Posted on 05/31/2012 5:38:57 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Dan Rather: Most Journalists Aren't Liberal - 'This Is a Sham' By Noel Sheppard Created 05/31/2012 - 1:17am
Dan Rather told Jon Stewart Wednesday evening that most journalists aren't liberal.
Although one would think the disgraced former CBS Evening News anchor fired for presenting forged documents about President George W. Bush months before the 2004 elections was kidding given the venue being Comedy Central's Daily Show, Rather was actually serious (video follows with transcript and commentary):
JON STEWART, HOST: This idea of liberal bias and the idea, you know, in your experience, haven't most journalists, haven't their politics been somewhat more liberal?
DAN RATHER: No, it hasn't been my experience.
STEWART: Oh, that hasn't been your experience?
RATHER: It has not been my experience. Most journalists I grew up with, most journalists I’ve worked with and practiced with were trying to be honest brokers of information. Now, what sometimes got you a reputation you’re liberal, journalists generally form an apprenticeship covering the police beat at midnight, after midnight, it was Saturday night, the charity hospital. Journalists, the best of them, do see a Dickensian side of society that most people don't see. So when they try to call attention to that, people who don't like it say, "Oh, you're liberal." It has not been my experience.
I know that it's widely believed that CBS, NBC, ABC chock full of liberals. Not true. What it's chock full of is people who wanted to give honest news, straightforward news, and voted both ways in many elections. I'm not saying that nobody in the newsroom was liberal any more than I would say nobody was conservative. Frequently what happened people who were described as conservatives want to say, "I work at CBS News, and you know, almost everybody there was liberal." What they really mean is not everybody there agreed with them all the time. This is a sham. It's a camouflage for wanting…
STEWART: Do you think it’s been, it seems to have been very effective though, that working the refs. That's what I would say. It's really worked, and people are now very afraid to appear in any way as though they're taking a position on anything.
RATHER: Well, that's true. And that's why I say that journalism, American journalism in some ways has lost its guts, or it needs a spine translate. I do not exempt myself in this criticism - made my mistakes along this line. But there is a price to pay, and I’m not excusing it, but what happens if you stand up and ask a really tough question now and challenge say a president or vice president, you know there's going to be a price to be paid for that. And so often it is, “You know what? I'll just get in the middle, move with the mass, I’ve got house payments and car [unintelligible].”
In reality, Rather unwittingly disproved his entire premise in that last paragraph.
There is a "price to be paid" for standing up and asking "a really tough question now and [challenging] say a president or vice president" because the current White House resident and his second in command are Democrats.
That became verboten on January 20, 2009.
By contrast, there was certainly no "price to be paid" for standing up and asking "a really tough question" when George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were in power.
Regardless of his protests during this personal makeover revisionist history tour, Rather wasn't fired for standing up and asking "a really tough question."
He lost his job because he knowingly presented forged documents to the American people about their president.
And therein lies the bias whether or not a disgraced so-called journalist understands it.
go away Dan, you bother me
On tonight’s show, Jon Stewart will declare that water is not wet.
Some blind squirrels just can’t find the nuts.
DRUGS - that’s the only way to explain this guy. Dan surveys of your fellow scumbags reveal they consider themselves liberal.
“On tonight’s show, Jon Stewart will declare that water is not wet.”
___
And Dan will agree.
Well, compared to Dan, most news readers/reporters would be somewhat less liberal.
That is because Dan Rather is a nitwit.
The problem is that people like Dan Rather are only exposed to other liberals - so no, they don’t see themselves as liberals. They think that they are right down the middle because they see the world the same way everyone that they know does. It’s how you end up having people like George W. Bush, a moderate at best, labeled a raging right-wing extremist. To people like Dan Rather, Bush was to the right of Hitler.
Communist? Definitely!
Charity hospitals?
Journalists are not biased
Unfortunately, the mass media doesn't have have any real journalists, just a bunch of advocacy pimps like Rather
Well I would freakin hope so, as are most Americans. Hitler was a National Socialist...
Just full blown communists and communism-sympathizers then.
Do you feel better now, Dan? Maybe you still feel the effect of frequencies?
Which shows just how far disconnected from reality he and his ilk are. He may actually believe his incredible position.
...haven't most journalists, haven't their politics been somewhat more liberal?
DAN RATHER: No, it hasn't been my experience.
Because of the people you choose to associate with. Eventually it will skew and distort your perspective. That's not opinion, that is demonstrable fact.
Most journalists I grew up with, most journalists I’ve worked with and practiced with were trying to be honest brokers of information.
Really, you expect us to believe that Dan? This is the information age, with search engines, social networking, and dozens upon dozens of information sources on the Internet. We can now find information that hasn't been filtered through the distorting lense of the liberal agenda so prevalent in the MSM. In short Danny-boy, we're onto you and yours.
I know that it's widely believed that CBS, NBC, ABC chock full of liberals. Not true.
By your actions you'll be known. By that standard you're all flaming liberals.
RATHER: Well, that's true. And that's why I say that journalism, American journalism in some ways has lost its guts, or it needs a spine translate.
You mean "transplant" there Danny-boy?
...you know there's going to be a price to be paid for that. And so often it is, “You know what? I'll just get in the middle, move with the mass, I’ve got house payments and car [unintelligible].”
Right there he (probably unintentionally) proved our point. So-called "journalists" in the MSM no longer actually work to report news and information. They go-along with everyone else around them to further their careers. Pretty soon the whole herd is so far left they can't see the middle anymore. But everyone around them pretty much shares the same outlook. Sure there are a few outliers in either direction. But they don't even realize how far left the entire group has moved. They actually think they are the new center.
...kind of like "depends on what the definition of is, is"....
Most people are to the right of Hitler. This is because Hitler was Left-Wing.
"We are socialists, we are enemies of today's capitalistic economic system for the exploitation of the economically weak, with its unfair salaries, with its unseemly evaluation of a human being according to wealth and property instead of responsibility and performance, and we are all determined to destroy this system under all conditions" Adolf Hitler.
Hope this is helpful.
“”“On tonight’s show, Jon Stewart will declare that water is not wet.”
___
And Dan will agree.”””””
He will provide documentation from Kinkos to prove it.
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