Saturday, February 04, 2006

Dan Rather

Yesterday, I attended the annual luncheon held by a defense counsel organization. This luncheon has a tradition of featuring some of the most prominent figures in the world as keynote speakers. I've attended luncheons where Al Gore and Rudolph Guiliani spoke; and the speaker last year (I was not able to attend, alas) was Bill Clinton.

This year, the speaker was Dan Rather. When I was growing up, practically the only network news my parents watched was CBS news (particularly when Walter Cronkite was the anchor), so I've heard Rather's voice on the TV all my life. Since Rather has been with CBS for 44 years, I gather a lot of you have heard Rather for a good portion of your lives. So I got that frisson you get when such a familiar voice is emanating from someone in the same room as you.

If I had to summarize Rather's presentation style in one word, it would be "gun-shy." (Well, two words joined by a hyphen count as one.) You'd think someone of Rather's standing and experience could weather the drubbing he took from the right after the controversial Bush Air Force Reserve story he presented two years ago, but I think the whole experience took its toll. Everytime he said something that migh vaguely be interpreted as taking a side, he equivocated or through in a disclaimer (e.g., "And this applies to Democratic Presidents as well as Republicans . . . .) At one point, he even said, "And don't go leaving this room saying Dan Rather is against the war." I almost felt like shouting, "Knock it off and take a position already!"

That aside, Rather is obviously a very smart guy with a global perspective; and it's a pleasure to hear a speaker who chooses his words so carefully.

The theme of his talk was a discussion of what's on the horizon. Here are some highlights of the views he expressed (and they are his views, not necessarily mine):

-- The U.S. is, perhaps for the first time in history, the sole military superpower and economic superpower. It might even be called a "hyperpower."

-- The key beneficiary of the second Gulf War is Iran. The war has allowed Iran to expand its influence in other Middle-Eastern countries.

-- The most serious potential flashpoint for a potential future world war is Northern Asia. North Korea has a dictator who is a puppet of the military, and a standing military of one million people (compared to less than half that of the United States). China also has a huge standing military, as well as nuclear weapons; and its stated goal is to assume economic and military superpower status equal to the U.S.'s. If either country should attack Japan, we would have to defend Japan.

-- Saddam Hussein (based on Rather's two face-to-face interviews with him) possesses a very keen and quick mind. Unlike many strong-arm dictators, he actually listens when people talk to him, which can make him especially dangerous. Two other important aspects to Saddam's personality: First, his definition of "winning" is surviving. He considers himself the winner of the first Gulf War, because he stayed in power and Bush was voted out of office. Today, imprisoned and on trial, he still considers himself the victor, because he's alive. Second, ever since he was a child growing up in Tikrit, Saddam's dream has been to follow in the foosteps of another son of Tikrit, Salidan, and march his troops through the streets of Jerusalem.


-- As a result of the competition between all of the news sources available today, television journalism has been "dumbed down, sleazed up and tarted up." One casualty is that networks have reduced their coverage of any overseas events except the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There was more, but those are the points that stuck with me. All in all, a great rubber-chicken event.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

We just heard Dan Rather speak a couple of weeks ago in Seattle, and he added to his "war in Asia" bit the note that for many of the people he talked to in Asia, particularly North Korea, Seattle is considered one of the top handful of U.S. cities: not quite as big a deal as NY or LA, but at least as important as Chicago. Even random businesspeople know exactly where Boeing and Microsoft fit into the U.S. economy, have a good idea how much and what kinds of goods pass through our port, and generally have a lot more sense of our geography and civic structure than most U.S. news reporters (judging from the Super Bowl-related portrayal of Seattle we've been suffering through for the last two weeks).

So I'm really hoping he's wrong about war starting up in Asia, because I'm guessing proximity + importance = Seattle and LA first on the "to-bomb" list.

Danny Barer said...

Seattle is certainly of vital strategic importance, because of its port, the logging industry, the aerospace industry, and nearby Fort Lewis.

The concerns you mention were certainly issues during the last several wars in Asia (WWII, Korea, Vietnam). And they were not unfounded; the various Japanese attacks on the West Coast during WWII (one of which was fictionalized in the movie 1941) show that.

Anonymous said...

Dan Rather is solid from an anchor standpoint. His drawback is he worked in a newsshop that saw the best of alltime talent, so he had enourmous shoes to fill.

Hunter Thompson said...

I worked hard for Dan Rather's company for several months.
He never paid me for my work.
They claimed they would send me a check, and never sent it.
I used to think highly of him, but now believe that he is an opportunist.
I've worked in the industry for 2 decades, and this is the first time I've been burned like this.
So maybe my opinion of Dan Rather isn't very objective.