DAN RATHER: A NEWS MAN YOU CAN BELIEVE

….The soft-spoken man known as “Mr. Reliable”.

 

Will Fox News ever be referred to as “the honest news network”?

 

Maybe it’s a sign of my getting older, but it is true that just as my dad used to say the only men he would trust to listen to for the nation’s news was Walter Cronkite and the Huntley and Brinkley team, I guess I have felt the same in going back to Dan Rather, Ted Koppel and Tom Brokaw.

 

In fact, I was pleased when the old news stalwart, Dan Rather, came on national TV and said about Donald Trump: “Now it’s time for the news media to do what they do best.” 

 

As usual, Donald Trump had just been improperly referring to the US Intelligence Agency’s as being like the Nazi’s of Germany.  He was again accusing them of being the US agency that had said Saddam Hussain had nuclear WMD’s.  As is usual, that was false info from the Trumpster.  It of course wasn’t US intelligence that made that claim. 

 

It was the then Vice President, Dick Cheney, and the other neo-con cronies of the George W. Bush administration that had championed that claim, not any of the US intelligence agencies.

 

The new GOP president continues to say that the media is the most dishonest people in the world and he is falsely blaming the media for the accusation that Trump was against the US intelligence groups.

 

As Rather stated, it’s time for the US news organizations to continue showing that it was Trump himself that made those accusations.   It was also Trump that was the one falsely accusing the intelligence groups of causing all the problems.

 

The whole basis of a functioning democracy is for the voters to have accurate information for making good decisions in the voting booth.  If we were all to only listen to Mr.Trump and Fox News, we would all be very confused as to what was the real truth is….or isn’t.  (And that's exactly what is the situation with Trump's supporters.)

 

As Michelle Obama had so properly said, “When they go low, we go high!”.  In this case, when the Trump group, especially Trump himself, starts to blame his untruths on the media or those other than himself, the press needs to get ahold of themselves and lay it out there as to just who is the responsible party.  Trump and company have unfortunately been able to twist the truth too many times, and the media has let them get away with it.  That has to stop ASAP!

 

Dan Rather made it crystal clear.  It is the American media’s job to be the focus groups that keep the Trump administration honest, and they cannot allow anything to slip past their professional Fact Checkers.

 

Today, the difference between the real “Truth Tellers” and the real “Fake News”, is little by little being made known to every American.

 

Just look at Fox News today.

 

Almost all of Fox’s real journalists have left the network for other networks that are known for more truthful news stories.  Those anchoring Fox News today are over-blown, talk-show hosts such as Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly.  And now, because of all the sexual harassment suits going on at Fox, many of their large advertisers have pulled their business from Fox.  (Word on the street has it that over 50 advertisers have pulled out.)

 

The Fact Checkers within the industry have all given the Fox Network very low ratings or “multiple Pinocchio’s” for their false interruptions of the facts.

 

Today, I have more faith in those reports that come from The Rachael Maddow Show, or from Chris Hayes, Joe Scarborough, Mika Brezinski, Lawrence O’Donnell and Alex Wagner.  In fact, one of the few shows that Dan Rather regularly visits today is Rachael Maddow’s program.  Rather has made it clear that he has no intention of ever giving any recognition of the personnel on the Fox Network.

 

It was probably appropriate that after the many years that that the major networks were accused of all being more liberal than conservative, there then became the conservative Fox Network.  (In fact, it was originally developed by Roger Ailes as the “GOP Network”.) But why did it later seem to be required that this only true major conservative network, also become the least truthful TV network?  (Fact Checkers have said that over 40% of Fox New statements are false or partially false.)

 

It seems that Roger Eugene Ailes, the founder and former Chairman and CEO of Fox News and the Fox Television Stations Group, Mr. Ailes had to resign following serious allegations of sexual harassment of his female Fox colleagues.

 

Since that occurred, multiple personalities have left the network and there are today multiple sexual harassment suits against more than one male talking-head at the Fox network.

 

I think that as Rather has stated, “Eventually, the water will seek its own level,” as he was referring to what it will take for that network to finally start getting it right.

 

Let’s hope that Mr. Rather is correct, but it obviously won’t be happening soon.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2017