Former CBS News president Van Gordon Sauter said Thursday that Dan Rather's liberal bias has so permeated the "CBS Evening News" that even he can't stand to watch anymore.
"I stopped watching it some time ago," the ex-network news boss writes in today's Los Angeles Times. "The unremitting liberal orientation finally became too much for me."
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Sauter, who ran the Tiffany network's news division in the early 1980s, said he still checks in from time to time, but "less and less frequently." Instead, "I increasingly drift to NBC News and Fox and MSNBC," he said.
The former news exec said this week's firings of four CBS employees in response to the Rathergate scandal exposed the real problem for network news:
"A large swath of the society doesn't trust the news media," he contended. "And for many, it's even stronger than that: They abhor the media and perceive it as an escalating threat to the society."
If the erosion of public trust isn't stopped, warns Sauter, viewers will look elsewhere for their news product.
"Those readers and viewers most comfortable in the center – will try to find something ... in the center," he argues.
But that could lead to "a lot of scrupulously impartial . . . news sources, managed by research-driven executives who find it a good marketing approach."
Ultimately, says Sauter, "banality will trump opinion."
Editor's note:
James Hirsen’s "Tales from the Left Coast" – Find out the real story behind Mel Gibson’s "The Passion," and more!
Jimmy Carter – Get NewsMax’s Special Report "Carter Unmasked" – Click Here Now!
Dan Rather Shocked by Bush Map – Reds Are Growing – Click Here Now.
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