The simple reason behind bringing you the story of American reporter and anchor Dan Rather is the word ‘courage’. He use to sign off his news bulletins with that word. To have courage is significant for reporters, especially for Indian journalists, some of whom don’t even show the courage to ask a follow-up question at a news conference or during an interview with government leaders, and just report what they said. The widespread presumption in New Delhi is that no TV channel wants to annoy the government by asking tough questions like ‘Why didn’t the government try to get back the money siphoned off by the officials who were jailed for their alleged roles in different scandals?’
With the rumble in his voice and an unwavering quest for the truth, Dan was the ace reporter working for Walter Cronkite’s CBS Evening News. He came across as a tough newsman who put a lot of hard work to get the top story of the day to CBS’s viewers, and eventually, in 1981, he took Cronkite’s place.
Early on, people like me did not like Dan, because he came across as very stiff and arrogant, and never smiled. But when I met him for an interview, I saw in him an honest, hard-working, warm and sincere person. His life story that I tried to capture in the interview also shows how hard work alone cannot bring you success until fate and destiny are also on your side. You may be the right person for a job, but you also have to be at the right place at the right time. He was handpicked by CBS News after he became the only reporter who risked his life to be on the scene when America’s most dangerous Hurricane Carla hit the coastal town of Galveston, Texas. His nose for news took him there before the storm hit and once it hit no other reporter could even enter the town. The local station happened to be a CBS Affiliate and CBS News used Dan’s footage and reports on their shows and later offered Dan a job at the head quarters that he could not refuse. He joined CBS in 1962.
So Dan Rather, who as a child used to hawk copies of a local newspaper on street corners, happened to be the head of the CBS Network’s Southwest bureau in Dallas, where President John F Kennedy was assassinated. Dan recalled how CBS ran a special bulletin after Kennedy’s shooting, and Cronkite was shown on screen with a landline telephone on the table, telling viewers that Dan is on the scene in Dallas, and he will call him on that phone any minute about the condition of the President. Rather was at the hospital where the President was being treated. He saw a priest come out of Kennedy’s hospital room.
When he asked him about the President’s condition, the priest just lowered his eyes and left without saying a word. Although it was enough indication that he was dead, the news was not yet confirmed. Minutes later, Dan phoned Cronkite and told him about the incident. Cronkite immediately put the phone down and announced on the air that the President had died.
Although the report was true, the basic two-source principle of news gathering had been violated. The fate was again on Dan’s side and he is still known as the reporter who broke the news about Kennedy’s death. When asked about what inspires him, Dan’s answer was any single mother working three jobs to take care of her family, any policemen walking in dark alleys alone at night, and leaders such as Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela.
He comes across as very concerned about what he calls politicization, trivialization, and corporatization of journalism. His biggest concern today is that 6% of US corporations control 80% of news distribution.
In an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman just days after September 11, Rather burst into tears twice, apologizing, “I’m a professional. I get paid not to do that.” Letterman took his hand and responded, “Yeah, you’re a professional, but good Christ, you’re also a human being.”
Rather lost his anchor chair at CBS in 2005, when he did not adhere to his own standards of accuracy of the news. He used documents that purported to show then President George W Bush received preferential treatment during his years in the Texas Air National Guard. But the authenticity of the documents was almost immediately questioned and no one could vouch their veracity. An independent panel that probed the goof-up, concluded that CBS News failed to follow basic journalistic principles in the preparation and reporting of the piece.
When Rather left CBS in March, 2005, he said he is not retiring. He again signed off his final newscast with a call for ‘courage’, and later anchored his own show on another TV channel.
(Author/analyst Ravi M. Khanna has covered South Asia for Voice of America from Washington and New Delhi for more than 24 years.)
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