• MediaChannel, Thursday, June 22, 2006 11:45 AM

It was a physical assassination that brought Dan Rather to national prominence when, as young Texas reporter known for covering hurricanes, he reported the murder of President John F. Kennedy, writes Danny Schechter at MediaChannel. But "his long and colorful career as a TV anchor has now been killed by a media assassination staged by his own company." His fate was sealed when he exposed George W. Bush's military record--or, rather, lack thereof--when some documents he used to enhance the report could not be proven authentic, Schechter writes. "Most observers felt the story was true but the evidence used was--mostly as a TV show-and-tell device--was unreliable,' Schechter notes. "The right-wing ideologues who led the attack on the 'mistake' were Rather-haters for years. They applauded his demise as a blow against "liberal media.' It is not the first time the Tiffany Network has bowed to the wishes of the right-wing noise machine to do in one of its truth-tellers, he continues. "CBS has had a long history of turning its heroes into zeroes. Edward R. Murrow was pushed out even after his McCarthy investigation . . . . What many don't remember is that CBS cancelled his "See It Now" program. Murrow would later say that TV was being used "to insulate the citizenry from the hard and demanding realities which must be faced if we are to survive'."

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