Rather’s Distortions of Fact: Nothing New
In light of the current controversy over Dan Rather and “60 Minutes,” I am going to try to press my friend harder to allow me to tell his story about his unfair treatment at the hands of Dan Rather (something I first alluded to here).
Even without permission from my friend, I can share the story in broad outlines. Rather was trying to make a specific point in a story that ran on “60 Minutes.” Rather asked an interviewee about that specific point, and the interviewee gave a devastating answer that destroyed Rather’s point — and at the very least, was the best possible argument against Rather’s point. The answer ended up on the cutting room floor.
That’s the best I can do without permission. I’ll see if I can get this guy to let me tell the story in detail. My point is this: if you think that the numerous distortions of fact by the media in recent days are a new phenomenon, you’re wrong. The only thing that’s new is that they can’t get away with it any more.
“…they can’t get away with it any more.”
They can’t? Looks to me like they’re getting away with it slick as powdered silicone, and pounding their lies into the public awareness in the process.
Long, long ago, 60 Minutes put a dunce-cap on Gen. Westmoreland by cutting and pasting the tape of their interview so that his answer to a given question seemed to have been made to an entirely different question, thereby making Westy look like a total idiot.
The matter came to trial, the technician who actually did the cut-and-paste job testified that he did so under orders, and 60 Minutes is still here. Where is the tech? Nobody knows, but he sure as hell isn’t working for CBS.
Oh, but the blog world didn’t exist in those days… Right. So what?
Comment by John Van Laer — 9/12/2004 @ 1:48 pm
DAN WHO?
Powerline An interview with Rather from Protein Wisdom Scrappleface Update: Wizbang Patterico MichelleMalkin SiSu INDCJournal IloveJetNoise DGCI Powerline again From RatherBiased.com: “[T]hose of us in the mainstream media are trained to set our opini…
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