Dan Rather Calls on Obama to Save the Media
The irrepressible Dan Rather wants President Barack Obama to form a commission and save the media.
Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather called on President Barack Obama to form a White House commission to help save the press Tuesday night in an impassioned speech at the Aspen Institute.
“I personally encourage the president to establish a White House commission on public media,” the legendary newsman said.
Such a commission on media reform, Rather said, ought to make recommendations on saving journalism jobs and creating new business models to keep news organizations alive. At stake, he argued, is the very survival of American democracy.
“A truly free and independent press is the red beating heart of democracy and freedom,” Rather said in an interview yesterday afternoon. “This is not something just for journalists to be concerned about, and the loss of jobs and the loss of newspapers, and the diminution of the American press’ traditional role of being the watchdog on power. This is something every citizen should be concerned about.”
The irony is glacier-thick; this is the guy who was caught red-handed pushing obviously phony documents on his 60 Minutes show, in an outrageous attempt to affect a presidential election in the final days before the vote.
The article by Andrew Travers in the Aspen Daily News does not even mention this little indiscretion, of course.
Speaking at the posh Aspen Meadows resort in Colorado, Dan the Phony Document Man was so torn up at the predicament of the press that he began to weep.
Tears welled in the lifelong reporter’s eyes as he discussed the dwindling number of war correspondents.
Frank says: