Daniel Irvin "Dan" Rather, Jr. (born October 31, 1931) is an American journalist and the former news anchor for the CBS Evening News. He is now managing editor and anchor of the television news magazine Dan Rather Reports on the cable channel AXS TV. Rather was anchor of the CBS Evening News for 24 years, from March 9, 1981, to March 9, 2005. He also contributed to CBS's 60 Minutes. Rather became embroiled in controversy about a disputed news report involving President George W. Bush's Vietnam-era service in the National Guard and subsequently left CBS Evening News in 2005, and he left the network altogether after 43 years in 2006.

 

life

Daniel Irvin Rather, Jr. (/ˈræðər/) 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 1950 from John H. Reagan High School in Houston. In 1953, he earned 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 – the founding organization of the currently active Epsilon Psi chapter of the Sigma Chi fraternity.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. In 1954, Rather enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, but was soon discharged because of having had rheumatic fever as a child .

Rather's boyhood home being restored at the Wharton County Museum
 

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). Around 1955, Rather did a story on heroin. Under the auspices of the Houston Police, he experienced the drug which he characterized as "a special kind of hell."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, the ABC affiliate in Houston. Rather was subsequently 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. In his autobiography, Rather notes that back then, television stations did not have their own radar systems, and there was no modern computerized radar that combines the radar image with an outline map. So he took a camera crew to the U.S. Weather Bureau (National Weather Service) office with a WSR-57 radar console located on the 5th floor of the Post Office Building on 25th Street in downtown Galveston (the antenna and its radome housing were located above the 7th floor, on the roof). A meteorologist drew for him a rough outline of the Gulf of Mexico on a sheet of plastic, and held that over the black and white radar display of Carla File:Hurricane carla radar.jpg to give Rather's audience an idea of the Carla's size, and the position of the hurricane's eye. Rather's reporting was the first ever display of a meteorological surveillance radar on television, and has been imitated by countless other reporters. This so impressed the network executives at CBS, that they offered him a job as a CBS News correspondent. Rather also, along with numerous other local and national television reporters, showed TV audiences the effects of Carla along the seawall, from the time the storm surge started slowly coming in, through much of the duration, and the aftermath. Rather refused CBS's first offer, but accepted their second offer when it came three months later. The feat was memorialized by a curbside Texas Historical Marker at the Post Office.

 

On February 28, 1962, Rather left Houston for New York City for a six-month trial initiation. Rather didn't fit in easily on the East Coast, and 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 a matter of time before Rather reported on the Kennedy assassination.

 

CBS News

JFK assassination to Watergate

Rather was the first network television journalist to report that U.S. President John F. Kennedy had been 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 never 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 report 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), and did not mention the assassination. This story infuriated local journalists at then-CBS affiliate KRLD-TV (now Fox owned-and-operated KDFW-TV).

 

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. Rather was among those journalists who accompanied Nixon to China.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.

 

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's World News Tonight. By 1992, however, the Evening News had fallen to third place, where it remained until Bob Schieffer, who acted as the interim anchor between Rather and Katie Couric, saw the Evening News rise to #2 ahead of ABC World News Tonight in the wake of the death of Peter Jennings but remaining behind NBC Nightly News.

 

The traditionally strong journalistic bench of CBS News was changed 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. This eventually caused CBS News into third place in the ratings.

 

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. Rather subsequently admitted on air that the documents' authenticity could not be proved.In the aftermath of the incident, CBS fired multiple members of the CBS News staff but allowed Rather to stay on.

 

Personal life

Rather married his wife, Jean Goebel, in 1957. They have a son and daughter, and maintain homes in New York City and Austin, TX. Rather was also one of a few notable summer residents of Easton, Connecticut, a semi-rural town that was also summer home to Actress Jessica Tandy.Their daughter Robin is an environmentalist and community activist in Austin, Texas. Their son Dan is an assistant district attorney in the District Attorney's office in Manhattan, New York.

 

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. In May 2007, Rather received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Siena College in Loudonville, New York, for his lifetime contributions to journalism.

 

A columnist whose work is distributed by King Features Syndicate, Rather continues to speak out against alleged influence in journalism by corporations and governments. At a 2008 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."

 

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".

 

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 scheme. 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.

 

"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[64] as part of the serialized 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 was sentenced to a 25-year prison sentence for killing NBC stagehand Campbell Montgomery outside The Today Show studio in 1994. He was paroled in October 2010 and is believed to be living in New York City.

 

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"). Other newscasters ridiculed and parodied Rather, and he dropped it.Afterward, he 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 to 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 had begun 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 coverage then ended sooner than expected at 6:32 p.m., but Rather was nowhere to be found. (CBS Sports had finally agreed to break away immediately after the match without commentary.) Over 100 affiliates broadcast six minutes of dead air.The next day, Rather apologized for leaving the anchor desk. The following year, when Rather asked then Vice President Bush about his role in the Iran-Contra affair during a live interview, Bush responded by saying, "Dan, how would you like it if I judged your entire career by those seven minutes when you walked off the set in New York?"

 

"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, cycling commentator Phil Liggett and Formula 1 commentator Murray Walker, 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 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 was 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."

• "[President Obama] couldn't sell watermelons if you gave him the state troopers to flag down the traffic." (his characterization of the Republican Party's assessment of Obama)