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The Weblog at The View from the Core - Tuesday, November 23, 2004
   
   

Dan Rather Resigns to Retire

Twenty-four years too late after he started.

CBS News reports today:

Dan Rather announced Tuesday that he will step down as anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News in March, 24 years after his first broadcast in that position.
Rather will continue to work full-time at CBS News as a correspondent for both editions of 60 Minutes, as well as on other assignments for the news division. His last broadcast as anchor will be March 9, the 24th anniversary of when he assumed the position from Walter Cronkite.
CBS made no mention of a potential successor.
Rather, 73, has come under fire for his 60 Minutes report on President Bush's service in the National Guard during the Vietnam War. The report relied on documents that cast Mr. Bush's service in a negative light. Critics charged that the documents were forgeries, and CBS News was unable to vouch for their authenticity. An independent panel is now investigating the matter....

Gee. I wonder why Dan is stepping down.

Ratherbaised.com has issued a press release already:

.... The news comes as no surprise as Rather's retirement had long been in the works. While he would have preferred to retire after his 25th anniversary as anchor, the scuttlebutt inside CBS had Rather stepping down soon after the 2004 elections due to a combination of bad ratings, long-time affiliate discontent, and viewer dissatisfaction over CBS's 'Memogate' story.
Frankly, it's a shame that it has to end this way for Dan. In the end, he became the person he most despised, Richard Nixon. Had Rather and the CBS management been more serious about viewer input and fairness, they would never have had to stonewall about a story they shouldn't have run....

Hey, that's why we call him Daniel Milhous Rather.

Let Scrappleface have the last word:

Veteran CBS News anchor Dan Rather this afternoon said he was "scrambling like a gila monster on hot sand" to verify allegations that he will step down from his role on the CBS Evening News in March 2005....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Tue. 11/23/04 06:05:29 PM
Categorized as Media.


   
   

The Stunning French?

This has the feel of an urban legend.

But you never know.

Seen at a blog yesterday:

Monday, November 22, 2004
The Stunning Charles de Gaulle
posted by Erik @ 8:55 AM
Today is the birthday of Charles de Gaulle, the French general and president (1890-1970) who allegedly told Winston Churchill, regarding the aid and efforts that the Americans and British had provided for the liberation of France from her Nazi overlords:
We shall stun you with our ingratitude.

[Follow-up: Re: The Stunning French?]

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Tue. 11/23/04 05:51:44 PM
Categorized as International.


   
   

Former Blogger Wins Award

Howard Owens, an old friend of The Blog from the Core, recently won an award for VenturaCountyStar.com (quoted ellipsis in original):

This is another story of David defeating Goliath, except that David won the fight without even knowing it. At the recent Online Journalism Awards banquet in Hollywood, the finalists for General Excellence (Small Sites) included the Center for Public Integrity, Congressional Quarterly's CQ.com, PBS' Frontline World, PBS' POV, and the VenturaCountyStar.com.
While the latter site is indeed owned by the E.W. Scripps Co. newspaper chain, it certainly didn't have the national cachet or reputation of its prominent opponents for the award. So when the announcement came — "And the winner is ... VenturaCountyStar.com!" — there was a pregnant pause as heads turned in search of the winner. It turns out the honcho of the site, 42-year-old Howard Owens, skipped the awards dinner, not expecting to win....

At his former weblog, Howard has posted an article on rampant anonymous sourcing in mainstream media:

.... Anonymous source-reporting, as I’ve said many times, is the crack cocaine of beltway journalists. They can’t kick the habit and show no desire to do so. In fact, many of the junkies defend it, like creepy heroin addicts jonesing for another fix.
The unnamed-source junkies want us to believe that their sources are impeccable and should be affixed with the modifier “reliable.” I am convinced anonymous sources are anything but. When I read, “according to an administration official,” and don’t find that official’s name within a sentence or two, I immediately rewrite the copy to put the assertion or quote in proper context: “according to a probable liar within the administration.” Now I can proceed reading the story with the proper amount of skepticism — the kind of skepticism the reporter should have exercised before including dubious allegations or assertions.
Here’s the problem with anonymous sources, and why the news consuming public should look askance at all such-sourced news reporting:
1) We have no way of verifying the source’s motivations, propensity of truth-telling, allegiances or agendas. When the reporter withholds a sources name, he is withholding a vital piece of information that is necessary to make a sound judgment about whether we’re getting snookered.
2) Anonymous sources have all kinds of motivations for making any number of allegations that have nothing to do with a desire for truth telling. First, there is the fun of being an anonymous source to a major-media reporter, which feeds the source’s ego; second, there is the ability to anonymously disseminate false information to feed a partisan or personal agenda; third, there is the ability to feed the reporter false information as part of an official disinformation campaign. Beltway reporters never seem to ask themselves why a source insists on anonymity — if the story is juicy enough, they just run with it.
3) When news organizations use anonymous sources, readers and viewers have very little knowledge or understanding of what policies the news organization has for use of such sources — what standards must be met, and are those standards being followed. The news organization may have no standards, which impeaches the credibility of all such stories, or the standards may be ignored with caprice and such reporting can’t be trusted....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Tue. 11/23/04 05:34:16 PM
Categorized as Media.


   
   

CNN Moves Into 21st Century

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Just kidding.

Ratherbiased.com reports yesterday:

In other news about news, CNN announced the hiring of Jonathan Klein, CEO of TheFeedRoom, an online video infrastructure provider, to be its president of domestic operations.
Normally, we wouldn't post that kind of news here at RatherBiased.com, except that Klein is better known (at least on the net) as the inspiration of the term "pajama people."
Back when CBS was still denying the obvious that its "National Guard documents" weren't fake, former CBS News exec Klein appeared on various cable talk shows defending the indefensible by attacking bloggers and internet writers as "a guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas."
Here's hoping Klein's learned from his mistakes.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Tue. 11/23/04 07:16:15 AM
Categorized as Media.


   
   

A Hitchcock Twofer

No, not Alfred.

Margaret wrote over the weekend about this article by Catholic historian James Hitchcock:

For more than a decade, journalists have commented regularly on Pope John Paul’s apparent desire to appoint more “conservative” bishops in the United States. Yet despite promises of a “counter-reformation,” the liberal trend continues. A leading Catholic scholar and journalist examines that paradox....

Looked awful familiar. I eventually discovered that I had linked it a long time ago at my CatholicPage.

Also, Diogenes links this article by Hitchcock:

Catholics at the time of the Second Vatican Council were told that they had neglected Scripture, a claim which was to some extent true. The average Catholic probably did know the Bible less well than the average Protestant, and Catholic teachings were often presented solely on the basis of Church tradition, with only passing nods to the New Testament. Thus self-consciously "renewed" Catholics rushed to join Bible-study groups....

I've always found Hitchcock to be informed and insightful.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Tue. 11/23/04 06:57:53 AM
Categorized as Religious.


   
   

Young and Catholic

A new weblog and a new book from Tim Drake.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Tue. 11/23/04 06:36:17 AM
Categorized as Blogosphere Stuff & Religious.


   

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