Dan Rather calls on Obama to save the press

http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/135834

Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather called on President Barack Obama to form a White House commission to help save the press Tuesday night in an impassioned speech at the Aspen Institute.

Let’s work through a little mind-exercise here. Would Dan Rather ever call for a Republican president to to set up a commission to find ways to "create new business models" or "make recommendations" about saving journalism jobs? No. He detests Republicans, and if a Republican ever made a suggestion about the possibility of the government influencing the news, Dan Rather would lose his mud all over the 60 Minutes set in apoplectic rage. But his trust in a left-wing Democrat like Barack Obama is so absolute that he’s willing to surrender the responsibility for the future of his industry to a White House “commission.”

“A truly free and independent press is the red beating heart of democracy and freedom,” Rather said in an interview yesterday afternoon. “This is not something just for journalists to be concerned about, and the loss of jobs and the loss of newspapers, and the diminution of the American press’ traditional role of being the watchdog on power. This is something every citizen should be concerned about.”

He believes that a press that has been saved by and owes its health to the government would somehow remain free and independent. I can’t figure out how any industry could call itself independent while being dependent on the government for developing and potentially funding its business models. The media can’t figure out why their ratings are dropping and Fox News continues to be wildly successful, while people like Dan Rather openly invite the Dear Leader into their business? Really? Honestly, it’s because we don’t trust this bullshit anymore, and we’re desperately looking for someone to tell us the full, truthful story (not that we get it from Fox News, either, but they’re at least pretending to offer alternative points of view than every other news source). When you’re so blatantly devoted to the left side of the political spectrum, its impossible for us to believe that we’re ever going to get the truth from you.

Let’s not forget that the main reason Dan Rather lost his CBS job was because he let his own political biases steer the content of his news broadcasts. He ran with a completely fabricated story about George W. Bush’s National Guard service. A guy who is willing to believe any lie on the flimsiest evidence that’s negative about Bush is completely willing to let Barack Obama help set the course and potentially the agenda for a future state-funded media.

Screw it. The Old Media lost their impartiality facade decades ago. If they die, it’s their own fault. They failed us.

The free press, as established by the First Amendment to the Constitution, ought to operate as a public trust, not solely as a money-making endeavor, Rather argued, and it’s time the government make an effort to ensure the survival of the free press.

His gut feeling tells him that a press based on self-interest, self-preservation and profit is bad, but a press funded by the government or its agents would be perfectly healthy, free and independent. There’s a fundamental disconnect here between the media elite and regular people in that the Dan Rathers of the world don’t see a potential conflict of interest that arises when government subsidizes an ostensibly "free" press.