Reply #7: Dan Rather stands down as public confidence in US media declines [View All]

[dzika]

From ABC Australia Online:
Thursday, 10 March , 2005

Dan Rather stands down as public confidence in US media declines

by Leigh Sales

ELEANOR HALL: The mainstream media in the United States is going through something of a crisis of confidence at the moment. One of the three big television news anchors, Dan Rather, stood down today, after 24 years reading the news for the American network, CBS.

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LEIGH SALES: Rather's departure is part of a broader crisis confronting the mainstream media in the United States. New figures by the Pew Research Centre show that audiences are drastically dropping off for network news, papers and radio, because they're increasingly turning to online news, blogs, talk radio and cable TV.

The new sources of news coincide with a growing public distaste for the perceived bias and inaccuracy of the traditional media. According to Pew, a staggering 45 per cent of people say they can believe little or nothing of what they read in their newspaper.

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LEIGH SALES: Dan Rather's undoing has contributed greatly to the crisis of confidence inside American newsrooms. Very few colleagues have been willing to publicly defend him.

His predecessor, the legendary Walter Cronkite, is still on CBS's payroll, and he gave an extraordinarily harsh interview to CNN earlier this week. Presenter Wolf Blitzer asked him what he thought of Rather's temporary replacement, Bob Schieffer.

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