On Monday the Chronicle stated in their editorial that:
Finally, former CBS News anchor Dan Rather, who got his start in Houston, wrote a sad footnote to his mostly distinguished career when he sued his old employers for $70 million. The suit alleges that CBS made Rather a scapegoat for an inaccurate story about George W. Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard. Whatever the network executives’ sins, they don’t deserve to be punished to that degree after paying Rather millions per year long after he had passed his prime.
Rather’s suit, while presenting a weak case against CBS, makes a wounding case against his own prowess as a broadcast journalist. Despite the fact that Rather bore the title of managing editor of CBS News, he alleges in his suit that he bore no responsibility for the content or accuracy of his broadcasts: The mighty network anchor is revealed for what he or she is, merely a familiar face reading from a teleprompter reports he or she had nothing to do with preparing.
I had to respond:
To: viewpoints@chron.com
Subject: True Colors
The Houston Chronicle’s Editorial Board showed their ties to the corporation are stronger than those to the journalist when they decided to chastise Dan Rather (Mistakes, Sept 24).
His lawsuit is more about forcing the big boys (which includes Viacom and The Hearst Corporation) to allow journalism ferret out the truth. When you are in fear of your job, you can’t be an objective journalist!
Whether you believe in the veracity of Mr. Rather’s initial report or not (the report stand whether the pieces in question are legitimate or not - and they have not been proven false), the ability of The Press (which means the foot pounding journalist, not the Corporation) to seek the truth was damaged by his summary termination.
-Bill Shirley
Houston, Texas
I should have added “this lawsuit isn’t for himself, it’s for the Cub Reporter”.
September 26th, 2007
Posted by
bshirley |
inthenews, media |
one comment
There is a great pool on flickr called “DRM is like…”
Digital Rights Management. It’s only on legally purchased music and keeps you from doing things that are legal to do with purchased music. It’s what makes “squirted” music on Zunes only play three times. It’s what makes NBC’s new “free video service” (with commercials) only allow you to view a TV show for a week. (How long will that VHS tape of Heroes last?)
How long till it dies out? I’m really interested to see the end game. Open media is the only answer.
September 26th, 2007
Posted by
bshirley |
media, picture, web |
no comments
The US Military can’t patrol their own camps, they pay others to do it.
Oh, they can patrol the camps, but they don’t have enough people to do all the jobs that need doing in Iraq, so they hire “private contractors”. Basically, mercenaries. But the State Department hires as many as 8 times more (from Blackwater - the leading “security” firm doing business in Iraq) than the Pentagon does1. And some of those guys went on a shoot-em-up spree. The military is much too familiar with this.
“The problems with the absence of oversight, management, doctrine, and even law and order when it comes to private military contractors have been known for a while.”2 And our government has failed to act on any of this.
Just as their was failure to adequately plan before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, just as there has been an absence of true diplomatic efforts before and after the invasion, there has been utter lack of action on huge problems with the mercenary “civilian contractors”.
Such inaction by government is absolutely impeachment worthy. The only reason I don’t think it is treasonous is because I think they believe they have a valid intent. I believe they are merely incompetent. If it were proven true that their behavior was one for personal or corporate profit in blatant disregard of morality, decency, and law, that would be another case.
September 26th, 2007
Posted by
bshirley |
government, inthenews |
one comment
