Dan Rather: A Reporter Remembers

Newsman Looks Back At 44-Year Career At CBS News

(CBS) 
In 1975, Rather says Mike Wallace asked him to join 60 Minutes, which later became the most successful broadcast in television history. "We did develop a reputation for doing investigative pieces," says Rather. "It was always about the story -- is this a good story?"

And on March 9, 1981, Rather became anchor of CBS Evening News.

"Once I was told by a high-ranking CBS executive, 'Dan, you're a good reporter, but I don't think you're an anchor. And I don't think you'll ever become one," recalls Rather. "I remember walking out of his office saying, 'Well, you know, nobody ever said that to me.' And yeah, maybe I shouldn't be proud of it. I said, 'I'm going to set out to show him I can be.'"

Long-time anchor Walter Cronkite concluded his last night as anchor of CBS Evening News with this statement: "And that's the way it is Friday, March 6, 1981. I'll be away on assignment, and Dan Rather will be sitting in here for the next few years. Good night."

"I had been told that the first person after Cronkite is going to get his head blown off. Nobody succeeds Walter Cronkite," says Rather. "And what was on my mind was, accept that you have some shortcomings as an anchor and go into this as something new to learn. And try to stay true. Try to be with what brought you."

Rather says what got him the job, and what brought him to the job, was field reporting: "In my own mind, it was REPORTER -- anchor second."

"I was sure glad when that Monday was over. I remember after, mentally -- well, the first night's over," says Rather. "Now, let's take a deep breath, suck it up and get to work."

As anchor, Rather covered the assassination attempt on President Reagan; the royal wedding of Prince Charles and the Princess Diana of Wales; the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger; and Iran-Contra.

In January 1988, Rather interviewed then-Vice President George H.W. Bush. "My determination to be a reporter-anchor, not just a hothouse-plant-in-a-studio kind of anchor, created 'trouble,'" says Rather.

"Iran-Contra was another case of people wanting to keep secret things that citizens had the right to know. The question was whether the top echelons of the United States government had sent some of our very best advanced weapons to the mullahs in Iran, the same people in Iran who'd taken our fellow citizens hostage, who were committed to our destruction."

"Get the money from these death-to-America mullahs for the weapons and then use the money for a secret war they were trying to run in Central America," says Rather. "That's a story. That's something people deserve to know about."

Rather says then-Vice President Bush "had some knowledge of getting some of our most technologically advanced missiles to the Iranians."

In response to Rather's questions, Bush said: "I thought I was here to talk about my views on education, or on getting this deficit down."

The interview, which was live, became heated. "I can be faulted for, maybe I pressed too hard. Maybe I didn't press in the right way," says Rather, looking back at that interview, which made headline news: "Bushwhacked!" "Slugfest."

"About last night's interview with George Bush, trying to ask honest questions and trying to be persistent about answers is part of a reporter's job," said Rather, on CBS Evening News.

"I was news president then. Did I think it was disrespectful? Obviously, you don't want to be disrespectful," says Sir Howard Stringer, former president of CBS News, looking back at the controversial interview. "The tension between administrations and reporters should be acute. It's in the nature of journalism."

Of Rather's role as anchor of CBS Evening News, Stringer says, "Dan in essence, his personality resists the idea of anchor. The pursuit of the story was of paramount interest. Anchor, in some way, feels like a more passive role. The very word says stuck at the bottom of the sea."

"You are there to be reassuring to be stable, and firm. The authority figure," says Stringer. "Whereas Dan comes out of that reportorial tradition, which means, 'Take me to the front. Show me where the danger is. Give me a door to knock down. Give me a story to find.'"