Dan Rather: "Caught In A Texas Tornado"



April 7, 2001



BOB GARFIELD: Many on the right of the political spectrum believe that Dan Rather of the CBS Evening News slants coverage to a liberal point of view. There's even a web site called Ratherbiased.com curated by two college students, Greg and Matthew Sheffield. Here's Greg Sheffield with what he regards as the most egregious example of Rather bias.

MEN: New President Bill Clinton congratulated Dan Rather on his on-air partnership with Connie Chung. Thank you, Mr. President, thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. If we could be one one hundredth as great as you and Hillary Rodham Clinton have been together in the White House, we [could quit] right now and walk away winners. [Dan Rather at a meeting for CBS affiliates, speaking to Bill Clinton via satellite, May 27th, 1993]

BROOKE GLADSTONE:Until last week this was all an academic argument. The right complained that Rather slanted and Rather replied, quote, "bull feathers." But then the Washington Post exposed what his critics believe is the smoking gun -- an appearance he made March 21st at an Austin, Texas Democratic Party fundraiser. Though he denies knowing the event was a fundraiser, Rather has apologized for speaking at a partisan event and for adding to the perception that as a journalist he doesn't play it straight down the line.

BOB GARFIELD:Joining us now is Bob Steele [sp?] who directs the Journalism Ethics Program at the Pointer Institute. Bob, Dan Rather is the poster child for media bias. If this were Ted Koppel or Tom Brokaw who had done this fundraiser, maybe less of an uproar?

BOB STEELE: Frankly I think that any major journalist who had found himself or herself in the same situation would be challenged by those to the, to the political right, and it's a reasonable challenge to raise. I don't think it proves that Dan la--Dan Rather is a liberal sympathizer. What this situation proves to me is that Dan Rather used exceptionally bad judgment in going to this political event which was also a political fundraiser.

BOB GARFIELD:Of course from a journalism ethics point of view maybe it doesn't matter if he is a liberal sympathizer and you know maybe it doesn't matter if he's a crypto-Communist so long as in his--doing his job he is an honest broker of the news and does nothing to slant his coverage in line with whatever his political sympathies are. Does he have an equal responsibility not i--from a journalism ethics point of view - not to make public appearances that might leave the perception of a bias even if there is none?

BOB STEELE: Yes. Dan Rather and, and all other journalists in this country have an obligation to guard their credibility and that of their news organizations. They should not do anything which raises the perception of a ideological bias. This situation is complicated to some degree by the fact that Dan Rather's daughter is active in Democratic politics in Texas as I understand it and was part of the, the fundraising evening. Dan Rather is not the first journalist to be in a difficult situation where an immediate family member is involved in politics, but in those situations the journalist must accept that he or she had to honor journalistic principles.

BOB GARFIELD:And actually the fact that his daughter is in intimately a part of the Democratic politics in that county makes it seem all the more disingenuous maybe that he claimed ignorance that it was a fundraising event to begin with.

BOB STEELE: Well it's beyond me how he could have gone to this political event without asking questions about the nature of the event and without asking questions about what was transpiring and whether it was a fundraiser. Frankly, I, I think he was ill-advised to attend it period, whether it was a fundraiser or not.

BOB GARFIELD: Because irrespective of whether this actually is a smoking gun, there are a lot of people out there who will treat it that way.

BOB STEELE:Well that, that's certainly the case. I mean I, I hear these kinds of concerns and complaints on airplanes when my seatmates ask what I do and I say I do journalism ethics, and after a, a good chortle they-- usually raise a litany [LAUGHTER] of challenges to why the media is unfair and biased. It's nothing new to me, and while it's frustrating I, I understand the public's at times disenchantment or anger to the press, and when a journalist, particularly one of the profile of Dan Rather, goes into a minefield and sets off an explosion as he did in this situation, we are undermining our ability to serve the public to the degree that we-- we should and must.

BOB GARFIELD: Should he be punished for this?

BOB STEELE:Well it, it seems to me that this is a pretty significant trip for Dan Rather to, to do what he did; I don't mean it in a literal sense of a trip to Texas but a, a tripwire if you will in setting off at least a, a small explosion in a case like this. Should he be disciplined? I would need to know what the CBS standards are in this case. I would also want to know whether Dan Rather had talked to anybody at CBS before he did this and whether they gave him clearance on it.

BOB GARFIELD: All right. Bob Steele, thanks so much for joining us.

BOB STEELE: My pleasure.

BOB GARFIELD: Bob Steele is the director of the ethics program at the Pointer Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida.