Dan Rather echoes TRP's concerns about US media

[Doug Millison]

US media cowed by patriotic fever, says CBS star

Network news veteran admits national mood caused him to shrink from tough
questions on war in Afghanistan

Matthew Engel in Washington
Friday May 17, 2002
The Guardian

Dan Rather, the star news anchor for the US television network CBS, said
last night that "patriotism run amok" was in danger of trampling the
freedom of American journalists to ask tough questions. And he admitted
that he had shrunk from taking on the Bush administration over the war on
terrorism.

In the weeks after September 11 Rather wore a Stars and Stripes pin in his
lapel during his evening news show in an apparent display of total
solidarity with the American cause. However, in an interview with BBC's
Newsnight, he graphically described the pressures to conform that built up
after the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

"It is an obscene comparison - you know I am not sure I like it - but you
know there was a time in South Africa that people would put flaming tyres
around people's necks if they dissented. And in some ways the fear is that
you will be necklaced here, you will have a flaming tyre of lack of
patriotism put around your neck," he said. "Now it is that fear that keeps
journalists from asking the toughest of the tough questions. Rather did not
exempt himself from the criticism, and said the problem was
self-censorship. "It starts with a feeling of patriotism within oneself. It
carries through with a certain knowledge that the country as a whole - and
for all the right reasons - felt and continues to feel this surge of
patriotism within themselves. And one finds oneself saying: 'I know the
right question, but you know what? This is not exactly the right time to
ask it.'"

Such a confession is astonishing, bearing in mind its source. Rather is
almost as famous in the US as the president, though he is more secure in
his tenure, far better paid and probably more pampered.

Rather, 70, has held what used to be regarded as the top job in American
journalism for two decades, since he was chosen to succeed the revered and
avuncular Walter Cronkite as CBS News's anchorman. Traditionally, CBS was
the country's No 1 news channel but has lost its status and ratings after
years of budget cutbacks.

The White House was to blame for its failure to provide adequate
information about the war, Rather said. "There has never been an American
war, small or large, in which access has been so limited as this one.

"Limiting access, limiting information to cover the backsides of those who
are in charge of the war, is extremely dangerous and cannot and should not
be accepted. And I am sorry to say that, up to and including the moment of
this interview, that overwhelmingly it has been accepted by the American
people. And the current administration revels in that, they relish that,
and they take refuge in that."

He said his view of the patriotism differed from that of the
administration. "It's unpatriotic not to stand up, look them in the eye,
and ask the questions they don't want to hear - they being those who have
the responsibility, the ultimate responsibility - of sending our sons and
daughters, our husbands, wives, our blood, to face death."

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/bush/story/0,7369,717097,00.html