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| Birth Name(s) : Daniel Irvin Rather Jr. |
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Full Dan Rather Biography
Daniel Irvin Rather, Jr. (born October 31, 1931) is a 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 the network itself in 2006. On September 19, 2007, Rather filed a $70 million lawsuit against the network, its former parent company Viacom Inc., and three of his former bosses. Rather said he was denied airtime on 60 Minutes, among other complaints outlined in the lawsuit, CBS Radio reported.
Rather was born in Wharton, Texas, the son of Daniel Irvin Rather Sr. and his wife, the former Byrl Veda Page. After moving to Houston, Texas, Rather attended Love Elementary School, Hamilton Middle School, and Reagan High School. 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. Also 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. After obtaining his bachelor's, he briefly attended South Texas College of Law, which later awarded him an honorary JD in 1990.
In early September 1961, Rather reported live from the Galveston Seawall as Hurricane Carla threatened the Texas coastline. This action, 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 TV stations didn't 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.
At the end of Rather's time as anchor, the CBS Evening News was 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 Bush's military record; numerous critics questioned the authenticity of the documents upon which the report was based. Rather retired under pressure as the anchor of the CBS Evening News at 7:00 eastern time, 9 March 2005.
CBS apparently considered firing Rather; its news president met with administration official John Ehrlichman to discuss the situation. 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.
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). 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.
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.
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). 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".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: |
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