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Any article on loss of faith in the news that does not mention Dan Rather using forged documents in a 60 Minutes episode about Bush is really missing a lot. I

Any article on loss of faith in the news that does not mention Dan Rather using forged documents in a 60 Minutes episode about Bush is really missing a lot. I think that was the big turning point.

bagels 4y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killian_documents_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killian_documents_controversy
kevin_thibedeau 4y ago
I'd place the turning point on Bush blacklisting anyone in the press corps who questioned the message Cheney/Rove was trying to sell.
bell-cot 4y ago
No. Yes, Dan was a sucker for some crudely-forged documents from a really dodgy source. But journalists skimping on fact-checking when they liked the story was SOP a century or few earlier. For instance - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brass_Check https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brass_Check
LarryMullins 4y ago
Another big one was The New York Times and Judith Miller uncritically parroting Bush administration lies about Saddam Hussein making nuclear weapons. It became so flagrantly bullshit that the New York Times actually apologized for it a year or two later, but by then it was too late. I still read The New York Times, but I do so knowing they have an American establishment bias and will make themselves uncritical puppets of the government whenever they feel so inclined. Probably most of what they publish is usually more true than false, but you've always got to read it with a grain of salt. The newspaper is best as a bellwether for what the American establishment wants the American public to believe. Having "faith" is precisely the wrong way to read a newspaper.
njarboe 4y ago
So many events missing. This story itself is an example of why people have lost faith. No WMDs in Iraq for me was the one that turned me. A Republican administration seeding the New York Times that lie and they published it with basically no research. The former CEO of Halliburton, Dick Cheney, who oversaw the acquisition of KBR for fuck sake (the largest private contractor in the Iraq war with $10s? of billions of contract dollars per year)[1]) was the de-facto president of the US at the time. The Hunter Biden laptop story being suppressed as Russian misinformation right before the election when it was legitimate is another big one. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KBR_(company) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KBR_(company) "In the 2000s, KBR employed more American private contractors and had a larger contract with the U.S. government than any other firm in Iraq. The company's roughly 14,000 U.S. employees in Iraq provide logistical support to the U.S. military.[38] Some U.S. Marines revived the Vietnam-era nickname 'Burn & Loot' as a name for the company during the Iraq War.[39]"

Any article on loss of faith in the news that does not mention Dan Rather using forged documents in a 60 Minutes episode about Bush is really missing a lot. I think that was the big turning point.

bagels 4y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killian_documents_controversy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killian_documents_controversy

kevin_thibedeau 4y ago

I'd place the turning point on Bush blacklisting anyone in the press corps who questioned the message Cheney/Rove was trying to sell.

bell-cot 4y ago

No. Yes, Dan was a sucker for some crudely-forged documents from a really dodgy source. But journalists skimping on fact-checking when they liked the story was SOP a century or few earlier. For instance - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brass_Check https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brass_Check

LarryMullins 4y ago

Another big one was The New York Times and Judith Miller uncritically parroting Bush administration lies about Saddam Hussein making nuclear weapons. It became so flagrantly bullshit that the New York Times actually apologized for it a year or two later, but by then it was too late. I still read The New York Times, but I do so knowing they have an American establishment bias and will make themselves uncritical puppets of the government whenever they feel so inclined. Probably most of what they publish is usually more true than false, but you've always got to read it with a grain of salt. The newspaper is best as a bellwether for what the American establishment wants the American public to believe. Having "faith" is precisely the wrong way to read a newspaper.

njarboe 4y ago

So many events missing. This story itself is an example of why people have lost faith. No WMDs in Iraq for me was the one that turned me. A Republican administration seeding the New York Times that lie and they published it with basically no research. The former CEO of Halliburton, Dick Cheney, who oversaw the acquisition of KBR for fuck sake (the largest private contractor in the Iraq war with $10s? of billions of contract dollars per year)[1]) was the de-facto president of the US at the time. The Hunter Biden laptop story being suppressed as Russian misinformation right before the election when it was legitimate is another big one. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KBR_(company) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KBR_(company) "In the 2000s, KBR employed more American private contractors and had a larger contract with the U.S. government than any other firm in Iraq. The company's roughly 14,000 U.S. employees in Iraq provide logistical support to the U.S. military.[38] Some U.S. Marines revived the Vietnam-era nickname 'Burn & Loot' as a name for the company during the Iraq War.[39]"