Letters to the Editor
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"You Don't Want a Dan Rather Moment"
I can personally attest to the negative impact the Rather attack has had on journalism and how it has embolded some to try to supress negative press coverage. I prefer not to name names or provide details that would disclose the individual reporter involved, becasue they were shared with me in confidence, I must be somewhat vague.
I obtained a very damaging internal government memorandum via a public records request and file review. This memorandum revealed that the agency involved was aware of acutely hazardous conditions and failed to warn the public or fix the problem. As a result of this failure to warn and act, people were seriously harmed.
I provided this memo to the NY Times who was writing a story about the incident and explained the meaning of the memo. The NY Times reporter contacted the government agency for comment and was told that the agency ocould not authenticate the memorandum, and warned the reporter, in an attempt to kill the story - quote - "you don't want another Dan Rather moment".
I got a call back from the reporter shortly after - the agency's remarks were shared with me in confidence. But I was then asked, on the reocrd, to explain how I obtained the memo and how I could authenticate it. The burden shifted to me adn I got the sense that either the reporter or editors were reluctant to go with the memo as the lead in the story.
The Times went with the memo story, but the coverage did not reflect the "Rather" pushback, although there was a sentence in the story that described how the memo was obtained.
If these hardball threats are being made overtly to the NY Times, I can imagine there is lots of smaller media outlet and self censorship going on out there.