Dan Rather talks Media & Blogging with Bloggers

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It was almost 17 years ago that I met a wise and observant British friend of mine. He was a world traveler, who, at that time, spent 100 or so days in the United States each year. In that first conversation, I asked him what he like about Americans. With a quick thought, he answered, “I like your sense of irony. I’m afraid we lack that in my country.”

That exchange comes back to me when I think of Dan Rather interviewed by a blogger in the zdnet.com article, Dan Rather on the state of American media by Dan Farber. I suspect it hadn’t been part of Mr. Rather’s career plan, even in recent years, to meet with a “citizen journalist,” the title now given to serious bloggers.

I offer two interesting quotes from the article — one on the mainstream media

The press is “a wee bit less timid today, perhaps because the President’s approval ratings are down, but “American journalism is in desperate need of a spine transplant,” he said.

Rather admitted that fear played a role in his own decision making and is evident across every newsroom. After 9/11, there was a fear of being called “unpatriotic” if a reporter asked tough questions about the war. If the Internet, cable and “what passes as news programming” were to hang an unpatriotic sign on a journalists, they could lose air time or their jobs, Rather explained.

the second on blogging

When asked about blogging, Rather said that big, multinational companies [like Viacom, which owns CBS] are controversy averse and fearful of getting negative responses from blogs. How backwards. If CBS had understood the impact of the Internet and bloggers, the Bush National Guard papers debacle could have been handled with less upheaval, Rather said. “I had no idea of the power of the Internet, particularly bloggers, including some with partisan, ideological agendas.”

Rather says he hopes his best work is still ahead of him. He was later interviewed by the first blogger Dave Winer of Scripting News. They discuss whether Rather will himself take up blogging the news.

What troubles me about this interview is that Mr. Rather was a journalist and a reporter BEFORE he was a news anchor. Though he admits the problem of a spineless media, how could it be so self-involved not to know the possible impact of the blogger culture?

Not every American should necessarily be aware or up to date on blogging, but one would think a reporter of his stature would.

Liz Strauss

 

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