Dan Rather
 Dan Rather           (TV presenter, journalist) | |
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| Born | October 31, 1931 Wharton School of Business, Texas, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Sam Houston State University |
| Children | • Robin Rather • Danjack Rather |
| Spouse | Jean Goebel |
| Member of | Council on Foreign Relations/Members 3 |
US corporate journalist and former news anchor. He made his career by misrepresenting the Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination. While generally reliably staying within the Overton window of accepted opinions, he was set up and fired in 2004, presumably for showing insufficient patriotism after 911 by revealing the Abu Ghraib torture.
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Dan Irvin Rather Jr. is a former US journalist and news anchor. He made his career by promoting some vital false information about the Zapruder film in November 25, 1963. While since then generally reliably staying within the Overton window of accepted opinions, he was set up and fired in 2004, presumably for showing insufficient patriotism ardor after 911 by exposing some of the Abu Ghraib torture photos.
Dan Rather is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Contents
JFK Assassination
- Full article: JFK/Assassination
- Full article: JFK/Assassination
| Dan Rather made his career by spreading the Big Lie about the final shot in Dallas ("His head could be seen to move violently forward") |
Rather began his journalism career in 1950 as an Associated Press reporter in Huntsville, Texas. Later, he was a reporter for United Press (1950–1952), several Texas radio stations, and the Houston Chronicle (1954–1955). In 1959, Rather began his television career as a reporter for KTRK-TV, the ABC affiliate in Houston.
Rather was in Dallas in November 1963, to return film from an interview in Uvalde at the ranch of former Vice President John Nance Garner, who celebrated his 95th birthday on November 22.[1] He happened to be "on the other side of the railroad tracks, beyond the triple underpass, thirty yards from a grassy knoll that would later figure in so many conspiracy theories."[2]
Rather was the only reporter to view the Zapruder film the day after the assassination, and the first to describe it on television.[3] Vitally for the official narrative on the assassination, Rather misrepresented what happened in the film,[4] stating:
"His head could be seen to move violently forward".[5]
Rather's misrepresentation of that crucial film affirmed to the public the CIA’s false claim, that JFK had been assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, acting all alone, and stationed up behind the presidential limousine, on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository building.
Further career
In 1964, CBS selected him for the network's White House correspondent position.[6] In 1965, Rather became foreign correspondent for CBS in London, and in 1966 in Vietnam.
He worked again as White House correspondent during the presidency of Richard Nixon. In 1970, he was also assigned as anchor for the CBS Sunday Night News[7] (1970–73; 1974–75), and later for the CBS Saturday Evening News (1973–76).[8] Rather was among those journalists who accompanied Nixon to China.[9] He later covered the Watergate investigation, as well as the impeachment proceedings against Nixon in Congress.
September 11, 2001
On the day of 9-11, Dan Rather reported on both the Dancing Israelis and the George Washington Bridge plot.
Entrapped and fired
After being accused of insufficient patriotism after 9/11, among other things (after some hesitation) by showing some of the torture pictures from Abu Ghraib[10][11], Rather was entrapped to present false documents, in what is known as The Killian documents (also referred to as Memogate or Rathergate[12][13]).
Rather created a great deal of controversy when he said on BBC Newsnight (16th May, 2002): "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. Now it is that fear that keeps journalists from asking the toughest of the tough questions, and to continue to bore in on the tough questions so often. And again, I am humbled to say, I do not except myself from this criticism."[14]
The Killian documents involved six documents containing false allegations about President George W. Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard in 1972–73, allegedly typed in 1973. Dan Rather presented four of these documents[15] as authentic in a 60 Minutes II broadcast aired by CBS on September 8, 2004, less than two months before the 2004 presidential election, but it was later found that CBS had failed to authenticate them.[16][17][18] Several typewriter and typography experts soon concluded that they were forgeries.[19] Lt. Col. Bill Burkett provided the documents to CBS, but he claims to have burned the originals after faxing them copies.[20]
While the alcoholic cokehead George W. Bush served in the Guard as a cushy alternative to the Vietnam war, and that that undue influence had been exerted on Bush's behalf, broadly speaking are true, these documents were forgeries. After the documents almost immediately after publication were shown to be false, CBS established a review panel "to help determine what errors occurred in the preparation of the report and what actions need to be taken".[21] Dan Rather announced on November 23, 2004, that he would step down in early 2005 and on March 9, his 24th anniversary as anchor, he left the network.
A Quote by Dan Rather
| Page | Quote | Source |
|---|---|---|
| CBS | “Two suspects are in FBI custody after a truckload of explosives were discovered around the George Washington Bridge. That bridge links New York to New Jersey over the Hudson River. Whether the discovery of those explosives has anything to do with other events today is unclear, but the FBI, has two suspects in hand, said the truckload of explosives, enough explosives were in the truck to do great damage to the George Washington Bridge.” | YouTube |
Event Witnessed
| Event | Location(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Vietnam War | Vietnam Cambodia Laos Thailand | The Vietnam War was a proxy war lead by US that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from December 1956 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. Millions of people were killed, mostly Vietnamese. JFK was assassinated soon after declaring his intent to withdraw US troops. The war helped the CIA to refine its methods of illegal drug trafficking, torture and the like. |
References
- ↑ Dan Rather with Mickey Herskowitz, The Camera Never Blinks (1976), p. 113.
- ↑ Rather, The Camera Never Blinks, p. 114.
- ↑ "Oswald's Ghost". American Experience. Season 20. Episode 1. November 17, 2008.
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20140402170519/http://stonezone.com/article.php?id=581
- ↑ https://fair.org/extra/the-plot-to-kill-jfk/
- ↑ https://danratherjournalist.org/political-analyst/white-house-correspondent
- ↑ http://themoderatevoice.com/6664/dan-rather-reportedly-out-at-cbs-updated/
- ↑ https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dan-Rather
- ↑ Assignment: China -- The Week that Changed the World
- ↑ https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA119741056&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=0010194X&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7E1c1a7f7c
- ↑ https://danratherjournalist.org/investigative-journalist/60-minutes-ii/court-martial-iraq-abu-ghraib/video-court-martial-iraq-abu
- ↑ https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2005/02/whos-got-the-power/
- ↑ https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/newswar/tags/rathergate.html
- ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm
- ↑ Two entitled "Memo to File," one "Memorandum," and one "Memorandum for Record," see here [1] for PDF versions at the Washington Post website.
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20110514062505/http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A18982-2004Sep13?language=printer
- ↑ https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Investigation/Story?id=131423&page=1
- ↑ http://www.nbcnews.com/id/6807825
- ↑ Including Peter Tytell, Thomas Phinney, and Joseph Newcomer, a man with 35 years of computer font technology experience. See: Last, Jonathan. http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/005/124mrhci.asp?pg=1
- ↑ https://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-09-21-cover-guard_x.htm
- ↑ http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/22/politics/main644969.shtml
