Letters to the Editor
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Sidney is Amazing
This is why I support Salon.com!
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YOU GO, DAN!
I read both Blumenthal's article today, and William Rivers Pitt's article yesterday in truthout on Dan Rather's lawsuit. You go, Dan! I certainly believe that the so-called "forged" documents were planted by the right-wing, in a successful attempt to lead the public astray on the truthfulness of the Rather story. There's absolutely no question that Bush avoided military service during the early 70s, and was AWOL from his service in 1972.
The question for me is, how do we turn off the Right Wing Noise Machine, (RWNM) which continues to shape the Mainstream Media's (MSM) view of the world, even today, even after the 2006 elections? There is ample evidence of their complicity in at least a half dozen "stories" that turn out to be blatant falsehoods, and, yet, the MSM continues to listen to them, FIRST, before consulting the actual truth-tellers today, the so-called "left-wing" blogosphere.
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PATG
"...i too was born in 1948 and did not serve in the military. i and many others were physically defered. your punching bag, clinton, got student deferments (like your hero dick cheney, though cheney beat him 5-2). i still can't understand why a marine would defend bush...must be something in the chow..."
Did you have a "bad back" like Howard Dean? Perhaps you were Dean's skiing partner?
Actually, Col. Eugene Holmes concluded that Clinton was a draft dodger. http://www.geoffmetcalf.com/761.html
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The next generation.
Those of us old enough to remember real news and trustworthy reporting are incredulous at what has happened to journalism, but what about the young ? Where do they get news they can trust? Thank God for Bill Maher, Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert but what will be the world view of young people informed by irony? This perfect storm of greed,selfish interests,corporatism,and an Administration dedicated to it, along with the insecurity of globalization and the realization that we can be attacked has created an environment that is truely frightening for many people. What we need are journalists dedicated to the facts guiding us through, but sadley for democracy that is not what we have.Pray that Dan Rather is successful and the whole sorry profession takes a long look in the mirror.
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Gordon Ginsberg
It's the hypocrisy of the issue.
Bill Clinton was a veritable draft dodger, yet Rather and the rest of the liberal media said that was a non-issue in 1992 and 1996.
Sidney Blumenthal got out of serving during Vietnam, yet he feels free to attack someone who actually served in uniform.
Dan Rather has lied about being a former Marine, yet somehow he believes he has the moral authority to question someone else's military service.
If you cannot see the hypocrisy, you must be willfully blind.
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re: YOU GO, DAN!
farbie,
"The question for me is, how do we turn off the Right Wing Noise Machine, (RWNM) which continues to shape the Mainstream Media's (MSM) view of the world, even today, even after the 2006 elections? There is ample evidence of their complicity in at least a half dozen "stories" that turn out to be blatant falsehoods, and, yet, the MSM continues to listen to them, FIRST, before consulting the actual truth-tellers today, the so-called "left-wing" blogosphere."
You aren't seriously considering censorship, are you? Isn't that against Freedom of Speech given to both the left-wing AND the right-wing?
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Groenhagen
So far as I am aware Clinton never pretended to be anything else.
Bush on the other hand, well, he isn't called Chimpy McFlightsuit for nothing.
Now why does this subject seem to have touched a nerve with you?
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Almost down the drain
The last vestiges of an independent and healthy media are rapidly disappearing down the drain. Corporate ownership, anxious for deregulation of their industry, willingly parrots the musings of the Imbecile in Chief. At least their children don't die in foreign wars.
Dan Rather has always been the odd man out in the news elite. Not erudite like Jennings and Koppel or midwestern solid like Brokaw or quite as trustworthy as Walter Cronkite, he's been the crazy man in the bunch. He tells very funny stories about his rise to fame and his wife, Jean. He is almost always right on with his reporting but his odd manner and the strange shtick with the homespun aphorisms can be just plain weird.
The decline began with Murrow's forced departure. CBS probably breathed a sigh of relief when Cronkite wanted to retire. Recently, Jennings died. Brokaw retired. Rather and his old school colleagues, Koppell and Bill Moyers, have been shunted to the edges of media where they exist only as voices in the wilderness. In the center are the ones with the blow dried hair and brains who mouth whatever the press secretary is saying that day if they can find time between Britney and doing a "news" story about their network's latest sitcom or "reality show." The reality show about the dumb blonde trying to be a news anchor was cancelled more because it hit too close to home that its quality.
Hope rests in the online world where Salon, Slate (to a certain extent) and others adhere to an older, higher standard of what journalists are supposed to do. I know if I read something in Salon it may appear in the MSM 6 to 12 months later.
Jefferson said an independent press was essential to democracy. It still is. What's happening to our news organizations may simply be another sign of the collapse of our republic.
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re: The next generation.
show me,
"Those of us old enough to remember real news and trustworthy reporting are incredulous at what has happened to journalism, but what about the young ? Where do they get news they can trust? Thank God for Bill Maher, Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert but what will be the world view of young people informed by irony? This perfect storm of greed,selfish interests,corporatism,and an Administration dedicated to it, along with the insecurity of globalization and the realization that we can be attacked has created an environment that is truely frightening for many people. What we need are journalists dedicated to the facts guiding us through, but sadley for democracy that is not what we have.Pray that Dan Rather is successful and the whole sorry profession takes a long look in the mirror."
Frankly, I believe I am FAR more informed than I was in the past...simply by the fact that things are challenged rather than simply accepted. If this were not the case, Mr. Rather's documents would not have been challenged at all. That is NOT to say the information is or is not accurate...but the document are NOT authenticated as Mr. Rather said on the news...BECAUSE it was challenged.
What we are seeing is people challenging what is being said. I think this is NOT a bad thing because now people will not just accept what is said on the news but will research and verify the facts themselves.