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Ask Dan Rather for his reaction to the Mueller Report and he does not hold back.
Theres never been anything like it in the history of the American presidency.
The election of Donald Trump was not going to bring out the diplomat in Dan Rather.
Still, one place he hasnt been welcomed is CBS News.
Thats not to say he doesnt still have strong opinions over what happened.
You worked in the connection news business for decades.
Im wondering what your TV news diet is like now in the internet age.
What do you take in on a regular basis?I am almost an addicted TV news watcher.
You name it, I watch it.
And yes, that includes making myself acquainted with what Fox News puts out.
I catch Jake Tapper in the late afternoon, whenever I can.
Do you think the three data pipe newscasts resemble what you did back when you were anchoring?
They seem like very different beasts to me.Yes, there is some vague similarity.
First of all, its still a half-hour broadcast.
The pace is much faster.
I like all three anchors.
I dont like the word performer, but theyre accomplished deliverers of the news.
I think all three of them ache to do a good job.
Nor do we get as much deep-digging investigative reporting.
Not enough coverage of the hungry, the homeless, the heartbroken, the helpless, and the voiceless.
At one time we had 60, maybe 65 CBS News correspondents.
But these organizations now are only a shell of what they were.
The same even applies to cable news.
Theyve also made a lot of cutbacks.Well, thats true.
They have an international channel in which they do a somewhat better job of it.
But hey dont make that read that Im all over CNN I respect CNN.
They do a rather remarkable job with their far-flung resources.
Youre a regular guest on Rachel Maddows show.
Whats your take?This is false equivalency.
By any reasonable analysis, Fox News is something new in the American experience.
This is a straight-out propaganda outlet for the president whos in the White House.
And its as close as weve ever had to an authoritarian regimes propaganda voice.
Im talking specifically about their prime time.
To venture to strike any equivalency between Maddow and that is frankly not worth discussing.
Maddows opening 25- or 30-minute beginning the combination of research and really good writing is good journalism.
Now, does it have a point of view?
Yes, it has a point of view.
Conservatives have been bashing you since your coverage of the Zapruder film and the Nixon White House.
There was the wholeRather Biasedmeme before we called them memes.
By any objective reading of the record, thats true.
I was, for a while, point on that.
When you rather consistently cover very controversial stories, not everybody is going to love you.
But I did so happily.
You know, I have a record.
The record is now getting a little long since, with Gods grace, Ive lived a long time.
And frankly, I wouldnt have it any other way.
And thats what I tried to do.
But I have no complaints.
You come to realize it goes with the territory.
Thats scarier than a Rather Biased bumper sticker.Absolutely.
When you sawLeslie Moonves depart CBSlast year, Im wondering how you reacted.
I didnt know him particularly well, but I knew more than enough to like him.
And so far as I could make out, he liked me.
Until we got to the point of the Bush story, my relationship with Moonves was just fine.
In fact, I would say, somewhat better than that.
They stood behind Murrow, time after time, when people tried to get him out of the job.
I mean, the whole history of the place was you stood by your reporters.
We made mistakes in getting to the process of getting to the truth, yes.
But we got to the truth.
I was surprised that Moonves would just let me go.
I was stunned by what followed.
Republicans put the pressure on me, so therefore, Moonves caved to the pressure from above.
Thats what I hear from people who know Moonves a lot better than I did.
I never wished Les ill will.
Whatever anybody thinks of my record at CBS News, I earned that record.
And yes, Im quite proud of it.
Despite all that, theres no sense of Schadenfreude that Moonves left in disgrace?No, no.
Widely believed it may be, but truly theres not.
I didnt have any of those feelings.
One thing to keep in mind: Its been a long time now since I left CBS News.
Its in my rearview mirror.
Its so far behind me, I dont even see it in the rearview mirror anymore.
So I can truly say I didnt have any of those feelings at all.
I want to go back to the early 2000s.
CNN made a really big play to woo you from CBS.
They offered you a lot of money and an hour-long newscast.
It was at least $6 million.
Very, very tempting.
And I did say to CBS, Look, I have to think seriously about going.
I thought about it.
But in the final analysis, I just couldnt see myself leaving CBS News.
Only my wife could attest to that, but nonetheless.
I have no idea what might have happened if I had gone to CNN at that time.
But I was happy at CBS News.
And I really believed in the traditions and history and mystique of CBS News.
She was pretty upset when she was forced off the broadcast.
Whats the status of your relationship with her?
Has it been mended?I liked Connie Chung the first day she came to CBS News.
I remember when she came to the Washington bureau.
I didnt think the idea of having a double anchor was a good idea.
It wasnt anything personal with Connie; I just didnt think it worked.
Maybe some of it was because of me, but we had a dip in the ratings.
More than a dip.
Their argument was it might improve our demographics and so forth.
For a lot of different reasons, it just never worked.
But our ratings went down rather than up, in my recollection.
Thats pretty much the end of that story.
Whats the relationship like with her now?
Have you talked to her recently?I have.
Ive seen her from time to time, and get along with her just fine.
Another thing Ive always been curious about is when you began signing off with the word courage.
What was the story behind that?Well fortunately, its a short story.
My fathers favorite word was courage.
My mothers favorite word was meadow.
Youre not gonna sign off any broadcast with meadow and expect to stay on the air.
From time to time on theEvening News, we came up with idea [for sign-offs].
One of them was, And thats part of our world tonight.
Dan Rather reporting, which was sort of a committee decision.
Well, that went nowhere.
But courage meant something very personal to me, not that Ive always had it.
Some would say Ive never had it.
So the time came, and I thought,You know, courage is a good, strong word.
Im gonna try it.
Fair to say, a lot of stuff hit the fan when I did so.
Corporate side didnt like it, and its fair to say that nobody in the upper echelons liked it.
I stuck with it for a week, maybe as long as ten days.
But it finally came down to the point where I was told, Either courage goes or you go.
It sure made sense at that point.And I still like it.
Your show on AXS TV, The Big Interview,just startedits seventh season.
Before that, you spent something like four decades at CBS News, going one-on-one with just about everyone.
Is there anyone left on your interview bucket list?You bet.
I have a long list, but Ill just give you a few names, in no particular order.
Elton John, who I did interview some years ago but Id love to get him back on.
Beyonce, Id go to hell and back to interview her.
I dont want to get too maudlin, but is there a way you would summarize your legacy?
A way that you want people to remember you?Uh, no.
Truthfully, I dont think about legacy.
Television, although those of us who work in it dont want to think so, its ephemeral.
If you find a cure for polio or cancer, youre gonna have a legacy.
I dont expect anyone will little note nor certainly long remember anything that Ive done.
Id love to be remembered as somebody who cared about God, country, family, and worked hard.
The founding saint of electronic journalism is Ed Murrow terrific in every category.
So, I dont get up in the morning thinking about legacy.
Im not thinking about legacy.
I need to go.
Thank you so much, Mr. Rather.Well, I thank you very much.
I appreciate your time, I appreciate your interest.
If you have some time, drop around, well have a cup of coffee.
In the meantime, if you need bail money, call me.
