Daniel Irvin "Dan" Rather, Jr. (born October 31, 1931) is an American journalist who is the former
news anchor for the
CBS Evening News. He 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 became embroiled in controversy about a disputed news report involving the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election and subsequently left
CBS Evening News in 2005 and left the network altogether after 43 years in 2006.
Early life
Daniel Irvin Rather Jr. was born on October 31, 1931, in
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. In 1954, Rather enlisted in the
United States Marine Corps, but did not complete
recruit training because of his childhood bout with
rheumatic fever. 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.
Early career
Rather began his journalism career in 1950 as an
Associated Press reporter in
Huntsville, Texas. Later, he was a reporter for
United Press (1950–1958), 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. He later spent four seasons as the play-by-play announcer for the
University of Houston football team. 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. Rather refused CBS's first offer, but accepted their second offer which came three months later. On February 28, 1962, Rather left Houston for New York City for a six-month trial initiation. Rather didn't easily fit in on the East Coast, as among his first reports for CBS included coverage of the crash of American Airlines Flight 1 in Jamaica Bay, and a less memorable event on the suffocation of children at a hospital in Binghamton. Shortly after, Rather was made chief of CBS's Southwest bureau in Dallas. In 1963, he was appointed chief of the Southern bureau in New Orleans, responsible for coverage of news events in the South, Southwest, Mexico and Central America. It would be only time before Rather reported on one of the most tragic events in American history.
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. 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 it was thrown backwards. 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 Fox owned-and-operated 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 in London in 1965 and Vietnam in 1966, he served his second tenure as White House correspondent during the Richard Nixon presidency. He covered the Watergate investigation as well as the impeachment proceedings. In 1970, he drew the assignment as primary anchor for the CBS Sunday Night News.
CBS Evening News anchor
After President Nixon's resignation in 1974, 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.
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 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 a portion of 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.
Personal life
2007; discussing media, the internet, and asking the "hard questions."]]
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. They have a son and daughter, and maintain homes in New York City and Austin, TX.
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. His son Dan is an assistant district attorney in the Manhattan, New York District Attorney's office.
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."
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?". 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.
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.
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.
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". According to Bill Press, Rather chose to avoid covering the Levy story because he preferred what he called "decent, responsible journalism". CBS News eventually ran a single story about the Levy disappearance the following week.
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. 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. The accusations then spread over the following days into mainstream media outlets including
The Washington Post,
The New York Times, and the
Chicago Sun-Times.
Rather and CBS initially defended the story, insisting that the documents had been authenticated by experts. CBS was contradicted by some of the experts it originally cited. 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.
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." The controversy has been referred to by some as "Memogate" and "Rathergate."
Following an investigation commissioned by CBS, 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. 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."
In a 2010 issue of TV Guide, Rather's report was ranked #3 on a list of TV's ten biggest "blunders".
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". On September 21, 2009, Rather's lawyers claimed that Bush's military service would be proven to be a sham and Rather would be vindicated.
On September 29, 2009, A New York state appeals court dismissed Rather's lawsuit against CBS.
On January 12, 2010 New York's top court refused to reinstate Rather's $70 million breach-of-contract lawsuit against CBS Corp.
Departure from the CBS Evening News
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."
Departure from CBS News
In June 2006, reports surfaced that CBS News would most likely not renew Dan Rather's contract. 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. Rather issued a separate statement which accompanied the news of the departure:
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.
Awards
He has received numerous
Emmy Awards, several
Peabody Awards, and various honorary degrees from universities.
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.
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. The pun "rather biased" has become a catchphrase used frequently by those who believe he is. 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.
Rather was criticized for speaking as part of a Democratic Party fundraiser in Texas in 2001. Rather claimed afterwards that he did not realize it was a fundraiser for the party.
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".
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. During the weeks following the Killian documents, Rather received widespread criticism from other journalists and historians
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). 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 Killian documents incident, criticized Rather heavily for not offering any evidence to support the claim:
In 2002, Bernard Goldberg published a book with the title "", 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. 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".
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.
Notable incidents/Controversies
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."
Chicago cab ride
On November 10, 1980 Rather landed at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport and got into a cab. He asked the cab driver to take him to the home of
Studs Terkel whom he was interviewing for 60 Minutes. The cab driver couldn't locate the address and Rather felt that he was being ripped off. When he asked to be let out of the cab, the cabbie asked for the fare. Rather refused to pay and the cabbie sped off through the streets of downtown Chicago looking for the police. Rather shouted out the window that he was being kidnapped and eventually the police pulled over the cab. Rather later refused to press charges against the cabbie and CBS paid the $12.55 fare.
Galloway Suit Won by CBS
In 1980, Rather and CBS were taken into court when Carl Galloway, a California doctor, claimed that a report on 60 Minutes wrongfully implicated him in an insurance fraud scene. CBS stated Galloway had signed the bogus report and was suing Rather because he was upset at being caught. The jury sided with CBS and Rather and they won the case.
During the trial, Galloway's side used outtakes from the TV report showing that one interview was rehearsed. The clip was played over and over again on TV and Rather apologized. "I mistook who you were and what you were doing. That was inexcusable, rude and un-Christian behavior, for which I am remorseful," Rather's statement said.
"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 know. 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 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. 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. 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 postmodern fiction writer 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 the facts that Barthelme and Rather were likely to have known each other professionally early in their careers. 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. The second, written by Allman himself, premiered in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 2004.
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.
The phrase and a coincidental similarity to Rather by a fictional hero is worked into the book called 'Lady Slings The Booze' by author Spider Robinson. It uses a fictional set-up to explain the mugging incident.
"Courage"
For one week in September 1986, Rather signed off his broadcasts to CBS with the single word "Courage". 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 broadcast six minutes of dead air. The next day, Rather apologized for leaving the anchor desk.
"Watermelons and Obama"
During a
health care debate on the Chris Matthews show, Monday, March 8, 2010, Rather said, "[President Obama] couldn't sell watermelons if you gave him the state troopers to flag down the traffic," quoting what he thinks Republicans will argue during the next Presidential Election. This in response to a question about the debate over health care reform whose legislation President Obama often claimed as his own.
"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:
"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 plumb 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. 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 "Barbecue: A Texas Love Story" 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.
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.
Rather appears in the 2008 award-winning documentary .
A character "Dano", a spot-on imitation of Rather, appears on the Brad and Britt morning show on WZTK radio, 101.1 FM, in Burlington, North Carolina. The show is heard weekday mornings. Features of the imitation include mentioning "I have the documents" whenever a dubious claim is made. Dano is also heard sometimes interviewing President Obama's teleprompter.
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."
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."
During the newscast on May 21, 1980 regarding the Mount St. Helens eruption, Rather (who was substituting for Cronkite) stated "It is an event that defies superlatives."
"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."
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."
References
Further reading
Downie, Leonard Jr., and Kaiser, Robert G. The News About The News: American Journalism in Peril. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002. ISBN 0-375-71415-4. Contemporary history of American journalism. Candid interviews with Rather and many others.
Rather, Dan. The Palace Guard, with Gary Gates
.
Rather, Dan. I Remember, with Peter Wyden.
Rather, Dan with Herskowitz, Mickey. The Camera Never Blinks Twice. 1995. William Morrow.
Rather, Dan. Deadlines and Datelines, Perennial, (Harper Collins), 1999, ISBN 0-688-16566-4 (pbk.)
Boyer, Peter J. Who Killed CBS, St. Martin's Press. 1989. ISBN 0-312-91531-4
2nd Saddam interview
External links
CBS biography of Rather
Dan Rather discusses the 2008 Presidential Campaign
PDF of Dan Rather's lawsuit against CBS
PDF of CBS' motion to dismiss Rather's lawsuit
"It's running of the bull", Michael Goodwin, New York Daily News, 9 March 2005
"Wrong from the Beginning", Phillip Chalk, Weekly Standard, March 14, 2005.
Rather-CBS lawsuit
Dan Rather appears in Lee Atwater documentary
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