Posted on 09/11/2004 2:23:09 PM PDT by A.A. Cunningham
Reprinted from NewsMax.com
Expert: Dan Rather Exaggerates Military Record
Wes Vernon, NewsMax.comOne of the nation’s top military researchers is angry that CBS News anchorman Dan Rather continues to exaggerate and make misleading statements about his military record.
Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2002
The researcher, B.G. Burkett, says that Rather’s inaccaurate statements about his military service can be found in the new hit book "Bias,” written by veteran CBS reporter Bernard Goldberg.
Burkett, co-author of the book "Stolen Valor,” a history of the media’s portrayal of the Vietnam conflict, says he’s tired of Rather’s double-talk and hypocrisy.
Case in point are Rather’s claims in "Bias.” Goldberg's book details a confrontation he had with Rather over the anchorman's compulsive liberal bias.
Goldberg recounts that when he told the network star in 1996 of his upcoming Wall Street Journal op-ed piece citing a specific CBS News report as an example of left-wing bias, Rather replied he was "getting viscerally angry about this.”
"Angry I was expecting,” Goldberg tell his readers. "What came next, I wasn’t.
"Rather’s voice started quivering, and he told me how in his young days, he had signed up with the Marines – not once, but twice!”
This is not the first time Rather has hid behind the flag and his own military service claims to deflect criticism of his reporting, Burkett said.
Burkett added that Rather is greatly exaggerating his record. First, Burkett says, Rather "misspoke” when he claimed he signed up for the Marines twice. He didn’t.
And Burkett is flabbergasted that Rather continues to proudly describe himself as a "Marine.”
"What he did, he signed up for the military twice, not the Marines,” Burkett said after thoroughly reviewing Rather’s military records.
But Burkett notes that Rather "never got through Marine recruit training because he couldn’t do the physical activity.”
Rather 'Unfit'
As Burkett explains in "Stolen Valor," Rather "was discharged less than four months later on May 11, 1954 for being medically unfit.” As a boy, Rather had suffered from rheumatic fever.
"This is like a guy who flunks out of Harvard running around saying he went to Harvard,” Burkett said.
Burkett also believes that, far from being a gung-ho military enlistee, Rather’s record shows he deftly avoiding entering the military during the Korean War.
Burkett says that Rather was a student at Sam Houston University at a time during the Korean War when "you could be drafted right out of college,” with deferments available only short term, for a semester.
"The way he got around being eligible for the draft was he joined a reserve unit – Army reserve but not the Marines.” Rather stayed in the reserve for the entire war.
"The second the Korean War was over, and he wasn’t in jeopardy anymore, he dropped out of the Army Reserve. He later graduated from college, and then went into the Marine Corps. So he signed up for the Marine Corps once,” Burkett said, not twice.
Rather knows he is skirting the truth about his record, Burkett believes. "He’s made such a big deal out of this ‘I’m a Marine’ thing. I mean, to a real Marine, you’re not a Marine – I mean even though you swore an oath and you’re technically on the payroll, you’re not a real Marine until you get out of basic training. And he never got out of recruit training.”
During Rather’s angry confrontation with Goldberg, the author of "Bias” says that "to his credit,” the anchorman emphasized that his Marine service was during "peacetime” so that "he was trying not to sound like some kind of war hero.”
Still, Rather never disclosed that his Marine service never got him past basic training.
Meanwhile, Burkett is miffed that Rather led media criticism of former Vice President Dan Quayle’s military record during his White House campaign.
"This is the same national broadcaster who, night after night during the 1988 presidential campaign, hammered Republican presidential candidate Dan Quayle for avoiding Vietnam by joining the National Guard,” he said.
"CBS was particularly heavy on Dan Quayle and his Guard experience. … It’s exactly the same thing Dan Rather did during the Korean War.
"If I had been in Rather’s position,” added Burkett, "I wouldn’t even have ever brought up the Marine Corps.”
Burkett has tracked Rather’s claims for years. In "Stolen Valor,” Burkett investigated a CBS TV documentary, "The Wall Within,” hosted by Rather.
The thrust of Rather’s report was that hordes of Vietnam veterans were dysfunctional, mentally disturbed or harbored guilt because their superiors had forced them to kill Vietnamese civilians.
Burkett did his own investigation and found that this was all hype. And while he was at it, he looked up Rather’s own military history. So determined was he that the story be put in perspective that Burkett ended up collaborating with ABC on a "counter documentary” on that network’s "20/20.”
This attempt to set the record straight won "20/20” a Cine Award, a significant honor within the industry.
"We attacked Rather’s documentary as being a bogus piece of work,” Burkett recalled to NewsMax.
Get Bernard Goldberg’s "Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News" and B.G. Burkett & Glenna Whitley’s "Stolen Valor" at a discount from NewsMax.
A product that might interest you:
Shop NewsMax.com`s store for the best deals on books, tapes, videos and more!
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
B.G. Burkett - Stolen Valor
Dan Rather/CBS
Media Bias
Someone needs to stick a microphone in the face of that lying POS and watch him load his drawers. Keep up the pressure on this puke.
Dan Rather's brain is damaged from drug abuse:
http://www.frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=4069
"When Jahr asked if the anchorman himself had smoked marijuana, Dan Rather in part replied: "As a reporter—and I don't want to say that that's the only context—I've tried everything. I can say to you with confidence, I know a fair amount about LSD. I've never been a social user of any of these things, but my curiosity has carried me into a lot of interesting areas."
Jahr quotes Dan Rather as continuing: "As an example, in 1955 or '56, I had someone at the Houston police station shoot me with heroin so I could do a story about it. The experience was a special kind of hell. I came out understanding full well how one could be addicted to 'smack,' and quickly. "
I have decided that Dan Rather truly is a pig.
Ack, he's had a thirty year long acid flashback. Makes perfect sense.
I'm with you. Let the anal examine on Danny Boy begin!
I like my pork well done, don't you?
Or like a guy running around all throuhgh the 90's calling himself a Rhodes Scholar..... Who'm, I wonder who that was....
>>>...Rather was a student at Sam Houston University at a time during the Korean War...
Accoding to GungaDan's auotobiography, the school was "Sam Houston Institute of Technology" at the time he attende - and changed it's name when it became popular to wear school initials on clothing.
I'm with you. Let the anal examine on Danny Boy begin!
I'm not sure that would be a good thing to do with former Padre Marcel Martel..Rathers rather good "handwriting" expert..
Now we all know what everyone suspected after the "What's the frequency, Kenneth?" episode.
Dan Rather has fallen victim to the time honored tradition of believing his own press. Now he may have to take a dive on behalf of the network because of his pride.
I would say too bad, since at one point he was named father of the year or some such. However, he has a duty which he shirked long ago in the name of his all-encompassing ego and position: to report the news accurately and fairly. Beginning with the service he didn't serve, the film he didn't see, and the President he sought to discredit so as to make himself larger, he has vaulted himself at others' expense.
The piper is now coming to collect, with interest due.
LOL!
Yes! With a good sauce!
Your tag says it all.
Rather's always been a simpleton pawn...since his earliest days beneath that Dallas underpass.
Rats Rear Dan. From sometime in the 20's until sometime in the 60's or 70's it was, Sam Houston State Teachers College!
Most of the graduates until the 70's were teachers.
Ever read the story told by Rather's editor (boss) at the time of Kennedy's assassination? Seems Rather volunteered to go to Zapruder's house and literally knock him down and steal the film to get the scoop. A man with ethics if there ever was one.
bump
Rather is a bogus piece of work no matter how you cut it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.