{"id":248,"date":"2007-03-12T14:36:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-12T21:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulgillin.com\/2007\/03\/dan-rather-underwhelms.html"},"modified":"2007-03-12T14:36:00","modified_gmt":"2007-03-12T21:36:00","slug":"dan-rather-underwhelms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/2007\/03\/dan-rather-underwhelms\/","title":{"rendered":"Dan Rather underwhelms"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I didn\u2019t expect much out of Dan Rather\u2019s appearance at South by Southwest<\/a> and so wasn\u2019t very disappointed that it didn\u2019t deliver. It was a missed opportunity, though. There was the chance to question Rather about all sorts of things that the audience cared about, including the relevance of mainstream media in market with millions of voices, the low public perception of the media in general, the future of citizen journalism and the relationship between social and new media. <\/p>\n

Instead, the moderator, Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake<\/a>, opened the one-hour session with a question about Rather\u2019s confrontation with Richard Nixon more than 30 years ago. That was an event that I suspect scarcely 10% of the audience even remembers, much less cares about, and it got the session off to a bad start. The rest of the hour proceeded through a short series of relatively tame questions about the state of journalism, along with rambling answers by the newsman (this may not be the moderator\u2019s fault; sometimes interview subjects put restrictions on topics they\u2019ll address). Rather had some good messages for journalists, but they weren\u2019t his audience. The issues that I believe the audience really cares about weren\u2019t even raised until a brief Q&A.<\/p>\n

The highlight was Rather\u2019s pointed criticism of what he called \u201caccess journalism,\u201d or a style of reporting that trades off aggressive reporting for access to inside sources. Journalists too often protect their sources in order to become part of the inner circle, he said, and political and business figures willingly exploit this weakness. He blamed this trend, in part, on the decline of media competition as media ownership consolidates and the increasing distance between news operations and their parent companies. <\/p>\n

\u201cVery often the source is using the reporter and the reporter is using the source, but when the source begins to believe that the reporter can be part of the team, that\u2019s when things get dangerous,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Rather said that journalism needs a \u201cspine transplant,\u201d a return to its role as an independent advocacy for truth and disclosure. The role of the journalist is as a watchdog, he said. A watchdog barks when it suspects danger but doesn\u2019t lie down or attack. It\u2019s a warning system that keeps those in power on their toes. <\/p>\n

\u201cDo we still believe that the documents of government belong to the people and not the people in power?\u201d he asked. \u201cThe president is not a descendant of the Sun God. This person is elected by the people and part of what [journalists are] expected to do is check on them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather\u2019s message was a welcome call for a return to the values of Edward R. Murrow<\/a>, whose name he invoked twice. But I think the audience was interested in hearing more about social media. Rather\u2019s own knowledge deficit in that area – he didn\u2019t mention YouTube or podcasts once and appeared awkward using “Google” as a verb – was painfully evident. As someone whose CBS career was arguably brought down by bloggers in the Rathergate incident<\/a>, you\u2019d think he would have more to say. But the question about Rathergate, like so many others, never came up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I didn\u2019t expect much out of Dan Rather\u2019s appearance at South by Southwest and so wasn\u2019t very disappointed that it didn\u2019t deliver. It was a missed opportunity, though. There was the chance to question Rather about all sorts of things … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[16,17,29],"tags":[116],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pTy95-40","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gillin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}