Email from Greg Palast: I'D RATHER NOT SAY GOOD-BYE, DAN

[MelissaB]

I'D RATHER NOT SAY GOOD-BYE, DAN
Wednesday, March 9, 2005
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. Dan
Rather said that American reporters 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 peoples' 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 journalists in line. "It's that fear that keeps journalists from
asking the toughest of the tough questions and to continue to bore-in on the
tough questions so often."

Silence as patriotism. Ugh. He confessed, "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: "It's extremely dangerous and cannot and should
not be accepted and I'm sorry to say that, up to and including this moment of
this interview, that overwhelmingly it has been accepted by the American people.
And the current Administration revels in that, they relish and take refuge in
that."

Of course, Dan said all these things to a British audience. But back in the USA,
Dan had promised America he would be a good boy, a trained press puppy who would
poop on the paper set down for him. He told his US audience, "George Bush is the
President. He makes the decisions. He wants me to line up, just tell me where."

But CBS' million-dollar man was about to step out of line.

In 2003, BBC Television questioned George Bush's career as Viet Nam era Top Gun
fighter pilot. In the British broadcast, I held up a confidential letter from
Justice Department files stating that Poppy Bush had put in the fix to get
Junior Bush out of 'Nam and into the Texas Air Guard. George could spend the war
protecting Houston from Viet Cong attack.

A year after the BBC broadcast, the I'm-going-to-be-a-real-journalist-now Rather
decided to run the same story on 60 Minutes. And just as he predicted, the
press-police at the network and in the White House seized him and lit the tire
around his neck.

What was Dan's mistake? Yes, yes, he shouldn't have embellished the story with a
document he couldn't fully source. But that memo (not the one in the BBC report)
was about a side issue, not the key accusation, that Senior Bush got Junior out
of the draft. Despite not a jot of evidence that the main story of draft-dodgin'
George was wrong (BBC never withdrew it), CBS cited Rather's insistence on the
veracity of that report as grounds to crush his career and his reputation.

Rather was convicted by a corporate kangaroo court. Dickie Thornburgh, who had
been Poppy Bush's Attorney General and owed his big salaries and career to the
Bush family, ran an "independent" investigation which concluded -- surprise! --
the Bushes had done no wrong. It was Dan that committed the evil. That whacky
conclusion went along just fine with the diktat of Sumner Redstone, CEO of
Viacom, CBS' owner, that a "Republican administration is better for media
companies."

In "Darkness at Noon," Arthur Koestler explained why old Communists, brought up
for trial by Stalin, still sang the system's praises -- just before they were
shot. To do otherwise would have been to cast doubt on the cause to which they
sacrificed their lives. Now, Dan Rather, like those soon-to-be executed victims
of Stalin, has bowed his head in silence in the face of the evil purge. To do
otherwise, I suppose, would be to acknowledge that his career has been a path of
increasing salaries and celebrity bought by increasing toady-dom.

Imagine if Edward R. Murrow, after having exposed Joe McCarthy, replied to
criticism by bowing his head for the noose-man.

Rather died as a journalist years ago by accepting the evil gag orders of the
media moguls. Still, I applaud his attempt with the Bush story to kick his way
out of his professional coffin. Unfortunately, his current silence simply gives
aid and comfort to the censoring corporate news-killers.

Last night, Rather read off his last "news" broadcast, if you can call it that.
To Dan the newsman, and to American journalism, all I can say is, rest in peace.


*****
Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy
Money Can Buy. Subscribe to his reports at www.gregpalast.com

To see a segment regarding George Bush's war years from the BBC film, "Bush
Family Fortunes," winner of the Freedom Film Festival's George Orwell Prize
(2005), go to: http://www.gregpalast.com/images/TrailerClips.mov


(Edited to add bold which is mine and not in the email.)

[BigBearJohn]

1. Oh my God.

[MelissaB]

2. That was my reaction, too! (nt)

[tridim]

3. It's that damn Liberal media again..

I dare anyone to say that to my face again after reading this.

[MelissaB]

4. I'm not too proud

to kick my own thread. I want this to be read. :)

[JDPriestly]

5. Dream last night

I had a strange dream last night. A bunch of guys were riding around doing all kinds of things, including bad things, in a "free" van supplied by a rich man whom they followed and whose bidding they obeyed without question, like zombies.

I wanted to learn more, and I wanted to know if I, too, could get a free van. Somehow I followed them to the place they were living, went to the kitchen and cooked them a meal. (Remember I dreamed this. It's not logical.) After lunch, I went into the next room where all these people were sitting around. They all looked like they were falling asleep. I got terribly angry when I saw this, but soon found myself falling asleep also. As I began to drift off, I realized that the reason I was falling asleep was that there was not enough oxygen in the room.

In my dream, I suddenly realized why these people were following their leader like zombies. The leader reduced the oxygen in the room where they went after eating so that they would fall asleep and, when they were in that sleepy, hypnotic-like state, took control of their minds through suggestion. I had the feeling that the lack of sufficient oxygen over time might cause me brain damage.

I woke up with one thought -- the men in the room represented the American people. The lack of oxygen was the lack of true information and the lack of genuine thought provoking controversy or exchange of opinion in the news. Without oxygen, people fall asleep and become subject to hypnotic suggestion. (This may not be true, but I felt that was what the dream meant.) That's where we are. The most important thing we can do to save our democratic system is to try to get the truth and different points of view on it out to people. I really dreamed this. I did not think this up or imagine it.

--- I don't usually remember my dreams. This was a very strange experience for me.

[MelissaB]

6. I don't find your dream strange at all.

I keep thinking about the Harry Potter books. We have the evil Voldermort and all of these good characters trying to fight him. Sometimes you don't even know who the evil people are, but most of the time you do. The Malfoys are a good example.

Some pure bloods discriminate against mudbloods. They think they will never be equal to them and despise them for who they are. Sound familiar?

In the 5th book the news even becomes controlled, and government officials in high places are corrupt or gullible. Sound familiar?

I wish I had written down ideas that have popped into my mind over the past few months. The similarities have shocked me.

Okay, now you all think I'm crazy. :)

[JDPriestly]

8. I need to read the Potter books.

I saw the first movie and loved it. This really was a dream -- not anything from my conscious mind. It would make a good story, but it would need a lot of added detail, and I'm not much of one to indulge in fantasy. I usually don't even remember my dreams. I felt this dream had a message to share.

Dan Rather was not perfect, but his leaving CBS is the end of an era of television news. So sad. Television has become one long infomercial, and as far as politics and public affairs are concerned, the Republicans are dominating the market on TV infomercial air time.

[Octafish]

7. That's a book.

Thanks for sharing, JDPriestly. You might want to turn it into a short story or novel. The symbols, the interpretation, this dream of yours is as real as truth.