Climate of Fear

Dan Rather says that newsrooms are frightened places. Who's scaring these cub reporters?

"[P]oliticians "of every persuasion" had gotten better at applying pressure on the conglomerates that own the broadcast networks. He called it a "new journalism order."

He still doesn't get it. Journalists, including Dan Rather have grown fearful of being caught lying. In the new media climate, people like Dan Rather no longer have monopoly on information. Once upon a time, Dan Rather could have gotten away with his lies. But today, the new media gets to fact check.

Truth equals fear.

It's particularly interesting that Rather was so complimentary of Hurricane Katrina coverage - especially since it has since come out that so much of it was inaccurate.

"Rather praised the coverage of Hurricane Katrina by the new generation of TV journalists and acknowledged that he would have liked to have reported from the Gulf Coast. "Covering hurricanes is something I know something about," he said.

"It's been one of television news' finest moments," Rather said of the Katrina coverage. He likened it to the coverage of President Kennedy's assassination in 1963."

First of all, it's well established that Dan Rather famously lied in his reporting from Dallas on the day of the assassination.

Similarly, reporter lied about Katrina, and even the New York Times and the Washington Post have ripped media coverage.