RIP Daniel Schorr

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RIP Daniel Schorr

Postby anothershamus » Fri Jul 23, 2010 11:18 pm

I have grown away from NPR in the last 7 or 8 years, but I always liked Daniel Schorr's take on the weeks news on Saturday Morning. His last bit that I heard (Sat. July 10th) was that people shouldn't be guilty of contributing to the BP Oil spill if they drive a car because they/we haven't been given any viable alternative!

I edited out the name of the writer of the story because she is not worthy of reporting on his death!

Now all NPR has to give 'perspective' to their stories is the right wing moron, Juan Williams, who I lost all respect for when he was downright giddy when Bush II was going to win via the Florida Court/ Supreme court. Now it's only indy media for me. My favorite is KBOO 90.7FM Portland Oregon: http://kboo.fm/ Lots of crazy stuff, the morning lineup is Democracy NOW @ 7AM and then stay with them until noon for the news and public affairs. Some really good stuff.

Daniel Schorr Covered World for 60 Years
Remembrance: Veteran Broadcast Journalist Who Worked for Edward R. Murrow, Persuaded Khrushchev to Appear on CBS Dies at 93
Veteran reporter-commentator Daniel Schorr, 93, whose hard-hitting reporting for CBS got him on President Richard Nixon's notorious ``enemies list'' in the 1970s, has died.

* One of the longest careers in broadcast journalism came to an end Friday. Veteran reporter and commentator Daniel Schorr died in Washington. He was 93.

One of the longest careers in broadcast journalism came to an end Friday. Veteran reporter and commentator Daniel Schorr died in Washington. He was 93. (CBS)

* Stories
* CBS News, NPR Veteran Daniel Schorr Dies at 93

(CBS) One of the longest careers in broadcast journalism came to an end Friday. Veteran reporter and commentator Daniel Schorr died in Washington. He was 93.

Obituary: CBS News, NPR Veteran Daniel Schorr Dies at 93

Schorr had covered the world for more than 60 years, spending 24 of them at CBS News.

Edward R. Murrow recruited Schorr to work for CBS in 1953. As a correspondent in Moscow, he persuaded Nikita Khrushchev to give CBS his first television interview. Later, Schorr became a member of the storied CBS News Washington Bureau.

"He had a great way of irritating government officials because he always came up with the truth," said CBS News Chief Washington Correspondent Bob Schieffer. "He came up with these stories. People couldn't figure out how he got it."

Schorr led CBS News coverage of the Watergate scandal. When he got a hold of President Nixon's infamous enemies list, he read it cold on live TV and was stunned to hear himself say, "Number 17, Schorr, Daniel … a real media enemy."

Born in the Bronx the son or Russian immigrants, Schorr was brilliant, brash and abrasive. He clashed not only with government officials but news management and left CBS in the uproar that followed his leaking of a congressional report about questionable activities by the CIA.

In 1979, Schorr joined the fledgling CNN and in the mid-'80s moved to NPR, where he worked until his death.

In his later years, he wrote, "Stormy as it was, I wouldn't trade my career for anyone else's."


http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/23/eveningnews/main6707648.shtml
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Re: RIP Daniel Schorr

Postby Hugh Manatee Wins » Sat Jul 24, 2010 1:00 am

In the mid-70s Schorr revealed some CIA ties to mainstream media.

After that, he became another National Propaganda Radio shill for the NSC.
Probably got a message about the terms of having a career he couldn't ignore. Like lots of others.

I winced when I heard him being shut up and directed into a 'safe opinion' on NPR. But he went right along.
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Re: RIP Daniel Schorr

Postby yathrib » Sat Jul 24, 2010 9:18 am

Daniel Schorr was the last public face of a certain type of bourgeois right-thinking liberalism that was once mainstream, but no longer exists. IIRC "radicals" used to deride it. How I'd love to have it back....
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Re: RIP Daniel Schorr

Postby MinM » Sat Jul 24, 2010 11:31 am

Image

Probably not coincidentally Daniel Schorr was fired from CBS News shortly after that interview...

http://www.ctka.net/2008/bugliosi_8_review.html
The year after the Warren Report was issued, Ford published his own book called Portrait of the Assassin. Ford arranged for John Stiles, his first campaign manager and Nixon's campaign field director, to be his assistant while on the Commission. Their book was essentially a rehash of the Commission's view of Oswald. It made for dull reading. Consequently, the publisher told them to spice it up. So they added a section about the report from Texas of Oswald being an FBI informant. (See this review, Pt. 7, Section 6) The problem was that at the time the book was published the records of that Warren Commission executive sessions were classified. Evidently, Ford had little problem with violating the law in order to smear Oswald and make a little money in the process. But in 1973, Nixon chose Ford to replace Spiro Agnew as his Vice-President. Ford was now questioned about his use of classified material. He lied under oath about what he had done. He said he only used material in the Warren Commission volumes for that book – which he clearly had not. When later exposed, Ford apologized for his misdeed. (Marrs, p. 467) Six months after he became president, Ford declassified the material in question. (ibid)

While a congressman, Ford developed a reputation for being one of the CIA's best friends. (ibid, p. 466) In 1974, when Nixon resigned under the pressure of the Watergate scandal, President Ford immediately began to prove his reputation. Many people on the Watergate Committee, like Sen. Howard Baker, suspected that the CIA had played a role in that affair and that Richard Helms had manipulated the FBI inquiry. (Daniel Schorr, Clearing the Air, p. 139) Consequently, there was a movement to investigate the crimes of the CIA and FBI. Ford gave a speech at the time in which he defended the Agency against the rumors that they had overthrown Salvador Allende in Chile the year before. Which turned out to be true. When asked if this action was not in violation of international law, the new president replied with "I am not going to pass judgment on whether it is permitted or authorized under international law. It is a recognized fact that historically as well as presently, such actions are taken in the best interest of the countries involved." (Time, 9/30/74) In other words: Uncle Sam Knows Best. Time commented "Ford's words seemed to represent an anachronistic, cold-war view of national security reminiscent of the 1950"s. Complained Democratic Senator Frank Church of Idaho: 'Its tantamount to saying that we respect no law save the law of the jungle.' " (ibid)

In late 1974, even more friction came between President Ford and Sen. Church. James Angleton had badly divided the CIA over the Yuri Nosenko affair. In order to force him to resign as counter-intelligence chief, Director Bill Colby had given a story to the CIA friendly Sy Hersh. This story uncovered some of the illegal surveillance operations Angleton had run out of his shop. When exposed at Christmas time in the pages of the NY Times, the story created a sensation. Angleton resigned. Ford called Colby for a briefing. Realizing this would give Frank Church the opening he needed for a full-scale inquiry into the intelligence community, Ford tried to divert that by appointing his VP, Nelson Rockefeller, to run his own inquest. (Schorr, p. 143) Called the Rockefeller Commission, this was seen as something of a whitewash. The report contained an annex on the JFK assassination. But since Ford brought back Warren Commission assistant counsel David Belin as Executive Director, this was viewed as something of a joke: two original cover-up men redoing the cover-up. In fact, the report deliberately distorted the testimony of Dr. Cyril Wecht. (See Cover-Up, by Gary Shaw and Larry Harris, p. 29) It was also the first official JFK inquiry to use the goofy "neuromuscular reaction" as a way to explain Kennedy's violent rearward action at the time of the head shot (ibid)

The appointment of Belin indicated Ford's stance during the entire 18 months of what one author has called "the season of inquiry". This refers to the two investigative committees set up in congress: the Pike Committee in the House and the Church Committee in the Senate. They ended up replacing the Rockefeller Commission. This is as close as the USA has ever come to explaining to the public just what the CIA and FBI have done in the name of national security. Who knows what they would have achieved if Ford had not fought them. Why did he resist an open-ended inquiry? It might be that he understood that his work on the Commission could have been exposed for the sham it was. Why do I say that? Because Ford did.

On January 16, 1975 he held a White House luncheon for the editors of the NY Times. Someone asked why Ford had picked such a conservative and defense minded panel to make up the Rockefeller Commission (e.g. Ronald Reagan was a member). The president said he needed people who would not stray from the straight and narrow. If they did, they could stumble upon matters that might hurt the national interest. The editor asked "Like what?" Ford replied with, "Like assassinations!" (Schorr, p. 144) Ford added that this was off the record. But reporter Daniel Schorr deduced that since the Rockefeller Commission was investigating domestic matters, Ford must have meant American assassinations. (ibid) But later CIA Director William Colby effectively spun Ford's comment . He told Schorr that the CIA had run assassination plots abroad, but not in America. (ibid) This deftly neutralized Ford's slip. The committees would now look at CIA assassination plots against foreign leaders. In regards to the JFK case, the Church Committee would only investigate the performance of the intelligence agencies in investigating Kennedy's murder.

But even Colby was too much for Ford. He was deemed too open with congress. After all, when mobster Sam Giancana was murdered before testifying, Colby went out of his way to say the CIA had nothing to do with it. (ibid, p. 155) Colby was later fired for being too forthcoming. Ford picked George Bush to replace him. And as further signal of his new "get tough" policy, Ford made a young Dick Cheney his Chief of Staff, and moved Donald Rumsfeld into the Pentagon.

With all these elements in place, Ford decided to use the 1975 murder of a CIA officer as a way to squelch and smear any further investigation. Richard Welch was the CIA station chief in Athens. The CIA and Ford blamed his death on the fact that his name had been exposed by an American journal called Counterspy. In fact, the leftist rebel group who killed him had issued a communiqué beforehand that revealed they knew his name then. (Schorr, p. 191) In a classic case of political propaganda, Ford and the CIA pulled out all the stops in using Welch's funeral as psychological warfare against the committees. Welch's body was flown into Andrews Air Force Base. But the plane circled the base for 15 minutes to time the landing for the morning news shows. (ibid) Ford attended the chapel service. But the press was barred in order to suggest that they were to blame for Welch's murder. Colby issued a statement saying that Welch's death was the result of a "paranoiac attack on ... Americans serving their country." David Phillips was interviewed by CBS and said, American agents are in less danger today from the KGB than from the "moral primitives" who "condemn my label". (ibid) Welch's body was buried at Arlington with full military honors. His coffin was carried on the same horse-drawn caisson that carried President Kennedy's. Colby gave the flag draped over it to Welch's widow. As Schorr wrote, "This is the CIA's first secret agent to become a pubic national hero." (ibid)

It worked. Henry Kissinger jumped on the committees: "I think they have used classified information in a reckless way ... " (ibid p. 194) Both committees closed up shop shortly after. Ford and the CIA held veto power over what could be published. When Otis Pike defied that agreement, Congress bottled up his report. A copy was smuggled to Daniel Schorr. As he was arranging to have it released, his boss, Bill Paley, lunched with Bush. (ibid, p. 201) The Pike Report was published in a special issue of The Village Voice. Forgetting his own use of classified material for his Oswald book, Ford now proposed an FBI investigation to find out who gave the report to Schorr. (ibid, p. 208) After Paley's meeting with Director Bush, Schorr was taken off the air by CBS. After a two hour impromptu interrogation – during which he was not represented by counsel – Schorr was fired by the network. He was later investigated by the House but refused to reveal his source for the report.

Ford's performance with the Pike and Church Committees reveal his character in extremis. When it came to the intelligence community and their role in covert operations – including coups and assassinations – Ford joined whole-heartedly in the cover-up. This sheds retrospective light on his performance for the Warren Commission. But you would never know that from Reclaiming History. Because you will find not one reference there to either Daniel Schorr or Richard Welch. Therefore you are not informed of how Ford engaged in warfare with the Pike and Church Committees. The Pike Committee is mentioned four times in the book, but only as a source. Bugliosi never chronicles what happened to it at the hands of Ford and the CIA. The influence of Colby's leak about Angleton to Hersh and Ford's creation of the Rockefeller Commission is dealt with in a footnote. (p. 1236) In the references to Ford in the book, I could find no mention of the lunch with the Times and his blurting out the word "assassination" as the reason why he picked who he did for the Rockefeller Commission...

More » http://www.blackopradio.com/pod/black468c.mp3

rigorousintuition.ca - View topic - What about Watergate?
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Re: RIP Daniel Schorr

Postby freemason9 » Sun Jul 25, 2010 12:12 am

are you saying that daniel schorr did NOT work for the CIA?

this is an important day in RI history, then
The real issue is that there is extremely low likelihood that the speculations of the untrained, on a topic almost pathologically riddled by dynamic considerations and feedback effects, will offer anything new.
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Re: RIP Daniel Schorr

Postby barracuda » Sun Jul 25, 2010 12:19 am

They're not really saying that freemason9. It's just a roundabout way for some folks around here to continue to mouth at the weenus of Fletcher Prouty.
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Re: RIP Daniel Schorr

Postby Hugh Manatee Wins » Sun Jul 25, 2010 12:43 am

barracuda wrote:They're not really saying that freemason9. It's just a roundabout way for some folks around here to continue to mouth at the weenus of Fletcher Prouty.

AN RI 'MOD' IS CITING THE LEADING ONLINE CIA 'OSWALD-DUNNIT'-DISINFOTEER, MCADAMS' WEBSITE?

barracuda no longer surprises me.
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Re: RIP Daniel Schorr

Postby barracuda » Sun Jul 25, 2010 1:20 am

Prouty's ties to L.Ron Hubbard are hardly some big secret, Chumley. His book is listed on Amazon, ferchrissakes.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN= ... lichdefeA/

Please don't talk with your mouth full.
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Re: RIP Daniel Schorr

Postby Hugh Manatee Wins » Sun Jul 25, 2010 1:39 am

barracuda wrote:Prouty's ties to L.Ron Hubbard are hardly some big secret, Chumley. His book is listed on Amazon, ferchrissakes.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN= ... lichdefeA/

Don't talk with your mouth full.

The topic of Lt. Col. L. Fletcher Prouty's expose of the National Security State as a key player from WWII-Dealey Plaza is huge, political, and complex since it covers decades.
He deserves his own thread and there have been a few over the years.

But you are derailing a thread, barracuda, and should ban yourself for a week.
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Re: RIP Daniel Schorr

Postby barracuda » Sun Jul 25, 2010 1:45 am

That's okay, I'll just dig up one of your old excuses and dust it off for the nonce.
The most dangerous traps are the ones you set for yourself. - Phillip Marlowe
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Re: RIP Daniel Schorr

Postby freemason9 » Sun Jul 25, 2010 9:32 pm

aha ha ha
The real issue is that there is extremely low likelihood that the speculations of the untrained, on a topic almost pathologically riddled by dynamic considerations and feedback effects, will offer anything new.
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Re: RIP Daniel Schorr

Postby elephant » Mon Jul 26, 2010 11:22 am

I liked Schorr a lot. He was a good journalist and a discerning Washington observer.

More than 30 years ago, I happened to interview him in his house (I was still in high school at the time). I thought the guy was ancient. Incredible that he kept lucid and kept working until his demise at 93.

Strong mind at 93?!! Man (knock on wood), not a bad ambition for most of us.
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Re: RIP Daniel Schorr

Postby MinM » Wed Aug 04, 2010 12:53 pm



Daniel Schorr - The Education Forum
John Simkin wrote:It seems that Schorr remained one of the few journalists who constantly tried to overcome the pressures of Operation Mockingbird.

In 1953, Schorr was recruited by Ed Murrow to work for CBS News as its diplomatic correspondent in Washington. He was one of the few journalists to stand up to Joseph McCarthy. As a result he was sent to head the CBS bureau in Moscow. Two years later Schorr carried out the first ever television interview with Nikita Khrushchev. Later that year Schorr was arrested by the police and deported from the Soviet Union.

In 1960, Schorr was assigned to Bonn as CBS bureau chief for Germany and Eastern Europe. He covered the Berlin crisis and the building of the Berlin Wall and reported events from all the Warsaw Pact countries. In 1964 Schorr was nearly sacked by Bill Paley after reporting that Barry Goldwater was linked with a group of German right-wing military men.

Schorr returned to the United States in 1966 and reported on domestic issues. This included the presidencies of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon and the civil rights movement.

In 1972 Schorr began working full-time on the Watergate Scandal. Schorr's reports on the Senate Watergate hearings earned him three Emmys. In June 1973, Bill Paley made attempts to censor Schorr's criticism of Richard Nixon. It was later discovered that Schorr had been added to Nixon's "enemies list" and as a result was investigated by the FBI.

In February of 1976, the House of Representatives, voted to suppress the final report of its intelligence investigating committee. Schorr, who had been given an advance copy, leaked the information to Village Voice. This led to his suspension by CBS and an investigation by the House Ethics Committee in which Schorr was threatened with jail for contempt of Congress if he did not disclose his source. Schorr refused and eventually the committee decided 6 to 5 against a contempt citation.

Schorr left CBS and wrote an account of this Watergate story called Clearing the Air. Apparently, in the book he wrote about the links between the JFK assassination and Watergate...

Jim DiEugenio wrote:Clearing the Air, is a valuable book.

I used it a lot for my Bugliosi series Part 8.

It sheds a lot of light on Gerry Ford and his ties to the CIA and what a cover up artist he was.

Schorr did a lot of gutsy things at that time, when for the only time in modern American history, the national security state was actually threatened by congress.

It cost him his job at CBS. Which, predictably, failed to back him up when he needed it.

To really understand that era, his is one of the best books out there.

Scott Psymon and Mike Wallace, perhaps predictably, took a couple parting shots at one of the few to push back against corporate media. In their Schorr Memorial Show...

NPR's Scott Simon Remembers Daniel Schorr : NPR
But in 1976, he received a leaked copy of a congressional investigation, called the Pike Report, on illegal activities in the CIA and FBI. CBS refused to let him do a story on the report. Dan felt that the public's right to know was overriding and leaked the contents to the Village Voice.

He was called before a congressional committee and refused to name his source, declaring, "To betray a source would be to betray myself, my career and my life."

Dan was celebrated by many for his courage and integrity. But he irritated many people at CBS, who said that at first he had not owned up to leaking the CIA report, but blamed it on another CBS reporter, Lesley Stahl.

Mike Wallace interviewed Dan about it for 60 Minutes and went over the transcript with us.

"I say to him, 'Correct me if you think I'm wrong: You denied to CBS management that you supplied the Pike papers to the Village Voice. You denied! For a number of hours at least.'" Wallace recalled.

"And Dan answered me, 'That's not exactly right that I denied. I dissembled. I'm not quite clear, I don't really think I ever specifically denied — I certainly did not volunteer, and I certainly did not help CBS for several hours to get that information, that is true.'"

"'You permitted your colleague Lesley Stahl to be implicated as the person who had leaked the Pike papers.'" Wallace continued. "'For a few hours,' he answered."

It surprised Wallace. "I had always thought of him as a stand-up guy," he said. "Do you do that to a colleague?" And yet, Wallace admired Dan Schorr...

Daniel Schorr And Frank Zappa Were Friends. Really. : NPR
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