and reporters! Which one would you rather buy a used car from?

Hey HardJedi, is that what you call, "Hobson's choice, " or that Damocles thingie?

HardJedi
01-16-05, 10:22 AM
:) more like something from Dante's Infeno. LOL, you know, making a deal with the devil for your soul and all :D

vfm
01-16-05, 10:35 AM
A bit of trivia for you.
Dan Rather served in the Marine Corps.
SEMPER FI!!!
vfm

yellowwing
01-16-05, 10:52 AM
Foust? Never read it, HardJedi. Anyway:

http://www.ywg-web.com/images/danrather_usmc.gif
Korean War Veteran Era, Dan Rather
I talked to my mother about going to the service and I do not exaggerate that with great tears she just said, "Look, you got into college. You've got to finish." I said, "Listen, I'll go to the service and I'll come back and-- " but she wouldn't hear of it. She just said, "Look, you got there, you've got to finish." And she also said, "The war will go on forever if that's what you're worried about. It'll go on forever." I talked about it the first year I was at college. I talked about it with Hugh Cunningham. The war dragged on. I wasn't scheduled to graduate until 1954 but graduated in the summer of '53 and volunteered for the Marines. I graduated early because I wanted to go in the service.

The Korean War was at that stage where they were having peace talks. It was on and off, on and off, and the Marines didn't take me until the start of 1954, although I had graduated in '53 from college. I taught journalism in college that semester while I was waiting. I had already volunteered for the Marines but I was waiting to actually go. I went in the Marines, had one of the shortest and least distinguished careers in the whole history of the Marine Corps and came out.

text from Achivement.org (http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/rat0int-7)

thedrifter
01-17-05, 12:00 PM
Rathergate: A Squandered Opportunity

January 16, 2005



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by Geoff Metcalf

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Former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and Louis Boccardi, former Associated Press President, presented their ‘Independent Panel’ report on the CBS scandal over what has become known as ‘Rathergate’.

Four CBS employees, included three honchos were thrown over the side…Dan Rather dodged the bullet.

In the wake of the highly anticipated Thornburgh/Boccardi report much has been written.

However the CBS report is Band-Aid surgery for a metastasizing cancer. Thornburgh/Boccardi did their job…kinda. However, now the media ‘suits’ should appoint a committee to actually read what is being written about what did and didn’t happen.

Dan Rather, Mary Mapes et al are symptoms of a dysfunction…not the Lone Ranger. The ‘Rathergate’ flap is but an example of what a freshman English Lit student could identify as a ‘tragic flaw’.

A recent Gallup poll showed that, by almost three-to-one, Americans do not trust “the press”.

A goodly amount of the commentary and punditry has been sparked by an unstated annoyance at Main Stream Media Bias and exacerbated by thinly veiled dislike for Dan Rather.

Some have prematurely hailed the ‘death of big media’, self inflicted mortal wounds that cannot and will not be healed. Maybe…maybe not!

Charles Krauthammer observed, “This is not an isolated case. In fact the case is a perfect illustration of an utterly commonplace phenomenon: the mainstream media's obliviousness to its own liberal bias.” Denial survives…

The Project for Excellence in Journalism conducted a study of mainstream media stories in September and October. Krauthammer notes, “The numbers are stunning.”

“Percent of stories about Bush that are negative -- 59 percent. Percent of stories about Kerry that are negative -- 25 percent. Stories favorable to Bush? 14 percent. Favorable to Kerry? 34 percent…That is not a difference. That is a chasm.”

Notwithstanding the CBS diffidence to crucify Rather, this latest mainstream half epiphany is an opportunity…an opportunity that could and should be exploited. Hey, if you are given lemons…make lemonade.

Despite the ebb and flow of the river ‘Denial’, most people (excluding broadcast executives and print publishers) accept as axiomatic that the main stream is tainted by a systemic liberal bias. That’s a FACT Jack!

Peggy Noonan wrote a premature ‘Requiem’ for the Main Stream Media. “After the Dan Rather scandal, American journalism will never be the same.”
Howard Fineman wrote, CBS is ‘just the tip of the iceberg’; his piece was titled ‘The Media Party is over’.
Neither Noonan nor Fineman have to be right. This entire CBS excrement storm can and should be a catalyst to sea change. “If you build it, they WILL come…” said the ethereal baritone in ‘Field of Dreams’.

For over a decade I have claimed the self-inflicted media wounds are basically a matter of physics. Nature abhors a vacuum. The mainstream created a vacuum by permitting their systemic liberal bias to taint and influence what they chose to offer as news and information.

A symbiotic joining of the Internet and Talk Radio filled the network created vacuum. Cable news joined to create a troika that was (and does) offer news and information the MSM is loath to provide.

In December I wrote “Actually, when news organizations pander to audiences, they are doing what they are supposed to do: build and maintain audience. As I have repeatedly noted, ‘audience,’ not the on air personalities or programming, is the ‘product’ that broadcasters sell.”

The solution to the horrific erosion of audience and popular trust is for the network vacuum to be filled by the networks. This is the time for the network research wonks to arm the programmers with creating what the audience seeks (elsewhere).

Despite their warts, blemishes and tragic flaws, the networks still have extraordinary resources…and market penetration.

Dan Rather is counted a failure for delivering ‘only’ three times the audience the hugely successful Bill O’Reilly does. The most successful Fox News show is still about a million viewers behind Sponge Bob Square Pants.

The Main Stream Networks enjoy a monumental advantage in market penetration. However, either through hubris, myopia, or brain flatulence they fail to exploit that advantage. The Rathergate scandal should cause ‘some’ network executives to get hip (or get fired).

The networks don’t have to reinvent themselves or copy Fox News. The solution to the dysfunction is not brain surgery or rocket science.

Zero tolerance for political prejudice. Regardless of race, creed, sex, or political affiliation, FIRE anyone who does not comply.
Mandatory ‘balance’.
Raid the talent pool:
Hire Internet and Cable talent
Integrate elements of the Internet/Talk Radio symbiosis (and don’t just poach marquee names who largely represent diametric opposite sycophants).
Seek out venues of news and information…not just loud voice
Create new ‘stars’ instead of rearranging the deck chairs
If you build it…they WILL come…


Geoff Metcalf

Ellie