Dan Rather

Dan Rather
Rather in 2017
Born
Daniel Irvin Rather Jr.

(1931-10-31) October 31, 1931 (age 93)
Wharton, Texas, U.S.
EducationSam Houston State University (BA)
Occupations
  • Journalist
  • news presenter
  • reporter and correspondent
Years active1950–present
Spouse
Jean Goebel
​
(m. 1957)​
Children2

Daniel Irvin Rather Jr. (/ˈræðər/; born October 31, 1931) is an American journalist, commentator, and former national evening news anchor. He began his career in Texas, becoming a national name after his reporting saved thousands of lives during Hurricane Carla in September 1961. In his first national broadcast, he helped initiate the successful evacuation of 350,000 people. He reported on some of the most significant events of the modern age, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Gulf War, 9/11, the Iraq War, and the war on terror.

Rather also famously reported from Dallas in November 1963 at the time that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Based on such reporting, he was promoted at CBS News, where he served as White House correspondent beginning in 1964. He served as foreign correspondent in London and Vietnam over the next two years before returning to the White House correspondent position. He covered the presidency of Richard Nixon, including Nixon's trip to China, the Watergate scandal, and the president's resignation.

In 1981, Rather was promoted to news anchor for the CBS Evening News, a role he occupied for 24 years. Along with Peter Jennings at ABC News and Tom Brokaw at NBC News, he was one of the "Big Three" nightly news anchors in the U.S. from the 1980s through the early 2000s. He frequently contributed to CBS's weekly news magazine, 60 Minutes.

Rather left the anchor desk in 2005 following the Killian documents controversy, in which he presented unauthenticated documents in a news report on President George W. Bush's Vietnam War–era service in the National Guard. He continued to work with CBS until 2006, when he was abruptly fired.[1]

In September 2007, Rather filed a $70 million lawsuit against CBS and its former parent company Viacom. Rather accused the network and its ownership and management of making him a "scapegoat" in the Killian story.[2][3] An intermediate New York state appeals court dismissed the lawsuit in September 2009, and the New York Court of Appeals refused to reinstate it in January 2010.[4][5]

On the cable channel AXS TV (then called HDNet), Rather hosted Dan Rather Reports, a 60 Minutes–style investigative news program, from 2006 to 2013.[6] He also hosts several other projects for AXS TV, including Dan Rather Presents, which provides in-depth reporting on broad topics such as mental health care or adoption, and The Big Interview with Dan Rather, in which he conducts long-form interviews with musicians and other entertainers. In January 2018, he began hosting an online newscast called The News with Dan Rather on The Young Turks YouTube channel. Since 2021, he has been writing the newsletter "Steady" on the Substack platform.

In April 2024, Rather was interviewed by correspondent Lee Cowan on Sunday Morning, his first return to CBS News since his 2006 departure.[7]

  1. ^ "Dan Rather: Corporate Media 'Is In Bed With' Washington (VIDEO)". huffpost.com. Verizon Media. May 20, 2012. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
  2. ^ "Dan Rather files $70M suit against CBS", September 19, 2007.
  3. ^ Martinez, Jose (September 29, 2009). "Appeals court tosses Dan Rather's $70M suit against CBS". Daily News. New York.
  4. ^ Appeals court dismisses Dan Rather's suit vs. CBS
  5. ^ Honan, Edith. "Dan Rather loses $70 million lawsuit against CBS". U.S. Retrieved June 29, 2018.
  6. ^ Guthrie, Marisa (October 7, 2015). "Dan Rather Reflects on His Dramatic CBS Exit That Inspired 'Truth': "I Have a Lot of Wounds"". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  7. ^ Alexander, Bryan (April 25, 2024). "Dan Rather returns to CBS: Former anchor profiled on 'Sunday Morning'". USA TODAY. Retrieved April 27, 2024.