SEEING PAST THE FLACK

A LOST CAUSE
NO WINNERS

    This goes with fairy tales are not real and life does not leap from a script.

    Human endeavors are messy, imperfect, not simply explained but some refuse to so acknowledge. People prefer easy answers, crowd support, bumper stickers and social media trending to tell us what to think. All of this comes to a center in the talk and reality of Truth-that is Truth the film.

    If it is possible, lets find a point of centrality on this controversy. No one wins. It is about a screw up on top of a screw up and in a time of nasty politics and polarity.

    Right wing and or conservative bloggers and critics say the film is a failure because it's a defense of flawed CBS News investigative report. Liberals say it's a failure because it memorializes how CBS News failed to hold George Bush accountable for being a slacker and avoiding air national guard duty while already avoiding duty in Viet Nam. Self appointed moralists or journalistic ethicists have also weighed in. Some of these children unleashed their screeds and words of torment even before seeing the film. That informs us. 

    Another point of centrality. CBS doesn't like the film and won't advertise it. Dan Rather doesn't like the film, it is a low point in his life. George W. Bush fans don't like it because of what it relates about him. It's been criticized by both left and right.

     OK, maybe another point of centrality. The flap and furor over the plot line, the screw up, has eclipsed the merits of the film. The artistic endeavor, a movie with actors making an entertainment has been overshadowed by largely preconceived notions about the CBS story, Dan Rather, George W. Bush, the 2004 Presidential election, Mary Mapes and who knows what else. I think the film is a victim of prejudgements about the story and personalities and those judgements over look what is after all only a cinematic creative effort. 

      Bull shit to those who say this is trying to change history. Only historian's change history. History is the way it is memorialized and told. Generations of historians see things differently. Winners of wars see history differently than losers. Slave traders see it differently than slaves. Invading business and governments see it differently than invaded natives and cultures and etc. Oliver Stone who is a talented film maker may be the exception. Stone has convinced himself he can fabricate events and change history. Instead Stone is seen for the self aggrandizing bull shit peddler he can be. His films can be entertaining but Wall Street, JFK, Nixon, World Trade Center, Evita and others have not changed truth or rewritten history. They are just films, an artistic pursuit even if written or directed with animus or motivation. Films do not write history.

     Truth is a geyser of how passionately stitched are our politics and biases. This film is being blown over by the same ideological predators who prowled the republic in the time of Bush vs Kerry. We should release history to historians undertaking a study where facts rise to the surface.

     There is a fact at the heart of this film Truth. Before CBS reported that George W. Bush was avoiding his duty, other news organizations had reported the story. They did not however rely on documents which put the CBS effort under fire.  

     Now to the film; Cate Blanchett, Robert Redford, Topher Grace, Dennis Quaid, Elizabeth Moss, Bruce Greenwood, Stacy Keach, John Benjamin Hickey, Dermot Mulroney. These are not slackers. They are terrific and well cast. Blanchett is once again brilliant. Redford as Rather is quite a site and credible! (Redford could have been a great anchor) The film explores the emotional tangles of a team of journalists, how investigative reporting is done, the pressures that come down from management. It samples the stresses and moments of elation that those of us who have done investigative work know. This film also explores the devastation to lives. These characters are based on real people, to whom these events were life changing. The film shows this by way of outstanding acting and directing.

     The film also shows how the CBS report was flawed. Where and how the team erred. How they were tricked. How they got the story right, but screwed up in how they did it.  And this last point is what it seems no one wants to face.  

      We should remember, a million dollars was offered to anyone who could prove that George W. Bush did not avoid some of his air national guard duty when assigned from Texas to Alabama. All of these years later, no one has been able to prove he did his full duty and took all examinations. What irritates liberals is that no one can really make that point  now without someone citing the questionable documents error at CBS News. The truth of the matter gets dunked in the process of the media fire storm and hissy fits. The screw up.

     Those who say this is a defense of the CBS report don't understand reality. Careers were ended. Good people got sacked. You see that. It is the consequence of the errors they made and you see how the error was made. You see how CBS News reacted. These are glimpses into the process and the good guys become the bad guys because they screwed up. This is not Oliver Stone changing history. Mapes has not worked in journalism since. Dan Rather's illustrious career and rich history at CBS were dumped on a trash heap. This hurt. They were trying to tell a story, they made a mistake.

They got trashed. That is what the film tells.  

      There is a moment where Mapes is speaking to the special inquiry team that CBS hired to investigate the report. What she said was a truthful recitation of how and why she erred. It does not change the outcome. But it does add another wrinkle, another fold of truth.

      One should look closely at the "inquiry team" CBS management brought in to investigate. But that is for another day.

      And so back to why this film is so troubling. It demonstrates how messy and screwed up life can be and how good can be bad. That ain't easy for humans to abide. Especially in a fully loaded media world where everyone is on at high volume with their minds made up.

     25 or 50 years from now this film will be seen as a portal into a moment and void of the hype and bias will be appreciated as an artistic exploration of human frailty, well acted. Americans of all persuasions don't like films or morality tales without a happy ending. Sometimes Truth is bitter.

A PEACEFUL RETREAT

   A little finger pond, near where Santa Rosa Creek flows into the Pacific in Cambria, is a hidden get away for water birds.

   I thank them for sharing their peaceful setting with me.

   See you down the trail.

TRUTH IS? NEWS AND REALITY ARE?

 EPHEMERAL

     It's hard work trying to surface truth, facts and reality. It's tougher when spin, malice and political motivation are part of the landscape. The years I spent as an investigative reporter were brutal. There was never a way to turn it off.
     Now a couple of new films reprise two of the most celebrated and controversial investigations of recent. I plan to see both, but I'm familiar with the reality behind the cinema.
     Spotlight, which details the ordeal of the Boston Globe in breaking the Priest sexual abuse and cover up and Truth, the troubled CBS News investigation of George W. Bush's special treatment as a slacker and no show in his air national guard duty, will give viewers a glimpse into the imperfect world of ferreting truth, or at least getting enough information to make the truth self evident.
     When media seems as devoted to Face book, Twitter and popular culture as it is to hard news, significant stories or investigations, it may be helpful these films open the door on what real journalism involves.
     Dan Rather wrote this weekend he's not happy that a low point in his career is the subject of a film, played by no less than Robert Redford. Though the report was flawed by fraudulent documents, the Truth remained the same. It took a toll on Rather. The members of the Boston Globe team also endured emotional trauma, for simply trying to tell the truth.
     Truth and honest facts can be dangerous. We live in an age when billions are spent to avert our gaze from the truth. Those who seek the facts and try to root out truth, remain my heroes.

MORE TRUTH

     Barry Goldwater, the 1964 Republican Presidential Candidate is in the pantheon of American Conservatives. There was a time when it was inconceivable you could get more far right than Goldwater. Those who knew or covered Goldwater may have questioned his policies, but everyone respected him for saying it like it was.
     The following graphic is making its way around Twitter.

    Well, on the other hand there have been countless Christians, even church leaders, who have been open minded and facile. Reinhold Niebuhr, Andrew Young, William Hudnut, John Danforth, Benjamin Hooks, Robert Drinan, (President) James Garfield, John Bull, John Witherspoon, Dean Johnson, Walter Mueller were all Christrian pastors or leaders and were capable of compromise and negotiation. Goldwater was right about the Christian Evangelical right.  It is worrisome to traditional, moderate, centrist or even "old fashioned conservative" Republicans. Does the word zealot fit?

LIBERTY AND JUSTICE

  There is a variation in the personality of this character amidst all of the Scarecrows on display this month all over Cambria.
    This may scare in a different way.

      Lana created a take on the Statue of Liberty and if you were able to look closely you would see it is made from pages of a Bible. For the record, it was an old Bible, from childhood and the binding was ruined. Here it is recycled as a statement that some Christian quarters are more open minded and loving than those Mr. Goldwater worried about.

      In the eye of the beholder, eh?

 PREENING

 Hemingway being fastidious.

Count the toes.  

Six on each paw

    See you down the trail  

A SEA OF EXPERTS

WATCHING IT PLAY

    The ruling by the Supremes put all news organizations through the drill.  I was fascinated by watching how it was covered.  

    The challenge was an old one-get the essence, then get the info out of the court room and to the viewers or online readers or listeners.  It was a kind of fire bucket brigade.  The first of the info was handed along, while reporters and analysts in the Supreme Court building continued to listen to Chief Justice Roberts, gather the actual ruling, opinions, copy them, get them to the news headquarters and to the field correspondents waiting outside. It was a massive operation, like a 100 yard dash with copy machines and text books while deciphering a code.

   I've covered court rulings and appreciate the logistics of getting the story right, and getting it on and in a competitive environment. All news groups want to be first. 

   While there is no shortage of talking heads and experts, the smoothest and most concise of the morning was Ted Ruger, constitutional law professor at the University of Pennsylvania who provided succinct and helpful analysis on CBS.  As a former anchorman, that is the kind of analyst I would like to have along side. Scott Pelley, who handled it nicely, benefited from Ruger's polish.

    The next chapter is to now watch the spin, the spinners, the straight networks and newspapers and the partisan media like Fox and MSNBC and all of the yacking heads who'll try to make you think their perspective is the only correct one. 

     And we can't forget the candidates.  There is a presidential election into which all of this will factor.  Do you know how that will play out?   Well, Someone on one of the networks or blogs will try to convince you, he or she does. Let the game's begin. 

DAY FILE

RANDOM SCENES
eclectic and well, random

This is the kind of "hot" issue I now prefer to deal with.

See you down the trail

MIKE WALLACE, GOLDEN & AN S CAR GO

WHAT MIKE WALLACE DID TO 60 MINUTES

     I was lucky to work in the same area as Mike Wallace, when he was still one of the CBS Convention team correspondents.  I was covering the campaign for a radio group, but it put me in the same press room and general neighborhood.  Back then I thought it odd to see Wallace in that kind of role, because I thought he was best as an interviewer or interrogator and that is the point of this.

     Mike Wallace had the ability and skill to talk to anybody about anything.  He rarely, if ever, pulled punches.  He could get into places and talk to people in a way that amazed us all.  If Wallace was scheduled to do an interview, the 60 Minutes audience was sure to be even larger.  

    The original 60 Minutes team was superb, but Wallace and his pointed, rapier technique was indeed the point of the spear that took that show into the heart of America. 

      Wallace was a performer on a news magazine, an experimental approach to journalism, that took broadcast journalism into the Top 10 most watched shows. It created a new heft for broadcast journalism, proved to network executives that news was not only good for people, it could be good for business. 

     Wallace's style and punch also put people on notice.  There was an old joke "You know you are going to have a bad day if, when you show up at the office, Mike Wallace is waiting for you."  He helped "out" a lot of villains, confronted power, made it entertaining and he worked hard.  He stayed much longer than most and television and broadcast journalism were bigger and better because of it.

THESE HELP MAKE THE GOLDEN STATE

GOLDEN

With help from Sweet Talk Radio

here's a few seconds of "breath it in" time.

   DAY BOOK

NOVEL RIDE 

See you down the trail.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MEN AND BOYS IN POLITICS & ALMOST HEAVEN

CRAZY SEASON

     Nothing is certain in politics.  I heard Eric Sevareid say that when I was a young reporter and it has stuck with me.

       Now Rick Santorum enjoys the GOP limelight in what

has been the craziest campaign season since I covered my first presidential election in 1968.

       I think a lot about the late Sevareid as I watch this 

season play out. The reporter/analyst was brilliant.

       "The difference between men and boys in politics is, and always has been, that boys want to be something, while the men

want to do something."  

                                          Eric Sevareid

        Those of you old enough may remember Sevareid as the  commentator at the end of the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite through the '60s and 70's.

       He was one of "Murrow's Boys," the war correspondents who invented modern broadcast journalism as they covered

WW II.  Hired by Ed Murrow this band brought seriousness, analysis and intellect to daily reporting.

       Sevareid was famous for his "think pieces," as we used to call them.  Essays really.  He had been a roving correspondent after the war.  Once while covering the Burma China war his plane developed trouble and before parachuting to safety he grabbed a bottle of gin.

       "Next to power without honor, the most dangerous thing

in the world is power without humor."

                                                         Eric Sevareid

        It would be a joy to see and hear Sevareid weigh in

on this campaign season. He never spared anyone from his critical gaze.

         "The bigger the information media, the less courage and freedom they allow.  Bigness means weakness."

          Here is a sample of the kind of thoughtfulness in

broadcast journalism, that many of us miss.  This is his

final commentary.

      "I'm sort of a pessimist about tomorrow and an optimist

about the day after tomorrow."

                                      Eric Sevareid

DAY BOOK
THE HIGH SIERRA

      With the first blooms of spring I begin thinking about our

next exploration of California. Like the magnetic north I am drawn to the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada.

Decades of globe trotting afforded me exposure to many wonderful places on this blue planet and I put the eastern side of the Sierra high on the list of exquisite.

      Folks have their favorite spots. One of mine is near Tom's place off the 395. From there you drive up to Rock Creek lake  at about 10,500 foot elevation.
      From the trail head you go up to a wide fan of lakes along either the Morgan or Mono Pass. These shots are taken
from a hike, mostly south of the Morgan Pass. 

      Our friend Ruth, who spent years hiking and exploring this region reminds us the scenes are similar to what 
we've seen in the Swiss Alps.  Gorgeous meadows, valleys, rugged rock walls, popular with technical climbers, pristine
alpine lakes, wild life, fresh air, quiet and true serenity.

 Box lake

Rock Creek Lake

Morgan Pass

Long Lake.
If your journeys ever afford you a chance to visit
the Eastern Slope of the Sierra, I suspect you too will
be in awe.
See you down the trail

WHERE DID THEY GO & TROPICAL DELIGHTS

WHAT HAPPENED TO 

PEOPLE OF STATURE?

Seeing Marvin Kalb the other night 

served to remind me how far we have slid.

Kalb, the former CBS News Correspondent and his daughter Deborah have authored Haunting Legacy 

an examination of the foreign policy  of the

seven US Presidents since Viet Nam.

As he spoke with Charlie Rose he demonstrated the 

intelligence, sense of and respect for history and experienced knowledge that characterized not only his career but that of his generation of broadcast journalist.

That generation of correspondent and analyst

is vastly superior to most of what we get today.

It is the same with politicians as well.

Here's a little fun to make the point.

Read these insults and try to picture any of the current Washington crowd of being capable of such verbal skill.

A member of Parliament to Disraeli: "Sir, you will either die on the
gallows or of some unspeakable disease."
· "That depends, Sir," said Disraeli, "whether I embrace your policies
or your mistress

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with
great pleasure." Clarence Darrow 

 "I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I
approved of it." - Mark Twain 

· "I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring
a friend, if you have one." - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill
· "Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second ... if there
is one." - Winston Churchill, in response.

He has Van Gogh's ear for music." - Billy Wilder 

I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." -
Groucho Marx 

DAY BOOK

TROPICAL SCENES

Palms in Florida evoke a real sense of the tropics.

 Floral blooms abound.

An exotic sense fills the air and your eyes.

As you travel to new climes, the native vegetation

helps establish that sense of vacation. 

Can we send official Washington to a summer boot camp?

See you down the trail.