Dan Rather: “a flaming tire of lack of patriotism put around your neck”
[The Dan Rather quote below is disturbing beyond words. If one of the most powerful newsmen in America feels intimidated, how much pressure must the average reporter feel? -Thomas]
Whatever Happened to Bin Laden?, Greg Palast
On my BBC television show, Newsnight, an American journalist confessed that, since the 9/11 attacks, US reporters are simply too afraid to ask the uncomfortable questions that could kill careers: “It’s an obscene comparison, but there was a time in South Africa when people would put flaming tires around people’s necks if they dissented. In some ways, the fear is that you will be necklaced here, you will have a flaming tire of lack of patriotism put around your neck,” Dan Rather said. Without his makeup, Rather looked drawn, old and defeated in confessing that he too had given in. “It’s that fear that keeps journalists from asking the toughest of the tough questions and to continue to bore in on the tough questions so often.”
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