It's Not About Dan and Katie

IT'S NOT ABOUT DAN AND KATIE
[SOURCE: The Nation, AUTHOR: Katrina Vanden Heuvel]
[Commentary] The media firestorm following Dan rather's remark -- that network executives had tried to boost ratings by "dumbing [CBS Evening News] down and tarting it up" -- illustrates the very point Rather was trying to make about the degradation of the mainstream, corporate news biz and the obliteration of the line between news and entertainment. As another CBS alum, Walter Cronkite, recently said, that the pressure for profits is "threatening the very freedom the nation was built upon." And in a recent New York Times op-ed, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps warned of "pressure from media conglomerates" that has made licensing renewals for the free use of the public airwaves a virtual "rubber-stamp" every eight years. He contrasts this with a past when every three years the requirement that networks serve the public interest was given "a hard look" – prior to "deregulatory mania in the 1980's." We desperately need a news media that raises the tough questions, acts as watchdogs of the public interest, questions authority--performs the basic duties required of a free press in a democracy. A flawed media leads to a flawed democracy. And in these past six or so years, with some notable exceptions, the media has been too easily intimidated by an administration that used fear to make its case for war, labeled its critics un-American, quashed dissent, perverted the meaning of patriotism and brazenly -- on all fronts -- subverted the Constitution. It ain't about Dan, and it ain't about Katie. It's about consolidation, conglomeration, and the impact on the Fourth Estate and our democracy.
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut?bid=7&pid=204994