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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Win Smith who wrote (84530)	3/21/2003 11:48:09 AM
From: Ron	Respond to of 281500

This was pretty amusing: TOM'S FOOLERY When he thinks no one's listening, what does Tom Brokaw have to say about Dan Rather? On August 13, 1996, Brokaw and staff were rehearsing segments for the NBC Nightly News broadcast, shooting from the floor of the Republican convention in San Diego. Someone told Brokaw that Dan Rather was "saying breathlessly that Colin Powell will be in the Dole cabinet." Brokaw smiled broadly and said "Rummy," referring to Donald Rumsfeld, now general chairman of Bob Dole's presidential campaign. "Rummy used to get even with guys in the White House by leaking stuff to Rather that didn't have any basis in fact." Brokaw then recalled "that famous story about, you know, when Ehrlichman went to CBS and complained about Dan Rather" (A meeting in the Plaza Hotel that took place in 1971, when John Erlichman ripped into Rather over breakfast with CBS News president Richard Salant.) Brokaw assured his coworkers that Rather "was factually wrong alot of the time because he was Rummy's vessel. He'd fill him up and send him out." This indelicate moment was swiped off a satellite feed by a 25-year-old New York video artist named Jed Rosenzweig. Now, NBC's legal department is working hard to prevent Rosenzweig from broadcasting it on his local cable-access program, Wild Feed TV. The network's "cease and desist" order claims that the material was illegally down linked from a satellite dish. Brokaw is not happy about the tape. "It was unguarded on my part, reckless. I was surrounded only by my colleagues," Brokaw told the Voice. "It's not the nature of who I am, if you ask anybody." Brokaw explains that when he first began as a Washington reporter, "Rather was beating our brains in. People around the bureau said, 'Rumsfeld's his friend; he gives him this stuff, and he goes on the White House lawn with it.' I don't know if it's true, I'd put it out of my mind, and it just popped out. It was wrong." Kim Aktar, an assistant to Rather, said the CBS anchor would not comment on the notion that he acted as a shill for Rumsfeld. Longtime Rumsfeld aide Jerry Jones told the Voice: "That isn't the way [Rumsfeld] did his business." Asked where Brokaw and his colleagues might have gotten this impression, Jones said he was stumped but allowed, "Mrs. Rumsfeld and Mrs. Rather are friends." The irony is that anyone with a satellite dish can obtain the same type of feeds Rosenzweig grabbed from space, provided they aren't scrambled; "we normally do" scramble NBC signals, Brokaw told me. Rosenzweig claims he gathered 40 hours of such cast-off material, including Fox newsman Mike Schneider throwing a fit and an unbleeped version of Madonna's Letterman appearance. (CBS, too, has strongly requested that he not air the latter.) NBC claims the tape is illegal, citing a section of the Communications act barring interception and retransmission of satellite signals. Although Rosenzweig's tape appears to be, as Brokaw says, a "prima facie" violation of the law, Rosenzweig claims that his artistic, noncommercial presentation falls under fair use provisions -- comparable to Warhol's soup cans. Nonetheless, because he has little money and "there's a potential for them to put me in jail," Rosenzweig has for the moment pulled all episodes of "Wild Feed TV" off the air. Has the incident created a rift between the two network anchors? Rather and I have a very, very good personal and professional relationship," says Brokaw. "Our wives are good friends." wildfeedtv.com