Dan Rather is a fallen newsman.
While he originally did great work that, at the time of the Kennedy Assassination in 1963 caught the Sauronic Eye of the CBS network and got him promoted to national status as a journalist, he eventually became blinded by the arrogance and liberal bias that led him to use phony documents to try to unseat a president. Right?
Wrong.
If what people who knew him at the time are saying is true, Dan Rather was a hyperambitious muck-raker from the beginning who knowingly and repeatedly lied about the Kennedy Assassination and the events surrounding it in order to catapult himself to national prominence.
GET THE STORY.
Author: Jimmy Akin
Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."
View all posts by Jimmy Akin
“Sauronic Eye”
Hee, hee, hee… I got a chuckle outta that!
Attack Dan Rather all you like. All that his negligent and sloppy reporting did was to allow the Bush Campaign to use the resulting “smoke and mirrors” to distract the public from the fact our War President was a “chicken hawk” (i.e., using his family fortune and influence to avoid duty in areas of actual conflict) when he had the opportunity to put his butt on the line to defend freedom and democracy.
Who are the journalist and news sources you would promote?
The Fox News/”WAR” Channel, where Rupert Murdock (when he is not presenting fine morally upstanding shows on the Fox Network) presents his modern version of Yellow Journalism – demonizing Saddam for WMD’s, viewing the Iraqi debacle through a “rose colored” camera lens, and acting as an uncritical cheerleader for the Bush regime’s foreign policy.
The Weekly Standard, a bastion of neo-conservatism (also funded by Rupert Murdock), where ex-Trotskyites such as the Kristols advocate a Trotskyite policy of using US military might to create their version of a utopian world
Conservative columnists, such as Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher, who have figuratively prostituted themselves by accepting government funds for promoting the Bush administration and its programs.
Or, perhaps you would like to have Dan Rather replaced on the CBS Evening News by the Bush Administration’s favorite internet reporter/bloggster, Jeff Gannon, who has been known to literally (as well as figuratively) prostitute himself. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36733-2005Feb18.html
Arrogence and bias abound everywhere not just CBS.
E-e-e-w-w-w… that’s one creepy story. I had no idea, though I am not surprised.
And, Marv, Saddam needed no demonizing. Ask his own people. Of course, Hitler was just an invention of the Allies to justify the bombing of Dresden, right? The Holocaust was overblown by the media to get the Folks Back Home solidly behind the war effort, right?
Sorry, I forgot that using the U.S. military to create your own version of a utopian world is only OK when Democrats do it.
I have no illusions about Saddem he was a no good rotten dirty b*****d. However, the world is full of leaders who are no good rotten dirty b*****ds (always has been and always will be – in fact one could argue that the Church has even had its share of no good rotten dirty b*****ds as popes).
We have also ignored bad behavior when it is in our national interest. During a period when Saddem was acting his worse, i.e., gassing Kurds, etc. Rummy and Channey were in Iraq patting him on the back as our ally against Iran, saying “You’re our boy.”
Saddam’s tyranical behavior was not used as the original justification for the invasion of Iraq, rather it was lies told by the Bush Administraton and promoted by its yellow journalist friends regarding WMD’s and ties to terrorists.
Finally, in regards to the creating of a utopian world in a Republican or Democratic version I am opposed to either. As Eric Voegelin, the late Catholic Philospher and former National Review contributor (prior to it becoming the Neocon Review) used to say: “don’t let them Immanentize the Eschaton.”
Actually, I liked the viewpoint of a certain Republican candidate who ran for president in 2000 who said the United States needed to become a “humbler nation” and “not engage in nation building around the world.” I wonder what happened to him?
Marv,
If you have evidence that the Bushes used their status to get preferential treatment for George, Jr. present it! The MSM has been trying, for years to find it and the only person they’ve produced is a Travis County hack who has changed his story and who’s daughter says is lying.
The facts are that George W. Bush joined the Air National Guard and became a pilot — a very dangerous job (1 in 4 career pilots dies in a crash). During his tenure in the ANG, 4 of his co-pilots crashed and died flying identical airplanes. The ANG had a point system to guage your service: you needed 300 points to fulfill your requirements. George W. Bush accumulated over 900 points in his ANG career. George W. Bush was honorably dischared and has long ago signed his form 180 that allows us access to all his records. His opponent in the last election still refuses to sign the form 180 that would allow us to see if he was dishonorably discharged for negotiating with the enemy while still an active Navy officer.
As far as Bush “lies” are concerned:
“The community of nations may see more and more of the very kind of threat Iraq poses now: a rogue state with weapons of mass destruction, ready to use them or PROVIDE THEM TO TERRORISTS. If we fail to respond today, Saddam and all those who would follow in his footsteps would be emboldened tomorrow.”
– President Bill Clinton, 1998
“Without question we need to disarm Sadaam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime. The threat of Sadaam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real.”
– John Kerry, 2003
Oh, here’s more:
RULE 3 VIOLATION.
IF YOU WANT TO PROVIDE A LINK TO THOSE COMMENTS, FINE, BUT DON’T JUST PASTE THEM ALL INTO THE COMBOX.
I’m sorry, are you comparing Bush to Clinton and the Democratic party apparatchiks? It’s a sad day when the GOP starts taking their cues for foreign policy from the Democrats. Isn’t it bad enough that they’ve already taken their domestic policy?
OK, you made your point, Bush is as disingenuous as Bush and Kerry. Like all empire builders he is willing to fabricate any excuse to invade, blockade or bomb asprin plants.