Dan Rather, the former anchor for the CBS Evening News, who is known for his election night “Ratherisms” once said, “Be careful. Journalism is more addictive than crack cocaine. Your life can get out of balance.”
Judging from his past, Dan’s prophecy about life and journalism was right on target. His life and “unbiased” reporting have definitely been out of balance for the last 24 years. In fact: “Dan lists precariously to port like an oil tanker taking on crude oil in Galveston, Texas”.
In other words Dan is a liberal. And to make matters worse he is a lying liberal.
Dan’s first known recorded lie came in 1963 when he reported that Dallas school kids had applauded when the death of President Kennedy was announced over the PA system at school. This liberal lie of course never happened. Everyone around the country was stunned about Kennedy’s death. Especially school children.
And Dan’s lies continued.
He later claimed to be the first reporter to get the scoop that President Kennedy had died from his wounds. It was later discovered that Rather actually overheard a newspaper reporter calling in the news of Kennedy’s death to his home office. Rather rushed the story to air and took credit for the scoop.
Dan’s addiction to lying and liberal journalism, combined with his hatred of President George W. Bush apparently was too much for the simple country boy from Texas to handle. During the 2004 presidential campaign and a few weeks before the election, Dan abandoned ethical journalism and apparently tried to unseat the president of the United States.
Dan, with the backing of others at CBS News, reported blatant lies from unchecked sources and used forged government documents in a CBS News exclusive report about President Bush’s military past. Lucky for us, Dan and his cronies got caught and President Bush was re-elected.
Dan left CBS News with his tail between his legs over this scandal. Thank God for Bloggers.
Knowing that Dan still wants to work as a journalist, I think he should apply for a job with the Italian communist newspaper, Il Manifesto. I think Dan would feel right at home working for the Il Manifesto organization.
After all, like CBS News, the paper definitely leans to the left and Il Manifesto reporters love to report lies and liberal propaganda.
Case in point: Italian intelligence officer Nicola Calipari was killed by American troops last week as he drove Giuliana Sgrena, a released terrorist hostage, to the Baghdad airport.
Terrorists had abducted Sgrena, a reporter who works for Il Manifesto, in February of this year.
Italian secret service officials negotiated her release last week. Calipari was killed and Sgrena was wounded when US troops fired at their vehicle as they headed to the airport shortly after her release.
There are two sides to this story.
The soldier’s story is that a car approached the checkpoint at a speed estimated to be 100 miles per hour. The driver of the car failed to obey repeated orders to stop by the soldiers manning the checkpoint and was fired upon. Eight bullets hit the car. One bullet killed Calipari and shrapnel wounded Sgrena.
The soldiers rightly assumed the car was a possible suicide bomber trying to run the checkpoint.
The Italian government never informed the CIA about Sgrena’s release. Possibly because they paid a ransom for her release, a practice looked down on by the Bush administration. Sources claim that the Italian government has paid up to $15 million to terrorists this year for hostage releases. I guess the Italians love funding the terrorist’s war chest.
Of course the story from Ms. Sgrena and Gabriele Polo, the editor of Il Manifesto, about that night is much different. Polo claims that Italian officials told him that over 300 to 400 rounds were fired at the car.
Sgrena claims the car was driving slowly, 30 to 40 miles per hour. She also later told her boyfriend that she picked up handfuls of bullets off the front seat. Which of course is impossible. Ask anyone who knows anything about ballistics.
For the record Ms. Sgrena opposes the war in Iraq and told her captors when she was first taken hostage, “But why do you kidnap me, I’m against the war.”
I tend to believe the American soldiers manning the checkpoint and not the communist journalists. For one thing, if 400 rounds were fired at the car, I am positive it would have been hit more than eight times. If not, the soldiers should not be manning checkpoints. There are also photos showing only eight bullet holes in the car.
I think Il Manifesto should get Dan to look into this matter. Maybe he can collaborate with Ms. Sgrena and come up with a real “humdinger” of a news story. Just like the good old days at CBS News.
But then again, maybe he should listen to his “Ratherism” this time. Dan said, “ If all difficulties were known at the outset of a long journey, most of us would never start out at all.”
I guess Dan should have stayed in Texas and Sgrena in Italy. Then none of this mess would have ever happened.
— Steve Darnell is a self-syndicated columnist and can be reached at [email protected] or visit www.stevedarnell.com.
