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Thank You, Dan Rather

CBS TV News anchorman, Dan Rather, resigned amidst controversy a while back. He is now back in the news as he sues his old Network for millions of dollars.

Switch to Leslie Griffith, a journalist in newspaper, radio and television for 25 years. One of her first assignments was in Moscow during the cold war. Griffith has earned two Edward R. Murrow awards; nine Emmys; thirty-seven Emmy nominations; the Prestigious Casey Medal for helping to stop exploitation of the nation's children; seven Radio and Television News Directors Association awards; the 2006 People's Choice Award for Best Female Anchor in Oakland Magazine, and the 2005 Associated Press Anchor of the Year. Griffith received commendation from The Associated Press for being the first to confirm on September 11, 2001, that the passengers on Flight 93 fought back. Griffith won the National Genesis Award for exposing abuse at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in 2005.

Writing on Perspective [republished on truthout.com] Griffith thanks Rather for his stand at CBS and goes on to detail her experiences as journalist post 9/11 and how journalism has been compromised in the name of patriotism and fear of being Bush-whacked as she calls it.

"Just seven years ago, I looked up from my desk and saw my image on the MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour as our staff of independent journalists was described as the best local news in the country. But war broke out and the Internet took off and all over the country local news ratings dropped as viewers turned to the national networks for news from the war fronts. Contrary to all logical thinking, local reporters looked at their retirement plans and their kids in college and promptly puckered their lips on the behinds of corporate media and smooched. If my kids were still in college, I would not have the courage to write this now. In response to fewer viewers, local television panicked into a downward spiral and many a trusting viewer decided to go elsewhere. Corporate media were demanding that reporters adapt to the point of our own extinction.

Morphed into propaganda machines - cheerleaders with pompoms - it was heartbreaking to watch the demise and media corporations' always bass-ackwards responses. With two wars on two fronts they decided to go “Local.” Only local news. The war and the profound implications of it were relegated to 30-second stories buried deep into the newscast. (They don't need to know about that. - But there's a grass fire up the road!) If that's not manipulation, I don't know what is. Here are some other sad results of this corporate bullying toward some of the best journalists in the country."

It is unlikely that the position in America is any different in Australia and elsewhere.

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