Customarily, news anchors and television journalists do theirbest to present themselves as politically neutral. Because bias ishighly scrutinized, few journalists overtly express their ownpolitical identification. This bias-free environment has beenintrinsically unsettled by one of the biggest names in televisionnews. Dan Rather's legacy as a credible news source is crumblingaround him.
On Wednesday, Sept. 8, Rather based the contents of a "60Minutes" interview about President Bush's National Guard records ondocuments CBS News received via fax. Michael Dobbs, of theWashington Post, reports that the documents "had been faxed to CBSNews from a Kinko's copy shop in Abilene, Texas." Traditionally,such documents are thoroughly reviewed for accuracy. In thisinstance, however, one of the most trusted names in news decided tobase his interview off of unproven records that document examinersat CBS News had admonished.
Document analysts Emily Will and Linda James both have reportedthat they warned CBS News of problems with authenticity. ThoughWill reported concerns with the document, she said, "I did not feelthat they wanted to investigate it very deeply." James alsoobjected to Rather's decision to run with the document. CybercastNews Service had experts take a closer look at the documents andreport their conclusions. The report on Sept. 10 found that certaintypeface characteristics were not consistent with the typewritersthat would have been used to create such a document.
This example of overtly biased reporting, based on falseinformation, is not the only example that demonstrates Rather'spolitical disposition. The Media Research Center exposes accountsof Rather's political bias over the past fourteen years.
Concerning tax cut proposals, the "independent" Rather said,"President Bush tonight outlines hiscut-federal-programs-to-get-a-tax-cut plan to Congress and thenation. Democrats will then deliver their televised response, whichbasically says Mr. Bush's ideas are risky business, endangeringamong other things, Social Security and Medicare." Rather is openlydemonstrating his agenda against tax cuts by illustrating them in anegative light, and by using scare tactics concerning governmenthealth care programs.
Moving to the environment, Rather said, "President Bush isordering another rollback, another reversal in U.S. environmentalpolicy... John Roberts has more about the heat this is generating,environmental and political." Rather's language intends tocharacterize Bush as careless concerning U.S. environmentalpolicies; again using scare tactics circa global warming.
On Bush's abortion policies, Rather said, "This was PresidentBush's first day at the office and he did something to quicklyplease the right flank in his party: He re-instituted ananti-abortion policy that had been in place during his father'sterm and the Reagan presidency but was lifted during the Clintonyears." What did Rather have to say about Clinton's abortionactions eight years earlier? "Today, with the stroke of a pen,President Clinton delivered on his campaign promise to cancelseveral anti-abortion regulations of the Reagan-Bush years." Isn'tthat nice? President Clinton was simply delivering on a campaignpromise, while Bush's actions were purely party motivated.
Bias in the media will always be a cloudy issue. Liberals willlabel their favored journalists as fair-and-balance, whileconservatives will do the same for theirs. One thing is for sure,though, Dan Rather most certainly is not. His overt partisanshipviolates the principles of his journalistic brethren. One ofhistory's most famous journalistic icons has fallen to thegraveyard of bias, and all but lost his credibility.
Write to Brett at
bamock@bsu.edu
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