Daniel Irvin "Dan" Rather, Jr.
(born October 31, 1931) is a journalist and former news anchor for the CBS Evening News
and is now managing editor and anchor of a television news magazine, Dan Rather Reports
, on the cable channel HDNet. Rather was anchor of the CBS Evening News
for 24 years, from March 9, 1981, to March 9, 2005. He also contributed to CBS' 60 Minutes
. Rather left CBS Evening News
in 2005 and subsequently left the network in 2006.
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DAN RATHER TICKETS
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Biography
Early life
Daniel Irvin Rather Jr. was born on October 31, 1931, in
Wharton,
Wharton County,
Texas, the son of Daniel Irvin Rather, Sr., and the former Byrl Veda Page. The Rathers moved to Houston, and Dan attended Love Elementary School and Hamilton Middle School. He graduated in 1949 from
John H. Reagan High School in Houston. In 1953, he received a
bachelor's degree in
journalism from
Sam Houston State University where he was editor of the school newspaper,
The Houstonian
. At Sam Houston, he was a member of the Caballeros, which was the founding organization of the currently active Epsilon Psi chapter of the
Sigma Chi fraternity.
[1] In 1954, Rather enlisted in the
United States Marine Corps,
[2] but failed to complete
recruit training because of his childhood bout with
rheumatic fever.
[3] [4] After obtaining his undergraduate degree, Rather briefly attended
South Texas College of Law in Houston, which later awarded him an honorary
Juris Doctor in 1990.
Start of his career
Rather began his journalism career in 1950 as an
Associated Press reporter in
Huntsville, Texas. Later, he was a reporter for
United Press (1950–1952), several Texas radio stations, and the
Houston Chronicle
(1954–1955). While at Sam Houston State, Rather worked for
KSAM-FM radio in
Huntsville, Texas calling junior high, high school, and Sam Houston State football games.
[5] He later spent four seasons as the play-by-play announcer for the
University of Houston football team.
[6] During the 1959 minor league baseball season, Rather was the play-by-play radio announcer for the
Houston Buffs team of the triple A
American Association. In 1959, he began his television career as a reporter for
KTRK-TV in Houston. Rather was promoted to the director of news for
KHOU-TV, the
CBS affiliate in Houston.
Ray Miller, news director of
KPRC-TV, the
NBC affiliate in Houston, also mentored Rather in the early years.
In early-September 1961, Rather reported live from the
Galveston Seawall as
Hurricane Carla threatened the Texas coastline. His reporting, which has been imitated by countless other reporters, impressed the network executives at CBS, and they hired him as a
CBS News correspondent in 1962. In his autobiography, Rather notes that back then, television stations did not have their own radar systems, and of course nobody then had the modern computerized radar that combines the radar image with an outline map. So he took a camera crew to a
National Weather Service radar station located on the top floor of the Post Office Building on 25th Street in
Galveston, where a technician drew a rough outline of the
Gulf of Mexico on a sheet of plastic, and held that over the black and white radar display to give Rather's audience an idea of the storm's size and position of the storm's
eye.
CBS News
JFK Assassination to Watergate
Rather was the first network television journalist to report that
U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in
Dallas. In his autobiography, he also claims to be one of the first to see the
Zapruder film showing the assassination and the first to describe it on television.
[7] The film was not itself shown on television to the general public, and Rather reported the fatal headshot as forcing Kennedy's head to be thrown violently forward, when in fact, it was thrown backwards.
[8] This misreporting is sometimes included as part of conspiracy theories which purport that the direction in which Kennedy's head moved supports one theory or another.
Later, he reported that some schoolchildren in Dallas had applauded when they were notified of the president's death. Administrators said that, in fact, the thrust of the announcement was that school was to be dismissed early (making the students' delight more understandable). This story infuriated local journalists at then-CBS affiliate KRLD-TV (now
KDFW-TV), who temporarily threw the CBS News staff out of their workspace.
Rather's reporting during the national mourning period following the Kennedy assassination and subsequent events brought him to the attention of CBS News management, which rewarded him in 1964 with the network's
White House correspondent position.
After serving as a foreign correspondent for CBS News, he drew the assignment as primary anchor for the CBS Sunday Night News, while serving as White House correspondent during the
Richard Nixon presidency. He covered the
Watergate investigation as well as the
impeachment proceedings.
CBS Evening News anchor
After President Nixon's resignation, Rather took the assignment of chief correspondent for the
documentary series
CBS Reports
. He later became a correspondent of the long-running Sunday night news show
60 Minutes,
just as the program was moved from a Sunday afternoon time-slot to
primetime. Success there (and a threat to bolt to
ABC News) helped Rather pull ahead of longtime correspondent
Roger Mudd in line to succeed
Walter Cronkite as anchor and Managing Editor of
CBS Evening News
.
“
| Good evening. President Reagan, still training his spotlight on the economy, today signed a package of budget cuts that he will send to Congress tomorrow. Lesley Stahl has the story.
-- Rather's first lines in his debut as anchor of The CBS Evening News
| ”
|
Rather assumed the position upon Cronkite's retirement, making his first broadcast on March 9, 1981. From the beginning of his tenure, it was clear that Rather had a significantly different style of reporting the news. In contrast to the
avuncular Cronkite, who ended his newscast with "That's the way it is", Rather searched to find a broadcast ending more suitable to his tastes. For one week during the mid-1980s, Rather tried ending his broadcasts with the word "courage" and was roundly ridiculed for it. He eventually found a wrap-up phrase more modest than Cronkite's and more relaxed than his own previous attempt; for nearly two decades, Rather ended the show with "That's part of our world tonight."
While Rather had inherited Cronkite's ratings lead, the success of the
Evening News
with Rather at the helm fluctuated wildly. After a dip to second place, Rather regained the top spot in 1985 until 1989 when he ceded the ratings peak to rival
Peter Jennings at
ABC. By 1992, however, the
Evening News
had fallen to third place, where it remained.
The traditionally strong journalistic bench of CBS News was weakened in 1984, when new owner
Lawrence Tisch oversaw layoffs of thousands of CBS News employees, including correspondents
David Andelman,
Fred Graham,
Morton Dean and
Ike Pappas. Fewer videotape crews were dispatched to cover stories and numerous bureaus were closed. Reporting by Peter Boyer of the
New York Times
indicates that Rather did relatively little to stop this, having already chosen to marginalize the people he considered to be "B" level correspondents.
For a short time from 1993 to 1995, Rather co-anchored the evening news with
Connie Chung. Chung had previously been a Washington correspondent for CBS News and anchored short news updates on the west coast. On joining the
CBS Evening News
, however, she worked to report "pop news" stories that did not fit the style of the broadcast. In one incident, she was on an airplane interviewing
Tonya Harding, who was accused of being behind the plot to injure fellow Olympic ice skater
Nancy Kerrigan. Chung ultimately left the network, and Rather went back to doing the newscast alone.
At the end of Rather's time as anchor, the
CBS Evening News
lagged behind the
NBC Nightly News
and
ABC World News Tonight
in the ratings, although it was still drawing approximately 7 million viewers a night. Criticism of Rather reached a fever pitch after
60 Minutes II ran his report about
President Bush's military record; numerous critics questioned the authenticity of the documents upon which the report was based. In the aftermath of the incident, CBS fired multiple members of the CBS News staff but allowed Rather to stay on. Rather retired under pressure as the anchor of the
CBS Evening News
on March 9, 2005.
Other current notes
Sam Houston State University renamed its mass communications building after Rather in 1994. The building houses
The Houstonian
and
KSHU, the student-run radio and television stations.
Rather married his wife Jean in 1957. The have a son and daughter, and maintain homes in New York City and Austin, TX.
[9]
In May 2007, Rather received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from
Siena College in
Loudonville, New York, for his lifetime contributions to journalism.
Rather is also a
columnist whose work is distributed by
King Features Syndicate.
His daughter Robin is an
environmentalist and community activist in
Austin, Texas.
On May 28, 2007, Rather compared historical events to events in the
Star Wars
films in the
History Channel special, "Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed".
Rather continues to speak out against alleged influence in journalism by corporations and governments. At a recent conference in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, sponsored by the group
Free Press, Rather criticized both local and national news organizations, stating, according to reports, that there is no longer incentive to do "good and valuable news."
[10]
Journalistic history and influence
Nixon
During the presidency of
Richard Nixon, critics accused Rather of biased coverage against President Nixon. At a Houston news conference in March 1974, Nixon fielded a question from Rather, still CBS's White House correspondent, who said, "Thank you, Mr. President. Dan Rather, of CBS News. Mr. President.... Mr. President...." The room filled with jeers and applause, prompting Nixon to joke, "Are you running for something?" Rather replied "No, sir, Mr. President. Are you?"
[11]. In his question, Rather accused Nixon of not cooperating with the grand jury investigation and the House Judiciary Committee in relation to the Watergate scandal.
According to
NBC’s Tom Brokaw, the network considered hiring him, Brokaw, as its White House correspondent to replace Rather. But these plans were scrapped after word was leaked to the press. The controversy did little to dent Rather's overall tough coverage of the Watergate scandal, which helped to raise his profile.
Afghanistan, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush
During the
Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, Rather was on camera wearing a traditional
Mujahadeen headdress and garments while reporting from near the front lines. These reports helped Rather gain prominence with the Evening News audience (and the nickname "Gunga Dan"; Rather's reports were also spoofed by the comic strip
Doonesbury
). It later turned out that Rather's reports played a role in moving Congressman
Charlie Wilson to try to help the struggling mujahideen, which led to the largest ever CIA covert operation in supplying aid and advanced arms to the mujahideen, which in turn eventually led to the Soviets quitting Afghanistan.
[12]
Rather's energy and spirit helped him out-compete
Roger Mudd for the anchor spot on the
Evening News
. Mudd was a more senior correspondent and a frequent substitute anchor for Walter Cronkite on the
Evening News
, and he also anchored the Sunday evening broadcast. But it was Rather who traveled through Afghanistan when the news led there. A few years into his service as anchorman, Rather began wearing sweaters beneath his suit jacket to soften and warm his on-air perceptions by viewers.
[13]
Later during the 1980s, Rather gained further renown for his forceful and skeptical reporting on the
Iran-Contra Affair, which eventually led to an on-air confrontation with then
Vice President George H. W. Bush: Bush referred to Rather's "
dead air incident" saying, "I want to talk about why I want to be President, why those 41 percent of the people are supporting me. And I don't think it's fair to judge my whole career by a rehash on
Iran. How would you like it if I judged your career by those seven minutes when you walked off the set in New York?" Rather ignored Bush's comment.
[14]
Shortly after
Iraq invaded
Kuwait, Rather secured an interview with
Iraqi leader
Saddam Hussein.
On February 24, 2003, Rather conducted another
interview with Hussein before the
2003 Invasion of Iraq. In the interview, Hussein invited Rather to be the moderator of a live television debate between himself and George W. Bush. The debate never took place.
The Wall Within
On June 2, 1988, Rather hosted a CBS News special,
The Wall Within
. In it, he interviewed six former servicemen, each of whom said he had witnessed horrible acts in
Vietnam. Two of the men said that they had killed civilians, and two others said that they had seen friends die. Each talked about the effects the war had upon their lives — including
depression,
unemployment,
drug use and
homelessness.
In their book
Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of its Heroes and its History
, authors B. G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley said they had obtained the service records of all six men, documenting where each was stationed during the Vietnam War. According to the records, the authors said, only one of the men was actually in Vietnam; he claimed to have been a 16-year-old
Navy SEAL but, said Burkett and Whitley, the records listed him as an equipment repairer.
Chandra Levy reporting
On July 12, 2001,
Brent Bozell of the
Media Research Center issued a press release stating that the failure of CBS News to run a single story regarding the disappearance of former
Congressional intern Chandra Levy was evidence of "media bias".
[16] According to Bill Press, Rather chose to avoid covering the Levy story because he preferred what he called "decent, responsible journalism".
[17] CBS News eventually ran a single story about the Levy disappearance the following week.
[18]
Killian documents
On September 8, 2004, Rather reported on
60 Minutes Wednesday
that a series of memos critical of President George W. Bush's Texas
Air National Guard service record had been discovered in the personal files of Lt. Bush's former commanding officer, Lt. Col.
Jerry B. Killian.
[19] The authenticity of these documents was quickly called into question by a small group of bloggers, initially based on their being proportionally printed and displaying other modern typographic conventions with limited availability on military typewriters of the time. This led to claims that the memos were forgeries.
[20] The accusations then spread over the following days into mainstream media outlets including
The Washington Post
,
[21] The New York Times
,
[22] and the
Chicago Sun-Times
.
[23]
Rather and CBS initially defended the story, insisting that the documents had been authenticated by experts.
[24] CBS was contradicted by some of the experts it originally cited,
[25]. CBS later reported that their source for the documents, former Texas Army National Guard officer Lt. Col.
Bill Burkett, had misled the network about how he had obtained them.
[26]
On September 20, CBS retracted the story. Rather stated, "If I knew then what I know now, I would not have gone ahead with the story as it was aired, and I certainly would not have used the documents in question."
[27] The controversy has been referred to by some as "Memogate" and "Rathergate."
[28]
Following an investigation commissioned by CBS,
[29] [30] [31] CBS fired story producer
Mary Mapes and asked three other producers connected with the story to resign. Many believe Rather's retirement was hastened by this incident.
[32] On Thursday, September 20, 2007, Rather was interviewed on
Larry King Live
commenting "Nobody has proved that they were fraudulent, much less a forgery. ... The truth of this story stands up to this day."
[33]
Lawsuit
On September 19, 2007, Rather filed a $70 million lawsuit against CBS, its former parent company
Viacom, CBS President and CEO
Leslie Moonves,
Sumner Redstone, chairman of both Viacom and CBS and
Andrew Heyward, former president of
CBS News. Rather accused the network and its ownership and management of making him a "
scapegoat" in the Killian story. A CBS spokesman claimed that the lawsuit was "old news" and "without merit". Viacom did not immediately respond.
[34]
Departure from the CBS Evening News
“
| Insert the text of the quote here, without quotation marks.
| ”
|
Rather retired as the anchorman and Managing Editor of the
CBS Evening News
in 2005; his last broadcast was Wednesday, March 9, 2005. He worked as the
anchorman for 24 full years, the longest tenure of anyone in American television history, and for a short time continued to work as a correspondent for
60 Minutes
.
Bob Schieffer, a fellow Texan and host of
Face the Nation,
took over Rather's position on an interim basis, with
Katie Couric replacing Schieffer in 2006.
Since retiring, he has spoken out strongly about what he perceives as a lack of courage by American journalists. On January 24, 2006, Rather spoke to a
Seattle audience. Before the speaking engagement, he told a newspaper reporter, "In many ways on many days, [reporters] have sort of adopted the attitude of 'go along, get along.'"
"What many of us need is a spine transplant", Rather added. "Whether it's City Hall, the State House, or the White House, part of our job is to speak truth to power."
[36]
Departure from CBS News
In June 2006, reports surfaced that CBS News would most likely not renew Dan Rather's contract.
[37] According to a
Washington Post
article, sources from CBS said that executives at the network decided "there is no future role for Rather".
On June 20, 2006, CBS News and Sports president Sean McManus announced that Rather would leave the network after 44 years.
[38] [39] Rather issued a separate statement which accompanied the news of the departure:
[40]
“
| I leave CBS News with tremendous memories. But I leave now most of all with the desire to once again do regular, meaningful reporting. My departure before the term of my contract represents CBS's final acknowledgement, after a protracted struggle, that they had not lived up to their obligation to allow me to do substantive work there. As for their offers of a future with only an office but no assignments, it just isn't in me to sit around doing nothing. So I will do the work I love elsewhere, and I look forward to sharing details about that soon.
| ”
|
Rather has since resumed his career with
HDNet, a
high-definition cable television station as a producer and hosts a weekly one-hour show called
Dan Rather Reports
as of October 24, 2006. Rather also has contributed as a guest on
The Chris Matthews Show
, and on
The Daily Show
.
He has also formed an independent company called News and Guts Media and is reportedly working on a book.
[41]
Awards
{{#if:February 2009{{#ifexist:Category:Articles to be expanded since February 2009
He has received numerous
Emmy Awards, several
Peabody Awards, and various honorary degrees from universities.
Award
| Year
| Program Title
|
Peabody
| 1975
| CBS News
|
Peabody
| 1976
| 60 Minutes
|
Peabody
| 1994
| CBS Reports: D-Day
|
Peabody
| 1995
| CBS Reports: In the Killing Fields of America
|
Peabody
| 2000
| 48 Hours: Heroes Under Fire
|
Peabody
| 2001
| 60 Minutes II: Memories of a Massacre
|
Peabody
| 2004
| 60 Minutes II: Abuse at Abu Ghraib
|
Criticism
As one of the last broadcast news journalists from the era of the "Big Three" network news primacy, Rather was highly regarded within his profession by many long-serving journalists. Rather has, however, been subject to criticism from many people who accuse him of having a liberal bias. Still others have expressed dislike for Rather's on-air delivery or argued that Rather was too "ham-handed", "pseudo-folksy" or "old-fashioned."
Claims of bias
Rather has been described as having a liberal bias for much of his career.
[42] [43] Media Research Center, a conservative organization which claims to identify
liberal bias in the media, has a file devoted to what they say are examples of Rather's bias.
[44] The pun "rather biased" has become a catchphrase used frequently by those who believe he is.
[45] In 1985, Senator
Jesse Helms, Republican of North Carolina and leading spokesman of the group Fairness in Media (FIM), sent out a letter to members urging them to buy twenty shares each of CBS
common stock in an attempt to curb Rather's and CBS's alleged liberal bias. CBS fought back with the help of investment banking house, and several law and public relations firms.
[46]
Rather was criticized for speaking as part of a Democratic Party fundraiser in Texas in 2001. Rather said afterwards that he did not realize it was a fundraiser for the party.
[47]
Rather's on-screen comments and election night reporting have specifically come under attack as well, dating back to
Richard Nixon's presidency. In a June 2002 interview with
Larry King, his long-time co-worker (and self-described liberal)
Andy Rooney stated that Rather is "transparently liberal".
[48]
Critics claim Rather has a double standard on how and which news stories to report, the
Killian documents being the most famous example of this.
[49] [50] During the weeks following the Killian documents, Rather received widespread criticism from other journalists and historians
[51]
for his approach on reporting and confirmation of the documents' authenticity, as well as his continued insistence of standing by them. They also claim many of his interviews of public officials reflect a liberal bias, either being overly harsh (when interviewing a conservative) or "soft-ball" (when interviewing a liberal).
[52] In an interview with commentator
Bill Maher, Rather accused
Fox News Channel of receiving "talking points" from the Republican controlled
White House. Fox News commentator
Bill O'Reilly, who had defended Rather during the
Memogate incident, criticized Rather heavily for not offering any evidence to support the claim:
“
| Insert the text of the quote here, without quotation marks.
| ”
|
In 2002, Bernard Goldberg published a book with the title "
Bias," mainly speaking of liberal bias in the news. In the book, Goldberg used Dan Rather as a primary example of a news anchor with a liberal bias. It also criticises the anchor for his criticisms about President George W. Bush and Vice President
Dan Quayle about their military service, when Rather's own service was brought into question.
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting has accused Rather of having "an unwillingness to challenge official power and policy" in his reporting.
[54] Investigative reporter Mark Hertsgaard characterized Rather as a "stern
anti-Communist" during the
Reagan administration for allegedly having "reported the pronouncements of public officials with considerable respect".
[55]
Criticism from Walter Cronkite
During an appearance on
CNN's
American Morning
, former CBS anchor
Walter Cronkite said about Rather: "It surprised quite a few people at CBS and elsewhere that, without being able to pull up the ratings beyond third in a three-man field, that they tolerated his being there for so long." Cronkite also stated that
Bob Schieffer's succession was long overdue.
[56]
Notable incidents
1968 Democratic convention
During live coverage of the
1968 Democratic National Convention, Rather attempted to interview a delegate from
Georgia who appeared as though he was being forcibly removed by men without identification badges.
As Rather approached the delegate to question the apparent strong-arm tactics of the
Chicago political machine, he was punched in the stomach by one of the men, knocking him to the ground. "He lifted me right off the floor and put me away. I was down, the breath knocked out of me, as the whole group blew on by me...In the CBS control room, they had switched the camera onto me just as I was slugged."
"Kenneth, what is the frequency?"
On October 4, 1986, as Rather was walking along
Park Avenue in
Manhattan to his apartment, he was attacked and punched from behind by a man who demanded to know, "Kenneth, what is the frequency?", while a second assailant also chased and beat him. As the assailant pummeled and kicked Rather, he kept repeating the question over and over again. In describing the incident, Rather said, "I got mugged. Who understands these things? I didn't and I don't now. I didn't make a lot of it at the time and I don't now. I wish I knew who did it and why, but I have no idea."
The incident and Rather's account led some to doubt the veracity of Rather's story, although the doorman and building supervisor who rescued Rather fully confirmed his version of events. The story entered popular lore and remained unsolved for some time. The incident inspired a song called "Kenneth, What's the Frequency?" by the band
Game Theory in 1987. In October 1990, the phrase "What's the frequency, Kenneth?" appeared in an issue of the
Daniel Clowes comic
Eightball
[57] as part of the serialised graphic novel
Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron, and was revealed in a later episode to be a key part of the Mister Jones conspiracy theory
[58]. Also in 1990,
Scott McCloud used the phrase in the first
24-hour comic. In 1994 the band
R.E.M. released the song "
What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" on the album
Monster
. The phrase became the subject of many jokes over the years and slang for a confused or clueless person. Rather was a good sport about it, and actually sang with R.E.M. during a soundcheck prior to a gig at
Madison Square Garden, New York, which was shown the following night on
The Late Show With David Letterman before their performance of
Crush With Eyeliner.
In 1997, a TV critic writing in the
New York Daily News
solved the mystery, and published a photo of the alleged assailant,
William Tager. Rather confirmed the story: "There's no doubt in my mind that this is the person." "William Tager's identity as the man who attacked Mr. Rather was established in the course of an investigation by my office", said New York District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau
[59]. Tager also admitted assaulting Rather. Tager is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence for killing NBC stagehand Campbell Montgomery outside
The Today Show
studio in 1994.
In the December 2001 issue of
Harper's Magazine
, writer
Paul Limbert Allman speculated that Professor
Donald Barthelme (who died in 1989) had somehow orchestrated, or was otherwise connected to, the attack through other unnamed persons, citing unusual passages in Barthelme's writing, including the phrase "What is the frequency?", a recurring character named Kenneth, and a short story about a pompous editor named Lather. Limbert also uncovered that Barthelme and Rather were likely to have known each other professionally early in their careers.
[60] The article was adapted into two plays, both entitled "Kenneth, What is the Frequency?" The first was by Ian Allen and Monique LaForce and debuted in Washington, D.C., in 2003.
[61] The second, written by Allman himself, premiered in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 2004.
[62]
In the 2006-07 graphic novel
Shooting War
, the fictional Dan Rather of the year 2011 it portrays has adopted the personal motto, "The frequency is courage." In the 2006 film
Land of the Blind
, the phrase briefly appears on a blackboard in a re-education camp for opponents of the dystopian regime led by
Donald Sutherland.
[63]
"Courage"
For one week in September 1986, Rather signed off his broadcasts to CBS with the single word "Courage".
[64] Apparently it was just a signature line and had nothing to do with the news at the time (which included the
Joseph Cicippio abduction and a threat by Arab extremists to "become familiar with your skyscrapers and extend the terror campaign to the United States"), although TV critic Peter Boyer suggested it may have been in response to recent staff cutbacks at CBS News. Other newscasters ridiculed and parodied him, and he dropped it. Afterward, Rather said "And that's part of our world." On his last
CBS Evening News
broadcast, he once again signed off with "Courage", this time linking it to the
September 11, 2001 attacks as well as courage shown by fellow journalists.
Dead air
On September 11, 1987, Rather walked off the set in anger just before a remote
Evening News
broadcast from Miami, where
Pope John Paul II began a rare U.S. tour, when a
U.S. Open tennis match was being broadcast into the time scheduled for the newscast. He was upset that the news was being cut into to make room for sports and discussed it with the sports department. The
Steffi Graf-
Lori McNeil tennis match then ended sooner than expected at 6:32 p.m., but Rather was nowhere to be found. Over 100 affiliates broadcasted six minutes of dead air.
[65] The next day, Rather apologized for leaving the anchor desk.
"Ratherisms"
Rather is known for his many off-the-cuff colorful analogies and descriptions during live broadcasts. Similar to those used by
baseball announcer
Red Barber, and
cycling commentator
Phil Liggett, these "Ratherisms" are also called "Texanisms" or "Danisms" by some. A few of the more colorful ones, several of which were used throughout the 2008
HBO made-for-TV movie
Recount (film) about the
2000 Election, include:
[66]
- "This race is shakier than cafeteria Jell-O."
- "Things are getting hotter than a Times Square Rolex."
- "This thing is as tight as the rusted lugnuts on a '55 Ford."
- (When Georgia is called for Clinton in 1992)"Clinton is off to a start, rolling like a big wheel through a Georgia cotton field."
- "This race is tight like a too-small bathing suit on a too-long ride home from the beach."
- "He swept through the South like a tornado through a trailer park."
- "Don't bet the trailer money on it yet."
- "It's a ding-dong battle back and forth."
- "Look at that. Can't get a cigarette paper between 'em."
- "His chances are slim to none right now, and if he doesn't carry Florida, Slim will have left town."
- "If a frog had side pockets, he'd carry a hand gun."
- "You would sooner find a tall talking broccoli stick to offer to mow your lawn for free."
- "Turn the lights down, the party just got wilder."
- "It's cardiac-arrest time in this presidential campaign."
- "It's too early to say he has the whip hand."
- "It's about as complicated as a wiring diagram to some dynamo."
- "This election swings like one of those pendulum things."
- "This will show you how tight it is - it's spandex tight."
- "Al Gore has his back to the wall, shirt tails on fire with this race in Florida."
- "Smelling salts for all Democrats please."
- "Maybe you can bring some perspective on this, we're plum out."
- "When the going gets weird, anchor men punt."
- "She didn't go to school just to eat her lunch."
Pop culture figure
Though his popularity and ratings declined over the years, Rather's apparent affinity for the bizarre has made him into an ironic pop-culture icon. He has been lampooned numerous times by the television shows
Saturday Night Live
and
Family Guy
and many films. Samples of Rather's newscasts were used to create "Rocked By Rape," a single by the
Evolution Control Committee. The song combined some of Rather's more dramatic headlines ("
Gunned down / shooting death / blood drops / murderer
") with a heavily edited recording of
AC/DC's
Back in Black
. This work brought legal threats against The ECC by
CBS, but by 2003, CBS appears to have let the issue go by. "Rocked by Rape" was nationally broadcast on NPR's
All Things Considered in 2000
[67]. It was even played at a
roast for Rather, which was later broadcast on
C-SPAN.
An animated version of him made a cameo appearance in the
JibJab political cartoon,
Good to Be in D.C.
.
In 2004, he was featured in the documentary film by Austin-based director
Chris Elley. Two years later, Rather and Elley educated a group of New Yorkers in
Madison Square Park about the true meaning of BBQ and its significance to the identity of the Lone Star State. Rather began the discussion with a direct statement: "Let's get this straight folks. If it ain't beef and it ain't in Texas, then it ain't barbecue."
In the 2006-07 graphic novel
Shooting War,
which is set in the year 2011, an 80-year-old Dan Rather is shown to be one of the last journalists still reporting from Iraq (although it is never made clear exactly for which news organization he is reporting).
Rather had a cameo in the premiere of the Fall 2007 drama
Dirty Sexy Money on ABC television.
Rather is parodied daily on the Brad and Britt morning show that is broadcast Monday to Friday on FM Talk 101.1 WZTK in North Carolina. 'The Danno' character made the first of his many appearances on the show during the scandal that eventually led to Rather's exit from the CBS Evening News. The skit was such a hit that it continues to be a part of the popular moning show.
He guest-starred as himself in
The Simpsons
episode, "
E Pluribus Wiggum."
Rather appeared on "The Daily Show" in May 2009 wearing an Afro wig and mutton-chop sideburns to narrate a segment about the late, former President Nixon eating a burrito, as a parody of
MSNBC's extensive coverage of President Obama and Vice President Biden's hamburger lunch.
Illegal drugs
In a July 1980 interview with
Ladies' Home Journal,
Rather said that "in 1955 or '56, I had someone at the Houston police station shoot me with
heroin so I could do a story about it. The experience was a special kind of hell. I came out understanding full well how one could be addicted to 'smack,' and quickly."
According to journalist Cliff Jahr, Rather said, "As a reporter - and I don't want to say that that's the only context - I've tried everything. I can say to you with confidence, I know a fair amount about
LSD. I've never been a social user of any of these things, but my curiosity has carried me into a lot of interesting areas."
[68]
Ratings
Under predecessor Walter Cronkite, CBS Evening News was a strong #1 in the ratings, and Rather maintained a small ratings lead for a few years among the networks' news broadcasts through the early 1980s. However,
Tom Brokaw and his
NBC Nightly News
and
Peter Jennings of ABC News
World News Tonight
both became more popular than Rather's broadcast.
Quotes
- "There's an old saying that you should marry a girl from Texas because no matter how tough things get, she's tougher."
- "I cannot remember a time when I didn't want to be a reporter."
- "You can't be a good reporter and not regularly be involved in some kind of controversy."
- In reference to the CBS News, while referring to Katie Couric, Rather stated that "the mistake was to try to bring the 'Today' show ethos to the 'Evening News,' and to dumb it down, tart it up in hopes of attracting a younger audience." [69]
- Mistakenly referred to Barack Obama as Osama bin Laden. "I have a respect for Jesse Jackson. That he was an important figure in paving the way for an Osama bin Laden to appear." [70]
References
- Sigma Chi: Epsilon Psi Chapter/Sam Houston State University Home Page
- Dan Rather Biography
- Expert: Dan Rather Exaggerates Military Record
- Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News
- http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=DM&p_theme=dm&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p
- http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/peter_king/news/2001/11/05/mmqb/
- Oswald's_Ghost
- Id.
- Dan Rather Retorting
- Former CBS anchor lashes out at corporate news at media reform conference in Minneapolis
- Richard Nixon: Question-and-Answer Session at the Annual Convention of the National Association of Broadcasters, Houston, Texas
- 'Charlie Wilson': Firing on All Cylinders
- The Argyle General
- Rather's Questioning of Bush Sets Off Shouting on Live Broadcast
- Persian Gulf Region
- Spinning Chandra: Making the Condit Affair Partisan
- The summer of Chandra
- Wednesday Night Dan Rather Discovered Chandra Levy, But Only to Clear Condit, Who Was Not Labeled a Democrat, And Impugn DC Police
- New Questions On Bush Guard Duty
- What Blogs Have Wrought
- Rather Defends CBS Over Memos on Bush Washington Post September 10, 2004
- Memos on Bush Are Fake but Accurate, Typist Says New York Times
- CBS falls for Kerry campaign's fake memo Chicago Sun-Times September 12, 2004 (Requires archive access)
- USATODAY.com - Amid criticism, CBS stands by its reports
- Expert Cited by CBS Says He Didn't Authenticate Papers Washington Post, September 14, 2004
- Rather On The Document Errors, Rather Asks Document Source Why He Misled CBS - CBS News
- Dan Rather Statement On Memos, ''CBS'', September 20, 2004
- Bloggers Freer Than Reporters? Slate, Jack Shafer, April 8, 2005
- CBS ousts 4 over Bush Guard story - Politics - MSNBC.com
- Nieman Watchdog > Commentary > The Boccardi-Thornburgh report leaves some questions unanswered
- http://wwwimage.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/complete_report/appendix_4.pdf
- Dan Rather to Step Down at CBS, Anchor's Decision Comes Amid Probe of Flawed Bush Report Washington Post November 23, 2004
- Rather: I was forced to step down
- Dan Rather files $70M suit against CBS Sep 19, 2007
- http://cdn.emmys.tv/news/2005/march/ratherfarewell.php
- Sam Skolnik, Demand solid news, Rather urges, ''Seattlepi.com'', January 25, 2006
- Source Says Dan Rather Nearing CBS Exit, ''CBS'', June 15, 2006
- David Bauder, Dan Rather Signs Off, ''CBS'', June 20, 2006
- Rather Leaves CBS in Bitter End to 44 Years, ''The New York Times'', June 20, 2006
- Harsh words as Rather leaves CBS, ''CNN'', June 21, 2006
- Fall In, Scamps!
- Dan Rather: a pioneer and a lightning rod at ''Christian Science Monitor''.
- Dropping the anchorman at ''The Economist''.
- The Dan Rather File at ''Media Research Center''
- Charles Krauthammer, Rather Biased, ''Washington Post'', January 14, 2005
- {{harvnb|Hunter|1991|pp=227-228}}
- Rather Spoke at Democratic Fundraiser
- Interview With Andy Rooney, ''CNN'', June 5, 2002
- Rather's Double Standard at ''FairPress.org''
- Be Wary of Rich Cabinet Members? at ''Ratherbiased.org''
- In Rush to Air, CBS Quashed Memo Worries Washington Post — September 19, 2004
- Hard and Soft Interviews at ''Ratherbiased.org''
- Dan Rather Owes FOX News an Apology
- Rather's Retirement and "Liberal Bias"
- {{harvnb|Hertsgaard|1988|p=167}}
- Bitter-sweet so-long for Dan Rather
- ''Eightball'' No. 4, p. 5. (Fantagraphics Books, 1990)
- ''Eightball'' No. 7, p. 11. (Fantagraphics Books 1991)
- No Doubt in Rather Case, New York Times, November 5, 2004
- "Dan Rather is the sphinx of our time, and his riddle is 'Kenneth, what is the frequency?'", Paul Limbert Allman, ''Harper's Magazine'' 2001
- "Kenneth, What Is The Frequency" at cherryredproductions.com
- Gritten, David, Edinburgh reports: stew of strange ideas at The Daily Telegraph
- [1]
- Courage at ''RatherBiased.com''
- Rather Walked Off Set of CBS News
- Dan Rather at ''FamousTexans.com''
- Adams, Noah (2000). Song on the Internet uses excerpts of Dan Rather on "CBS Evening News" to create a controversial musical parody "Rocked by Rape". All Things Considered. National Public Radio. September 8. http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-32663277.html
- Richard Connelly, Party On, Dan, ''Houston Press'', December 2, 2004
- CBS Chief: Rather's Remarks About Couric 'Sexist' June 12, 2007
- Rather Calls Obama 'Osama Bin Laden,' Will Media Notice?