Contributor

John Campbell

John Campbell (R-Irvine) is an Assemblyman representing the 70th District in Orange County. Mr. Campbell is the Vice-Chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee. He is the only CPA in the California State legislature and recently received a national award as Freshman Republican Legislator of the Year. He represents the cities of Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Irvine, Costa Mesa, Tustin, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Woods and Lake Forest. He can be reached through his Assembly website and through the website for his California Senate campaign. [go to Campbell index]

CBS News & Dan Rather
The government is in our lives..
[John Campbell] 9/27/04

I think that the most interesting story of the last few weeks has been that of the forged documents used by Dan Rather in his recent 60 Minutes report about President Bush's National Guard service. I think it is interesting not because it is new, and not because it is unique, but because the bad reporting story is actually getting play.

I have not watched 60 minutes for nearly 20 years. My personal boycott was the result of my watching that program destroy businesses and people over time with stories based on scant or misleading evidence that were sensationalized to make them more compelling. I observed at least one situation where they had reached a conclusion on the story before they began interviewing anyone and their interviews were intended to support the conclusion they had already reached rather than discover and report either the truth or both sides of an issue. Most of the time, the targets of these reports did not have the resources or the microphone to fight back. When, later the truth came out, 60 Minutes would either ignore it, or give a very short and inconclusive follow-up report.

During the 1990s, Dateline NBC was caught in a story where they claimed that Chevrolet pickup trucks had unsafe gas tanks. General Motors was able to prove that Dateline had attached explosive devices to the gas tanks in the pickups to make them blowup for their cameras. Dateline stuck to their story until GM produced irrefutable evidence of the fraud. Finally, they admitted wrongdoing. But NBC was up against another well financed and motivated corporation here. Most such "victims" do not have the resources to compete with a media giant.

The Los Angeles Times took a great deal of journalistic heat in the final days of last year's recall election when they published stories of then-candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger's alleged groping incidents, in which story they quoted entirely "anonymous sources." A former LA Times reporter said that the paper had numerous reports of Gray Davis' alleged temper and violent acts with employees, but sat on the story because the sources were "anonymous." The Davis stories were never run while the Arnold story was run repeatedly by the paper.

Now, we have Dan Rather and CBS News sticking to their story at first, just as Dateline NBC had done. Then, when the evidence that these documents were forged became overwhelming, they fell back to a position that the evidence may have been tainted, but the content of the report was correct? How can the content of the report be correct when the only evidence to support the conclusion is fake?

Now, they apologize for the "error" but say that it was not the result of media bias. Yeah right.

Media bias exists, but it is not new. Throughout this country's history, newspapers (the only media until the mid-20th century) were classified as Republican "presses" or Democratic newspapers or Whig newspapers if you want to go far enough back. During the Civil War, for instance, Horace Greeley's New York Tribune and the New York Times were known to be Lincoln-supporting Republican newspapers. (Hard to think of the New York Times as Republican, huh?) The New York Herald, on the other hand, was the Democratic voice in town. The LA Times was a Republican newspaper in the middle of the last century .

What is malicious is not that media like CBS or the LA Times are biased. It is that they pretend not to be.

Remember that shows like 60 Minutes are corporate profit making enterprises. They make money by advertising which is driven by ratings. The more sensational the story, the better the ratings. The pressure to create these ratings is always there and has and can cause bad behavior.

So, what should an inquisitive public do? First of all, understand that media bias is there but they are not always up front about it. Vote with your eyes and ears, and watch, listen or read only the sources you trust, or accept their bias. When they violate that trust, turn them off. Up to 49% of Dan Rather's viewers in some markets have already done so.

Second, diversify your sources. The CBS scandal was uncovered by Internet bloggers and then talk radio. The digital age provides numerous and diverse sources of information on radio, TV, cable, satellite, printed word and from all over the world. Don't count on the 6 o'clock news to give you the truth, the whole truth and nothing but.

And third, you be the source for your friends who are less inquisitive than you. Many people don't have the time or inclination to look past the front page of their newspaper.

It is bad that this CBS scandal occurred. And there is still much we don't yet know (like who forged the document and was the Kerry campaign involved?) But it is good that it was exposed. Some media may change. Some will not. We should be ever vigilant. CRO

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