Street roots., August 21, 2015, Page 5, Image 5

Street Roots • Aug. 21-27, 2015
RATHER, from page 5
Journalists are also reluctant to ask hard
questions closer to home — particularly
about special interest money in Congress,
and throughout Washington.
“While sporadically there is some
coverage of it, there’s not the persistent,
constant coverage,” Rather says.
Meanwhile, campaign contributions
continue to rise. Rather estimates that they
will hit $5 billion this presidential campaign.
“Who’s going to give it? To whom are they
going to give it? And what do they expect to
get for it?”
Journalists are running scared, he argues.
“As long as you move with the herd, move
with the ‘approved’ narrative, you’re not
going to get in trouble. But if you break out
from the herd, if you go against the
‘approved’ narrative, the retribution can be
quick, and powerful.”
For American journalists — and those
around the world — Watergate remains a
high water mark of the industry’s ability to
hold the powerful to account. At thè time,
Rather was CBS News’ White House
correspondent and was at the forefront of
the coverage of the criminal scandal, which
eventually toppled Nixon.
In his autobiography, “Rather Outspoken:
My Life in the News,” Rather writes that
prior to the break-in at the Democratic
National Committee’s Watergate
headquarters in Washington D.C., his house
was broken into. Nothing was taken, but
Rather’s files were rummaged through, and
his family was warned by the wife of a
Republican senator that the incident could
have been politically motivated.
Twp jgnonths later,lhe Watergate crisis
detonated. Despite Rather’s unnerving .
experience, he reported the story and asked
tough questions of the Nixon administration.
He refused to be intimidated, but he doesn’t
see himself as a courageous individual.
“I have no illusions of myself,” Rather
says. “Overwhelmingly, most of the time I
haven’t been as courageous as I should have
been.”
Rather worked at CBS News for more
than four decades, but in 2004 he began to
News
to avoid combat during the Vietnam War,
notice an ominous change in the culture of
only to go AWOL from the unit for about a
the network. He and his colleagues were in
year with no explanation. The story ran in
the process of breaking the story of U.S.
September 2004, in the midst of a heated
military officials committing human rights
presidential campaign between Bush and
violations against detainees at Abu Ghraib
Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry (who had
Prison in Iraq.
been a Navy speedboat captain on the
“It was a very difficult story to cover, one
Mekong Delta).
of those stories that I
The story
found myself in the
exploded. Accusations
early stages saying, ‘I
were made that the
hope (we) get told
"Instead a t sending reporters
that this is not true,’” la Afghanistan, ar to Yemen, or documents Rather
had used were forged,
Rather says. “But
to Somalia... it's much easier to and his source later
developing that story,
last pat fear people in a roam
admitted that he lied
and trying to get the
ta shoal at one another ahoat
to him. While Rather
story on the air, for
says that all of the
what's happening. And by the
the first time in my
time at CBS, I began
way, a ll too alien those people other evidence he
to say to myself,
in the room shoaling at one an­ used still supported
the facts he reported,
‘something has
other have never been to those he apologized on the
changed here.’
places."-
air.
“This was by any
A year after
objective analysis, a
reporting the story,
major story. To have a
he announced-his
worldwide break on
retirement from CBS News, departing the
that kind of story, what news organization
network in 2005. He had been its anchor for
would pause?
24 years. He later sued Viacom and CBS
“The CBS of (Edward R.) Murrow, and
News executives, alleging that they made
the CBS of Will Paley... they would have
him the scapegoat in the Bush National
hated the story for what it was, but they
Guard story, but his case was dismissed.
would have said really quickly, ‘this is a
Rather says that in the case of the Bush
story that needs to go on the air, and it
Air National Guard story, CBS abandoned its
needs to go on the air now.’”
long-held tradition of defending their
Unfortunately, Rather says, William Paley
reporters and their work and left him out to
no longer owned CBS. Sumner Redstone
dry.
had taken over the organization when it
“The history and tradition of CBS News is
merged with Viacom in 2000 and his news
that it stood behind its reporters and their
philosophy was very different than that of
stories,” Rather says. “Murrow with
Murrow, Paley,.. and Rather.
[Joseph] McCarthy, Murrow and smoking,
“We eventually'got th e Abu Ghraib story
Murrow and Harvest of Shame: these are
on the air because some of our sources
stories that gave the corporate side of the
began to say, ‘Listen, if you’re not going to
network difficulty, but the point is, they may
run it, we’ll go elsewhere,” Rather says.
not have liked them, but they backed them.
“But then, very quickly behind that, came
“Coverage of the civil rights movement,
the Bush National Guard story.”
coverage of the Vietnam War, the Watergate
And with it, the end of Rather’s time at
period... It was the history and the
CBS News.
tradition,” Rather says. “It was what made
Rather’s story alleged that President
CBS News the great worldwide news
George W. Bush used his father’s influence
organization.”
as a prominent Texas congressman to get
Despite everything that happened, Rather
him placed into a ‘champagne unit’ in order
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Page 5
says the basic facts of the Bush story were
accurate, and that he still stands by the
story today.
“I made a mistake; I make a lot of
mistakes (but) the Bush story was true.”
Ahead of the release of “Truth,” the
movie that tells the story of his downfall,
Rather says things may have ended
differently had he seen the way the wind
was blowing sooner. “I didn’t recognize it
soon enough, I didn’t recognize the depths
of it soon enough. And when it came time to
respond to it, in the wake of the Abu Ghraib
and the Bush story, I wasn’t quick enough,
smart enough, or good enough to mount the
kinds of response that might have headed it
off.”
The film is based on the memoir of
former 60 Minutes Producer Mary Mapes,
“ Truth and Duty: The Press, the President,
and the Privilege of Power.” For fans of heroic
liberal journalists kicking against the
system, the casting of Redford will recall the
classic film of the Watergate affair, 1976’s
All the President’s Men, in which Redford
starred as Bob Woodward and Dustin
Hoffman as Carl Bernstein. Having spoken
to the dashing Redford about the film,
Rather told the New York Post that the
casting has made him feel “humble”.
All the President’s Men was the
inspiration for thousands of young people to
become investigative journalists, to follow in
the footsteps of The Washington Post’s
courageous Woodward and Bernstein. It
remains to be seen whether “Truth” can
similarly help reinvigorate the industry that
Rather loves.
Whatever the response to the movi,e,
Rather has already distinguished himself as
one of the most influential journalists of our
time. “I enjoy a great deal about what I do,”
he says. “I have a passion for work. I have a
lot of flaws, and may have made mistakes,
but I have a great passion for covering
news.”
Courtesy of INSP News Service www.INSP.
n g o /IN S P