Dan Rather Massively Popular Per Gallup Poll: Why Did CBS Bow to GOP?

[McCamy Taylor]

Check out this Gallup Poll about TV Journalists:

http://poll.gallup.com/content/?ci=24031

Next to Diane Sawyer, whom everyone loves, Dan Rather has the highest recognition and the highest approval rating of any journalist tested, this despite the much publicized media lynching followed by CBS taking away his anchor position, cutting back his assignments and finally all but firing him and forcing him to seek employment with cable.

The only tested demographic which does not have a high approval rating of Dan Rather is---no surprise--Republicans.

Is it common place nowadays for commercial television networks to undermine, underutilize and then cast off their hottest media properties? Would not you expect a network like CBS to use someone with the name recognition and approval of a Dan Rather to help promote other TV journalists and other network news programming? For instance, have Dan Rather introduce a show or voice over a promo. The viewer would think "I recognize Rather and I have a high approval of him. Since he recommends this program, I think I will watch it." News is not necessarily about being the newest and youngest on the block. It is like medicine and law. People want a few grey hairs and some experience somewhere, even if they like a fresh face in front of the camera.

These numbers confirm what we all suspected. When CBS all but fired Dan Rather, it was not a business move on the part of Les Moonves. It was not an attempt to appeal to a younger, hipper crowd or a concession to a public that no longer trusted Rather in the wake of the Bush AWOL Show. Moonves and Viacom were pandering to the Bush Administration and the FCC, and they did it by getting rid of one of their news superstars.

I hope that the share holders of CBS/Viacom rip Les Moonves a new one for being such a dumb ass. Administrations come and go, the party in power in DC changes hands every eight years or so with regular frequency. But a media superstar like Dan Rather only comes along once in a generation.

:nopity:

[thepurpose]

1. Because they Suck just like the rest of the MSM

[whistle]

2. CBS is owned by GE a military industrial corporation with neocon

...executives and war monger capitalist investors

[McCamy Taylor]

3. Oops. Thats NBC. CBS owned by Viacom, media giant.

[LuckyLib]

4. Dan was swift-boated and freeped. Big time.

[AX10]

5. CBS is corporate owned, that's why they dumped Dan.

They are all busy towing the GOP line. The media conglomerates need to be smashed and their owners sent to GITMO for life.

[Dinger]

6. I Was Glad To See Him On tweety's Show This Past Weekend

Though tweety always me suspicious.

[Dinger]

7. Proud To Cast The 5th Vote!

Thanks for posting this:)

[PSPS]

8. It would be a different world if William Paley still owned CBS.

[The Count]

9. Everyone knows he was swiftboated - it was the election fix-up sacrifice

And just as with the 2000 election - where Gore's name is always followed by "who lost to W", they keep up the Rather pretense in hopes of making it stick. Glad to see it doesn't work.

[Vidar]

13. Well put. Welcome to DU.

[hvn_nbr_2]

10. All major news media outlets' primary purpose is now propaganda

Therefore, it doesn't matter if their journalists are popular, have credibility, are trusted, or anything else. Even ratings don't matter. Profitability is nice if they have it, but it doesn't really compare to the larger enterprise's (the mega-corporation that owns the news outlet)goals of complete corporate control of the world and mega-wealth increases for the already mega-wealthy. The shareholders of Viacom (or at least the people who vote the shares held by institutions) are part of the same corporate plutocracy. They won't object any more than MSRNC's shareholders objected to cancelling their most popular show, Phil Donahue.

[Generator]

11. You said it!

And longevity-history, experience- oh those things don't matter much in news anyway. You flip to Fox News and those blond talking heads that haven't hit 30 and know nothing but what they are told to repeat make me feel like I'm in some sci-fi novel. It's that obvious. I haven't flipped on any FOX "NEWS" in awhile but since the Israel mess I had to see. It's shameful. And I haven't even got to Katie Couric.

[tblue37]

12. When Phil Donahue's show was yanked from cable,

he actually had the highest ratings. They ditched him because they felt that since we were going to war, it would look bad to have a prominent anti-war voice.

These are not business decisions in the old-fashioned sense, but they are buisiness decisions. It's called suck up to the powers that be who promise to shovel benefits in your direction. The MSM are about as responsive to their ostensible "constituents" as Lieberman was to his. Like Lieberman, they figure BushCo is who is really buttering their bread.

[Vidar]

14. Thanks for bringing up Phil.

[lildreamer316]

16. I want Phil and Dan to team up.

Wouldn't that be KILLER news and discussion????
<waving at Dan--hint hint>

[yellerpup]

15. Kicking for Dan!

A great American and patriot. GHWB cut him off from WH access after Dan humiliated him by insisting that he answer a question on TV that then Pres. B* didn't want to answer. Sorry not to remember the meat of the question, but I think this event is what wigged out the rest of the MSM so much that they no longer challenge authority the way they should. Dan was right about W's national guard service, but the rest of the pack turned on him and brought him down. Who is the big dog of media now? Nobody has the guts.

It's a game of access.