Dan, the Consummate Asshole, Speaks

Published on Friday, May 17, 2002 in the Guardian of London

US Media Cowed by Patriotic Fever, Says CBS Star

Network news veteran admits national mood caused him to
shrink from tough questions on war in Afghanistan

by Matthew Engel in Washington

Dan Rather, the star news anchor for the US television
network CBS, said last night that "patriotism run amok" was
in danger of trampling the freedom of American journalists
to ask tough questions. And he admitted that he had shrunk
from taking on the Bush administration over the war on
terrorism.

In the weeks after September 11 Rather wore a Stars and
Stripes pin in his lapel during his evening news show in an
apparent display of total solidarity with the American
cause. However, in an interview with BBC's Newsnight, he
graphically described the pressures to conform that built up
after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon.

"It is an obscene comparison - you know I am not sure I like
it - but you know there was a time in South Africa that
people would put flaming tires around people's necks if they
dissented. And in some ways the fear is that you will be
necklaced here, you will have a flaming tire of lack of
patriotism put around your neck," he said. "Now it is that
fear that keeps journalists from asking the toughest of the
tough questions."

Rather did not exempt himself from the criticism, and said
the problem was self-censorship. "It starts with a feeling
of patriotism within oneself. It carries through with a
certain knowledge that the country as a whole - and for all
the right reasons - felt and continues to feel this surge of
patriotism within themselves. And one finds oneself saying:
'I know the right question, but you know what? This is not
exactly the right time to ask it.'"

Such a confession is astonishing, bearing in mind its
source. Rather is almost as famous in the US as the
president, though he is more secure in his tenure, far
better paid and probably more pampered.

Rather, 70, has held what used to be regarded as the top job
in American journalism for two decades, since he was chosen
to succeed the revered and avuncular Walter Cronkite as CBS
News's anchorman. Traditionally, CBS was the country's No 1
news channel but has lost its status and ratings after years
of budget cutbacks.

The White House was to blame for its failure to provide
adequate information about the war, Rather said. "There has
never been an American war, small or large, in which access
has been so limited as this one.

"Limiting access, limiting information to cover the
backsides of those who are in charge of the war, is
extremely dangerous and cannot and should not be accepted.
And I am sorry to say that, up to and including the moment
of this interview, that overwhelmingly it has been accepted
by the American people. And the current administration
revels in that, they relish that, and they take refuge in
that."

He said his view of the patriotism differed from that of the
administration. "It's unpatriotic not to stand up, look them
in the eye, and ask the questions they don't want to hear -
they being those who have the responsibility, the ultimate
responsibility - of sending our sons and daughters, our
husbands, wives, our blood, to face death."