Watergate to Memogate

During the White House press conference held on October 26, 1973, President Richard Nixon said, "I have never heard or seen such outrageous, vicious, distorted reporting in 27 years of public life."



On Wednesday, March 9, 2005, Dan Rather did his final broadcast as anchor of the CBS Evening News.


NEW YORK (Reuters/Hollywood Reporter) -- Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather said Monday that there is a climate of fear running through newsrooms stronger than he has ever seen in his more than four-decade career.

...Addressing the Fordham University School of Law in Manhattan, occasionally forcing back tears, he said that in the intervening years, politicians "of every persuasion" had gotten better at applying pressure on the conglomerates that own the broadcast networks. He called it a "new journalism order."

He said this pressure -- along with the "dumbed-down, tarted-up" coverage, the advent of 24-hour cable competition and the chase for ratings and demographics -- has taken its toll on the news business. "All of this creates a bigger atmosphere of fear in newsrooms," Rather said.

Rather was accompanied by HBO Documentary and Family president Sheila Nevins, both of whom were due to receive lifetime achievement awards at the News and Documentary Emmy Awards on Monday evening.

Nevins said that even in the documentary world, there's a certain kind of intimidation brought to bear these days, particularly from the religious right.

"If you made a movie about (evolutionary biologist Charles) Darwin now, it would be revolutionary," Nevins said. "If we did a documentary on Darwin, I'd get a thousand hate e-mails."

Nevin asked Rather if he felt the same type of repressive forces in the Nixon administration as in the current Bush administration.

"No, I do not," Rather said. That's not to say there weren't forces trying to remove him from the White House beat while reporting on Watergate; but Rather said he felt supported by everyone above him, from Washington bureau chief Bill Small to then-news president Dick Salant and CBS chief William S. Paley.

...Nevins took up the cause for Rather, who was emotional several times during the event.

"When a man is close to tears discussing his work and his lip quivers, he deserves bosses who punch back. I feel I would punch back for Dan," Nevins said.

..."It's been one of television news' finest moments," Rather said of the Katrina coverage. He likened it to the coverage of President Kennedy's assassination in 1963.

"They were willing to speak truth to power," Rather said of the coverage.

..."I gave it everything I had, I didn't hold anything back. I did the best newscast we were capable of doing," Rather said.

Dan Rather is clueless.

He has lost touch with reality, living in total denial.

Dan Rather lost his job because of a scandal. He was forced to resign the anchor chair of the CBS Evening News.

He is the Richard Nixon of network news.

For ten days, Rather stood by a concocted story that was meant to sway the election of the U.S. president. That story was based on forged documents. It was a sham. Nonetheless, Rather and CBS wouldn't let go. To this day, they continue to make excuses in hopes of exonerating themselves for Memogate, instead of accepting responsibility.

Rather speaks of the "atmosphere of fear in newsrooms."

Like Nixon, the man suffers from paranoia. Sheila Nevins, Rather's supporter, obviously is afflicted as well.

In Nixon's Watergate scandal, the cover-up was worse than the crime.

In Rather's Memogate scandal, the cover-up was as bad as the crime.

The only thing needed to complete the picture would be Danny Boy saying, "I am not a crook."

Although Rather had some proud moments in his career, it ended in disgrace, very similar to Nixon's downfall.

Of course, I'm not saying that the crimes of Rather and CBS are as significant as the crimes of Nixon's administration. The federal government and the CBS newsroom are certainly not on the same level, though I think some at CBS would argue that point.

My comparison deals specifically with the similarities of Rather and Nixon as individuals, their responses to their scandals and their shared personality flaws.

Both were forced from their positions.

Both left in disgrace.

Both brought shame to their offices.

Both were in denial about their roles in their scandals.

Both failed to fully accept responsibility.

To be fair, Nixon did occasionally express regret and accept responsiblity for Watergate in his final years.

Maybe Rather will come around eventually, too.

I also can't let Rather's statement about Hurricane Katrina coverage pass without commenting.

For him to say that it was "one of television news' finest moments" proves how far over the edge Rather has gone.

The coverage of Hurricane Katrina has been one of television news' most shameful moments. It was brimming with anti-Bush adminstration propaganda. The mainstream news outlets literally ignored the state and local governments' roles in the disaster that followed the hurricane. There was no investigative reporting by the MSM, only finger-pointing.

It was the New Media that brought truth and balance to the coverage.

These bearers of truth are the ones that Rather finds scary, and rightly so.

After all, it was the New Media that brought Rather down and put an early end to his career as the CBS anchorman.

It's sort of like how he helped to bring Nixon down more than a generation ago.

Memories.

No wonder Rather is so often on the verge of tears.