Journalists Gather in Denver

By Amy Brouillette, 6-06-05

Journalists from around the country and globe gathered last weekend in Denver at the Investigative Reporters and Editors conference, an annual event that draws an impressive cast of journalism’s glitteriti and street-level reports to schmooze, share tips and congratulate themselves for jobs well done.
Among this year’s celebrity line-up was Seymour M. Hersh, the New Yorker’s legendary investigative reporter who broke the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse story last spring, who (in a panel Friday with Denver Post’s investigative reporter Miles Moffeit) blasted the Bush administration’s scourge against civil liberties and a free press.
But it was Dan Rather, who delivered the keynote luncheon address to a packed ballroom at the Grand Hyatt Saturday, who stole the show. The embattled news anchor who stepped down in March from ABC after running a doomed segment on Bush’s favored treatment in the National Guard (further bruising journalism’s credibility in the public’s eye), Rather gave a passionate pitch on the lessons of Watergate and the importance of journalist’s role as watchdogs—twice choking back tears.
At the crux of Rather’s speech was a question he repeated throughout (and worth repeating here): Do we, as journalists, still believe in our role as watchdogs? Does the American public still believe in our civil liberties, and especially, the First Amendment? Rather lamented the public’s and media’s growing complacency about the government’s increasing power. “The country needs you more than ever to find what is going on—what is really going on,� Rather said, his voice cracking as struggled to hold back the waterworks.
Whatever Rather skeptics were in attendance, at least for that moment, became instant fans: the dramatic performance brought the crowd to its feet for a standing ovation. While an oddly touchy-feely display for a group of hard-hitting journos, Rather's point (and emotion) was well received: if any subject is worthy of a good group cry, it is America's civil liberties under seige.


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