INDC Journal snags a three-part interview with the movers behind CBS News’ controversial Draft reinstatement piece, which aired Tuesday evening and was subsequently cited by several commenters as an example of CBS’s penchant for advocacy journalism.
Bill’s interview is eminently fair (at times too fair, perhaps), but it does manage to expose an institutionalized bias among certain factions of the mainstream media establisment—a bias that may or may not be conscious (Bill sides with Bernie Goldberg and suggests that a culture of ingrained liberalism is responsible for motivating the CBS story; whereas I’m skeptical that a scare piece about the Draft that just happens to coincide with the Kerry campaign’s recent flogging of that same debunked trope isn’t motivated by something more…well, considered. But then, I’m a cynic who talks to his pants, so what do I know…?)
Interestingly, CBS has decided once again to pursue the “fake but accurate” defense. Or—as Dan Rather calls it—the “one day soon science will develop the technology necessary to clone original documents from DNA left on unverified fax documents, and then you’ll know why Uncle Cletus spends so much time eatin’ roots in the woodshed” defense.
****
updates a-plenty: More here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
update 2: the day after: More here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Update 3 (slept in late): Here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
update 4: Greyhawk responds to Ms. Cocco.
Really man, we should give them credit for at least talking to the guy and not siccing the dogs on him or something.
Though it’ll be interesting to see if they talk to him again in the future.
Well, by those lofty CBS standards the reality of whether Dan Rather is Queen of the Space Unicorns is moot.
People are talking about it.
It’s a concern.
Film at 11.
I think there is a very important aspect of the CBS debacle that has been completely overlooked.
And it is this: For the past 30+ years, many professors in our institutions of learning have belittled the fundamental basics of core disiplines.
For example, (bear with me, I’m not a writer) I know an English PHD professor who can do many fun things with zines, semantics poetry and knows all kinds of “cool new ways” to express oneself. But he barely knows the basics of grammer and punctuation. This is not uncommon, be it English, Journalism, Polyscience, Humanities, History …the list goes on.
The reason I think this is relevant to CBS’s downfall is …because the schools of journalism have perpetuated a similar flaw. More emphasis was put on pleasing the teacher’s point of view, (and other factors) than was placed on the technical aspects of how to be a true journalist. Rather than verifying sources and getting it right, they were instead taught how to JUSTIFY the prevaling point of view. Verification of sources was far less important than “substance”, with “substance” being defined by the teacher’s opinions on the matter at hand. Those that excelled in school, were those who were best at justifying what the teacher wanted to hear.
The bottom line is, I think that, like my English Professor friend, who couldn’t write a professional piece of correspondence to save his life- journalists trained in the last generation simply haven’t a clue on HOW to do it right.
Those INDC links are fibonacci bunnies.
In peacoats. Penguins. almost.
Thanks for the link- its so purdy.
Good post!
The fact that CBS ran with this story should first and foremost discredit it but definitely adds validity to the bias nature of MSM. CBS proves it believes it is superior to all by running with a rumor…..
Dan Rather is a child molester. I mean, that is what the rumor is, according to a mass email I got. And, the actual truth of it is irrelevant, right? Because the issue is not the facts of Dan Rather’s child molestation, it’s the rumors surrounding Dan Rather criminal felonies with little kiddies.
What do you think would happen to someone who did a story like the above? Yet that is exactly what happened to President Bush. Cross out child molestor and insert the ephitet of your choice and you get nothing but a smear devoid of content.
“What’s important is not that we reported this bullshit story. What’s important is that people believe this bullshit story.”
Thanks for the link, Jeff. I feel like sombody now.
Swarmed again CBS is.
Heh.
dorkafork
priceless! loved it!
LOL Hear, hear….I mean, here, here.
I’m in ‘here’ somewhere.
[…] Contest Photo Winner on CBS exposes the materialist flaw in Bakhtinian theoretics (or, “the story was like, totally in the… Posted by Dan Collins @ 6:52 pm | Trackback Share […]
Good job of research. Thanks for the informative post.