BY DAN
KENNEDY
Serving the reality-based community since 2002.
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Sunday, September 26, 2004
BETTER THAN REALITY.
Mark
Steyn is at it again. In
a
recent syndicated column,
published September 19 in the Chicago Sun-Times, the
right-wing columnist goes after CBS News anchor Dan Rather. It is
typical Steyn: funny, with a few genuine insights - and a quote that
he attributes to Rather for which there is zero evidence. For Steyn,
this is standard
operating procedure. He
writes:
Dan's been play-acting at
being a reporter for so many years now - the suspenders, the
loosened tie, and all the other stuff that would look great if he
were auditioning for a cheesy dinner-theater revival of "The Front
Page"; the over-the-top intros: "Bob Schieffer, one of the best
hard-nosed reporters in the business, has been working his
sources. What have you managed to uncover for us, Bob?", after
which Bob reads out a DNC press release. Dan's been doing all this
so long he doesn't seem to realize the news isn't just a
show.
Did Rather ever actually say those
words? When I read it, it struck me as the sort of thing Rather
might have said in one of his nuttier moments, of which there
have been many. So I checked 10 years' worth of CBS News transcripts
on Lexis-Nexis. I began by searching for "working his sources" and
"Schieffer."
It turns out that on January 23,
1998, Rather introduced a piece on the then-novel Monica Lewinsky
story with this: "CBS' chief Washington correspondent, Bob Schieffer,
has been digging and working his sources all day. Bob, what's the
latest?" Clichéd and just a tad embarrassing? Well, sure. This
is, after all, Dan Rather talking.
But there's nothing here about
Schieffer's being "one of the best hard-nosed reporters in the
business" or having "managed to uncover something for us." If Rather
had said such a thing, it would have moved his utterance far
above the mundane, into the sort of classic Ratherism that would be
remembered and cherished for years to come. But unless Steyn's got
evidence that this particular gem somehow didn't make it into
Lexis-Nexis, I can only conclude that Rather never said it.
That's kind of important in the business that Steyn claims to be in,
though his fans don't seem to care.
Just to make sure, I also combined
"Schieffer" with "hard-nosed reporter" (with and without the hyphen)
and also with "managed to uncover." Zippo.
Now, then - were we supposed
to believe that Rather actually said it, or was Steyn obviously using
hyperbole to make a larger point, and I'm just too dense to get the
joke? I'm sure that will be the defense he and/or the Steyniacs out
there will offer. But Steyn's methodology is such that you can't
quite be sure unless you've got the secret decoder ring. (I don't
have a ring; just my suspicions.)
For instance, right up front he
includes an actual quote from Rather, regarding the phonied-up
Jerry Killian memos, that's only slightly less loopy than the
Schieffer bit: "If the documents are not what we were led to believe,
I'd like to break that story." By combining a nutty real Rather quote
with what appears to be a fictitious one, Steyn manages to add to the
impression that the fictitious quote isn't. Fictitious, that
is.
There's also nothing in the
fictitious quote that completely gives away the game. Steyn uses
quotation marks; he could have used italics or some other device. He
describes the Schieffer quote as one of Rather's typical
"over-the-top intros." This isn't parody. It's bad faith masquerading
as honest opinion-mongering. So what else is new?
posted at 9:53 AM |
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Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
