Tom Wolfe: Rather and 60 Minutes Are 'Idiots'

Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 9:29:42 am PDT

At Newsbusters, Noel Sheppard has a post about Tom Wolfe’s appearance on the Charlie Rose show; Wolfe’s comments about the Rathergate scandal are great: Tom Wolfe: Rather, 60 Minutes ‘Idiots’ for Airing Bush National Guard Story.

CHARLIE ROSE: You are at the stage in your fourth decade where people want you to give one last great lecture. I know you do them too. So if you were giving one last lecture about journalism.

TOM WOLFE: About journalism.

CHARLIE ROSE: Not just about finance but about journalism, what would you say because you`ve seen so much of it?

TOM WOLFE: I think what I would say is today as newspapers are declining rapidly, they`re losing money. I would just point out that all news today comes from the newspapers. All of it. Television has never initiated a successful story in its life. When they have a big story it`s always wrong. They had something about Israelis and atomic bombs. Absolutely wrong. They have George Bush being criticized in some letter — The so- called Dan Rather ...

CHARLIE ROSE: About George Bush`s... How he got into the National Guard.

TOM WOLFE: Right. Idiots. They should have looked at the piece of paper. Obviously not written by a typewriter.

Indeed. Very obviously.