Tom Wolfe: Rather, 60 Minutes 'Idiots' for Airing Bush National Guard Story

Best-selling author Tom Wolfe made some statements about American journalism last week that would raise a lot of eyebrows in newsrooms around the country if anyone cared to notice.

For instance, he believes "newspapers are declining rapidly," that when a television news outlet does "a big story it`s always wrong," and that Dan Rather and his "60 Minutes" crew were "idiots" for airing the totally erroneous piece in August 2004 about George W. Bush and the National Guard:

They should have looked at the piece of paper. Obviously not written by a typewriter.

What follows is the relevant section of Wolfe's discussion with PBS's Charlie Rose last Wednesday (video available here, relevant section at 33:30, h/t and photo courtesy NY Post):

CHARLIE ROSE: You are at the stage in your fourth decade where people want you to give one last great lecture. I know you do them too. So if you were giving one last lecture about journalism.

TOM WOLFE: About journalism.

CHARLIE ROSE: Not just about finance but about journalism, what would you say because you`ve seen so much of it?

TOM WOLFE: I think what I would say is today as newspapers are declining rapidly, they`re losing money. I would just point out that all news today comes from the newspapers. All of it. Television has never initiated a successful story in its life. When they have a big story it`s always wrong. They had something about Israelis and atomic bombs. Absolutely wrong. They have George Bush being criticized in some letter -- The so- called Dan Rather ...

CHARLIE ROSE: About George Bush`s... How he got into the National Guard.

TOM WOLFE: Right. Idiots. They should have looked at the piece of paper. Obviously not written by a typewriter.

Obvious to most, Tom -- except those in the media and on the far-left who still believe the story.