What You Didn't Know About Dan Rather

In the annals of television news, there are few figures who loom larger than Dan Rather. Boasting a journalism career that extends from the 1950s to the present, Rather reached the pinnacle of success in the world of broadcast journalism, succeeding the legendary Walter Cronkite as anchor of "CBS Evening News." Along the way, Rather has "covered every election since 1964" and headed into the field to report on "crises and conflicts on five continents" (per the University of Texas at Austin's Briscoe Center for American History).

When Rather's career in network news came to a screeching halt due to a controversial piece of reporting about an American president, Rather didn't fade away; instead, he started anew at an upstart cable channel that allowed him to reinvent himself while retaining the decades of journalistic experience and credibility he'd built up to that point. 

Even though he's been a ubiquitous figure on the small screen for seven decades and counting, there's much to discover about the Texas-born journalist. Read on to learn what you didn't know about Dan Rather.

Dan Rather joined CBS News in 1962, eventually serving "[a]s chief of the Southern bureau," per Dan Rather's Briscoe Center biography. As it happened, he was on the ground in 1963 when then-President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Rather, in fact, was the first journalist to break the news that Kennedy had died. "My reporter's experience kicked in," Rather told KERA News of how he was able to confirm the president's death, well ahead of the official statement from the White House. "I managed to get through by phone to Parkland Hospital and that along with a number of other things led us to break a story that the president was dead long before the official announcement."

That tragic day proved to be a monumental one for Rather's career, propelling him to national attention and leading him to climb the ladder at CBS News. Yet, he told KERA News, the assassination had remained "a traumatic and cataclysmic event for me personally and for the country."

Decades later, Rather continued to be affected by that grim day in American history. "Well, the emotional impact, use whatever metaphor you want," Rather said in an interview with the Television Academy Foundation. "It's like a safe had fallen on me from 12 stories, [like] I had been hit by a Mack concrete truck or something. It was a tremendous hammer to the heart."

In 1993, CBS decided that its flagship news broadcast needed a bit of shaking up. As the The Washington Post reported, this resulted in Rather being joined by a co-anchor, Connie Chung. There were some colleagues who felt she was the wrong choice for "CBS Evening News," and they shared their concerns with the Post — anonymously, of course. "She's very bright but has absolutely no interest in news," snarked one, while another added, "She hasn't read a book in 20 years."

This on-air marriage of convenience was short-lived. In 1995, Entertainment Weekly reported that Chung was unceremoniously axed. Chung claimed her firing was due to sexism. Others, however, insisted the problem was that she simply didn't have the journalistic bona fides typically expected in that type of position. Rather seemingly backed that up when he scoffed at her journalistic credentials, per the The Washington Post. "Two trips to the Mideast do not make you a foreign correspondent," he said, adding, "I did on several occasions encourage her, not in any patronizing way, that to be really connected with the news, you really do have to read."

Decades later, Chung shared her not-fond recollections of working alongside Rather with Los Angeles Magazine's "The Originals" podcast with Andrew Goldman. "If I turned my back, I felt like I might be in a scene of 'Psycho' in the shower," she said. Connie Chung admitted, "I probably still hold a deep grudge."

Two years after his ignominious exit from CBS News, Dan Rather struck back with some blockbuster litigation, hitting his former employer with a $70 million wrongful dismissal suit in 2007. The lawsuit, via an archived Fox News report, alleged that CBS had positioned Rather — who wasn't responsible for the reporting or vetting of information — as the "scapegoat" in order to "'pacify' the White House." CBS made Dan Rather apologize and "intentionally caused the public and the media to attribute CBS' alleged bungling of the episode to Mr. Rather," the lawsuit claimed. Rather was seeking "$20 million in compensatory damages and $50 million in punitive damages." A CBS spokesperson dismissed Rather's "complaints" as "old news," adding that "this lawsuit is without merit."

When the legal dustup finally concluded in 2009, it was CBS, not Rather, declaring victory. After a lower court denied the network's request to discard Rather's suit, CBS lawyers appealed to the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division. As Reuters reported, that court ruled Rather's suit "should be dismissed in its entirety," and CBS reportedly characterized the case as "effectively over."

Rather appealed the decision, but in 2010, that appeal was denied. "Nobody likes to lose," a defiant Rather told the Los Angeles Times. "But I thought carefully before I went into this. I decided, win or lose, some things are worth fighting for. And this is worth fighting for. And I have no intention of giving up the fight."

Dan Rather has proven himself to be an adept interviewer, querying some of the world's best-known people, ranging from heads of state to rock stars and more. In an interview with Vox, Rather was asked if he had a "secret for getting someone in the moment," and he offered a plainspoken and somewhat Rather-esque response. 

"There really aren't any secrets. I wish I had some secrets. I think what your mother and father always taught you about a firm handshake and look a person in the eye when they first come into the room. ...trying to make strong eye contact, sometimes helps," he said. 

However, Rather also revealed he did have a few tricks up his sleeve when it came to focusing a recalcitrant subject whose mind may not be entirely present for the interview. When encountering that, Rather suggested asking "your most unexpected question and the question that requires the [deepest] look inside themselves... one way of getting them in the moment is to surprise them a little with maybe a personal question. 'We'll talk about who you are as a professional or a politician later, but who are you as a person?' That kind of question sometimes will jerk the person into the moment." 

In addition to his reputation as a dogged journalist, Dan Rather also became famous for his folksy on-air sayings, which came to be known as

"Ratherisms." They included such gems as political races that were "hotter than a Times Square Rolex," or "as tight as the rusted lug nuts on a '55 Ford."

During a 2019 appearance on NPR's quiz show "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!," Rather was put to the test when he was presented with three folksy sayings, with only one of them his own. He was then tasked with identifying which were his actual words and which were made-up "Ratherisms." Rather proved that he could remember his own words, correctly guessing that he had uttered the phrases, "If a frog had side pockets, he'd carry a handgun," and, "This race is tight like a too-small bathing suit in a too-long ride home from the beach." He did not, however, remember saying, "If Clinton wins Florida, this race will go faster than a 'Hamilton' ticket at face value."

During his appearance, Rather also revealed that his sayings originated from his experience working in Texas oil fields as a youth. "This is the way men talk with one another," Rather explained. "You know, you can only say it's hot as hell so many times... So as the day wears on, you say, you know, it's hotter than a Laredo parking lot or some way to use colorful language."

Arguably the weirdest incident in Dan Rather's storied career came in 1986, when he was accosted by apparent muggers near his home on Manhattan's Park Avenue. As The New York Times reported, Rather recounted being "chased, punched and kicked by two well-dressed men" who repeatedly uttered the phrase, "Kenneth, what is the frequency?"

Nearly a decade later, rock band R.E.M. recorded their 1994 single "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?," referencing the weird phrase allegedly uttered by Rather's assailants. While Rather was routinely mocked about the phrase and his bizarre encounter, he proved to have a sense of humor about it when he joined R.E.M. onstage during "Late Night with David Letterman" to duet the song with frontman Michael Stipe. 

Years later, Rather sat down with Stipe and R.E.M. bass player Mike Mills for his AXS TV series "The Big Interview." According to Stipe, who wrote the song, the band borrowed the phrase because it "represents inscrutability. It's the big question — no one knew what it meant. It represented trying, and trying, and trying but not arriving at any answer." Stipe also applauded Rather for being "such a good sport," remembering the time he sang with the band, although Rather thought of his performance as "one of my more embarrassing moments, because you know I can't sing at all." Deadpanned Stipe, "We figured that out in the moment, yeah."

Dan Rather has been one of the many celebrities to be skewered on "Family Guy" and was once parodied memorably. In the scene, Rather's clipped vocal manner and sibilant pronunciation of words beginning with the letter "S" is spoofed when the animated Rather reads a news story declaring that "seven Saudi soldiers sodomized several of Saddam's southern settlement squatters." As Rather reads, each "S" becomes an increasingly longer whistle until steam finally begins blowing out of Rather's ear like a tea kettle.

In a Reddit AMA (via Waywire), Rather is seen watching the brief scene, having never seen it before. Rather begins to heartily laugh out loud when the visual punchline is revealed, when a stagehand enters the frame to lift up the animated news anchor and move him to another seat, thus causing the steam to subside. "So that's your reaction," an off-camera voice asks Rather of his laughter. "Exactly!" Rather declares.