Greg Palast: I'd Rather Not Say Good-Bye, Dan [View All]

[Jack Rabbit]

From GregPalast.com
Dated Wednesday March 9

I`d Rather Not Say Good-Bye, Dan
By Greg Palast

Without his make-up, Dan looked like hell warmed over: old, defeated, yet angry. And he told our television audience something that just blew me away. American journalists, Dan Rather said, simply may not ask tough questions about George Bush or his wars.

“It’s an obscene comparison," Rather said, "but there was a time in South Africa when people would put flaming tires around people’s necks if they dissented. In some ways, the fear is that you will be neck-laced here, you will have a flaming tire of lack of patriotism put around your neck."

Talking to another reporter, Dan told it straight about the careerism that keeps US reporters in line. “It’s that fear that keeps (American) journalists from asking the toughest of the tough questions and to continue to bore-in on the tough questions so often.”

Silence as patriotism. He admitted, “One finds oneself saying, ‘I know the right question, but you know what, this is not exactly the right time to ask it." It was making him ill and he was ready to say, basta, enough. Suddenly, there was fire in those eyes.

Palast is brutal. Since Rather is hardly the only offender on the air, one might argue that Palast is not being entirely fair by focusing on Rather and not mentioning Brokaw, Jennings or any of the gray talking heads or fashion model anchors who have read the news at CNN over the years. They are guilty of the same crimes as Rather.

However, these crimes against jounalism are real. In so far as it is the responsibility of a free and independent press to inform the public, these crimes against journalism are also crimes against the people of America.