Planet Abell

Here's a takeway for all you journalism students trying to make sense of Dan Rather's $70 million lawsuit against CBS: Don't lie. Especially on the air. I'm not referring to the story about President Bush's Texas Air National Guard service, the flashpoint which led to Rather's ignominious departure from his journalistic home of 44 years. That may or may not have been a properly vetted story but it is clear that Rather believed in it at the time — and his lawsuit suggests that he still does. Being wrong isn't a capital offense in journalism. Being wrong and knowing in advance that you were wrong absolutely is one, without possibility of appeal. Ask Jayson Blair or Janet Cooke . Here is what you do when you are "instructed" to report something you don't think is true: You quit on the spot. Period. You never allow the business side to make editorial decisions. Period. You go down to the bar, order a stiff one, contact Howard Kurtz , The Col...

So Dan Rather is shocked, shocked at the "dumbing down" and "tarting up" of the CBS Evening News? Courage, Dan, Courage. Rather has been at both ends of a tough transition on the anchor desk of the CBS Evening News. Walter Cronkite, who Rather replaced, wasn't pleased about being shown the door for Rather. Rather himself was the object of more scorn than perhaps any anchor in the history of television and left under a cloud over story the news division withdrew. After a year of temporary service by Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Scheiffer, Rather was officially replaced by "Today" show host Katie Couric -- whose intro is read by Cronkite, back from oblivion. Couric's numbers have been at historical lows , a distant third amnng the Bog Three with about six million viewers, sometimes fewer. Producers have more to do with what we see on the air than anchors, even when they are, as is usually the case on the networks, also managing editor of ...

CBS News has canned Gen. John Batiste "due to his participation in an ad criticizing President Bush." T he initial post on the CBS Public Eye quoted Standards and Special Projects Linda Mason as saying that viewers of the ad "might have the feeling everything he says is anti-Bush. And that doesn’t seem like an analytical approach to the issues we want to discuss.” In an update to the post Mason "expanded" her remarks. “General Batiste took part in a commercial that’s being shown on television to raise money for veterans against the war,” she said. “It isn’t just that he took an advocacy position.” The ad does not solicit money, but targets moderate Republicans to support Democrat-led Congressional initiatives regarding Iraq war funding and checks. But leave that aside. And also that Mason said that, despite his infraction, CBS may yet turn to Batiste, though not as a paid consultant. What's really confusing is whether it is his opinion or its expression ...

T he day after, nearly every broadcast network has drawn a line in the sand about further airings of the Cho tapes. While reserving the right to air them in whatever way merited in the future, they are saying enough is enough, sometimes in very strong terms. The statements are all at TVNewser , the best outlet for breaking news about TV news, and I quote them all from that source. NBC : "Beginning this morning, we have limited our usage of the video across NBC News, including MSNBC, to no more than 10 percent of our airtime." It used to be that news organizations risked doing irresponsible things for competitive reasons against only other news organizations. Now the argument is extended to the point that if it is on YouTube, it is fair game. FNC : "We believe that 18 hours after they were first broadcast and distributed via the Internet, our news viewers have had the opportunity to see the images and draw their own conclusions about them. We see no reason to continue ass...