Why Dan Rather Matters

By now many of us have read or are starting to read the McClellan book which gives us even more details about how the so-called Newsrooms and other outlets of the mainstream media were "complicit enablers" in the advance to the folly of the Iraq war.

And, no surprises here... these claims of enabling have been met with denials from past and present news anchors such as Tom Brokaw, Charles Gibson and Brian Williams (although we have to give one of the current "big three" anchors some support because Katie Couric has admitted some failures).

But Dan Rather, who has often spoke his mind even while the CBS anchor gave a remarkable speech.  Remember that he was still the CBS anchor in 2003 during the high level advance to war. In this keynote speech before the National Conference for Media Reform, Rather has offered a strong and passionate critique of the collective journalists' performance at both the national and local levels.

We all need to review this speech!  Rather pulls no punches and admits the failure of so-called investigative reporting in an era of corporatist media. 

Rather began his talk by admitting that (and what can only be considered a reference to McClellan) "Whatever his motives for saying these things, he's right," but he also recalled that some reporters did ask some tough questions but were not given much assistance in the Newsrooms and certainly no support from the larger corporations.

Rather then explored the larger trend in the industry, starting with: "In the wake of 9/11 and in the run-up to Iraq, these news organizations made a decision -- consciously or unconsciously, but unquestionably in a climate of fear -- to accept the overall
narrative frame given them by the White House."

And he ought to know.  He was one of those who went along with that "narrative frame" (or as most of us would call it, lying).  The only difference is that Rather is telling us he went along and is now ashamed of his behavior during the run-up to war.  And that is why Dan Rather still matters to the reporting industry today - outside of someone like Bill Moyers and a handful of others, Rather is the closest thing the industry has to a conscience.

They should listen to it.