Rather advocates for top-level panel on news media

Former CBS correspondent and anchor Dan Rather recently editorialized in the Washington Post that only the participation of President Obama can draw adequate attention to the state of the nation's news media.

"This is the only way I could think of to generate the sort of attention this subject deserves," Rather wrote. "Academia and think tanks generate study after study, yet their findings don't reach the people who need to be reached."

Rather doesn't favor a government bailout for, much less control of, news media, he said. But without wide-ranging and grassroots attention, what's bad could get worse.

For the country.

"We need news that breeds understanding, not contempt; news that fosters a healthy skepticism of the workings of power rather than a paralyzing cynicism. We need the basic information that a self-governing people requires," said Rather, who's now global correspondent and managing editor of HDNet's Dan Rather Reports.

"This is a crisis that, with no exaggeration, threatens our democratic republic at its core," he added. "But you won't hear about it on your evening news."

Read his entire essaya here-- http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/07/AR2009080703183.html