progresswear/media

Dan Rather: Scapegoat

Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel's take on the news that Dan Rather is suing CBS for millions. It's actually more of a discussion sparked by Rather's comment on Larry King that "You can't have freedom if you're going to have large corporations and government intruding on investigative reporting,"

The saddest part of this story is that the story Rather was telling on that infamous 60 minutes broadcast was essentially true. Put aside for a minute, if you're capable, the fact that the single document in question which ultimately led to Rather's departure may have been forged, but every word of it was TRUE.

As with so many other important stories of the last eight years, the truth gets deflected once a scapegoat's misstep is identified. It happend to MoveOn last week in the Patreus fracas, it happened to Dan Rather. One has to dig very deep to find the statements by the individuals in the original story to the effect that, yes, every word in that document, every word of the story itself, was true:
Bush was a drug taking silver spooned slacker ignoring his National Guard duties, protected by a silver umbrella of privilege.

If you spent your entire week under a rock, free from exposure to a single news story via any form of media and could only pass one hour absorbing "what really happened," this is the show to catch.

On the Media's frank analysis of not just the week's news and its various under or over reporting and its myriad slants, but historical perspective on the issues at hand is unparalleled. Brook Gladstone and Bob Garfield have no fear in holding feet to the fire, be they reporters, subjects of stories or government officials. Listening to the show you'd think you were in another country so fearless are their questions, so relentless their refusal to accept sound bites in lieu of real answers.

I find it especially significant that Garfield is an editor at Advertising Age. What better credentials could one have to examine the media landscape than someone whose regular beat consists of covering an industry whose very business is to cleverly persuade and divert.

Their coverage extends far beyond the news of the day. The publishing industry, the blogosphere and other new media, the history of language itself are beautifully and often comically delivered. If your local NPR station doesn't carry it, shame on them, but thankfully you can listen to the podcast at your leisure.