The news business is its own worst enemy
Self-immolation.
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No one does more harm to journalism than people in journalism.
The Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin unveiled this week two awards honoring disgraced former CBS News anchor Dan Rather.
“The Dan Rather Medals for News and Guts honor the process of journalism as much as the end product,” the organization announced Wednesday. “They will be awarded to professional and collegiate journalists who go the extra yard — overcoming obstacles like stonewalling and harassment — to get the story that tells truth to power.”
A spokesperson for the Moody College of Communication confirmed in a response to an inquiry that the awards are, in fact, real and that they are not part of an elaborate joke.
“The Medals are named for Dan Rather, the legendary reporter and anchor who went far afield from his Texan roots but never forgot his humble beginnings,” the school explains. “He has been an ardent supporter of the School of Journalism and Media, inspiring and advocating for our majors. He is a permanent member of the Moody College of Communication’s Advisory Council, where he has been instrumental in its extraordinary development.”
It adds, “The School and the College sponsor the Dan Rather Medals for News and Guts to further his goal of supporting and defending bravery and excellence in journalism in the face of overwhelming odds. While journalism and journalists have long been under constant fire from the powerful, recognizing those who show ‘News and Guts’ has never been more important than it is today. … These medals in his name, to be presented to professional and college journalists, honor that effort.”
Adding insult to injury, the school then quotes Rather himself, who once said, "News organizations and teams within those organizations have to have the guts and the backbone to dig into stories that people in power don’t want the public to know.”
Absent from the college’s announcement is any mention of why Rather has not anchored a serious news desk since 2004. For those who don't remember, Rather alleged falsely during the 2004 U.S. presidential election that then-President George W. Bush had gone "AWOL" for much of his tenure in the National Guard. Rather's supposed "bombshell" story, for which he lost his job at CBS, was based entirely on forged documents.
Look, this isn’t to keep harping on the disgraced newsman and his attempt 16 years ago to influence a presidential election with honest-to-God fake news. Rather (ha!), this is to underscore a deeper rot in the news industry and its feeder schools. Rather’s steady rehabilitation despite his lack of remorse for what he did during the 2004 presidential election is indicative of a much deeper problem in media. It is just another data point showing the press’s standards, or whatever we’re calling them these days, depend mostly on the person to whom they are being applied.
Rather should be a pariah in media, especially because he still maintains he did nothing wrong (he did). But he has enjoyed a renaissance in the news business these past couple of years, thanks, in large part, to his anti-President Trump social media activities.
If top newsrooms and journalism educators are willing to throw away their credibility to reward a remorseless liar for having the correct political positions, it is going to take the news industry much longer than I thought to regain the public’s trust. Much longer.