VENAL RATHER THAN VITAL :

US media cowed by patriotic fever, says CBS star : Network news veteran admits national mood caused him to shrink from tough questions on war in Afghanistan (Matthew Engel, May 17, 2002, The Guardian)

Dan Rather, the star news anchor for the US television network CBS, said last night that "patriotism run amok" was in danger of trampling the freedom of American journalists to ask tough questions. And he admitted that he had shrunk from taking on the Bush administration over the war on terrorism.

In the weeks after September 11 Rather wore a Stars and Stripes pin in his lapel during his evening news show in an apparent display of total solidarity with the American cause. However, in an interview with BBC's Newsnight, he graphically described the pressures to conform that built up after the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

"It is an obscene comparison - you know I am not sure I like it - but you know there was a time in South Africa that people would put flaming tyres around people's necks if they dissented. And in some ways the fear is that you will be necklaced here, you will have a flaming tyre of lack of patriotism put around your neck," he said. "Now it is that fear that keeps journalists from asking the toughest of the tough questions."

Actually, all that would happen is the ratings for his newscast would go down. So the easy question he faces is whether journalism is a profession or a business. He's apparently decided--quite rightly, I think--that it's just entertainment, like Jerry Springer, and that making money is more important than asking "tough questions". That's fine, but let's stop pretending that folks like him--the talking heads of tv news--are engaged in a noble calling and are playing some vital role in our democracy.

(via Mike Daley)

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 17, 2002 7:06 AM