1 00:00:53,178 --> 00:00:56,139 Sometimes you investigate, you get to the end of the alley, 2 00:00:56,222 --> 00:00:58,183 and what you thought was there is not there. 3 00:01:02,979 --> 00:01:04,230 To get to the truth, 4 00:01:04,314 --> 00:01:07,901 or as close to the truth as is humanly possible to get, 5 00:01:08,735 --> 00:01:10,904 requires a lot of persistence. 6 00:01:13,406 --> 00:01:17,702 And also you have to be prepared to pay the consequences, 7 00:01:19,162 --> 00:01:23,958 that any very controversial story one does involving powerful people, 8 00:01:24,626 --> 00:01:28,338 eventually you're going to have to face the furnace and take the heat, 9 00:01:28,421 --> 00:01:30,340 and unless you're prepared to do that, 10 00:01:31,466 --> 00:01:33,593 then you need to get another line of work. 11 00:01:38,223 --> 00:01:40,975 Testing, testing, testing, testing, testing testing. 12 00:01:41,059 --> 00:01:44,521 Dan Rather has become the symbol of television journalism. 13 00:01:44,604 --> 00:01:47,690 ♪ From uptight, short-sighted Narrow-minded hypocrites ♪ 14 00:01:47,774 --> 00:01:50,610 - ♪ All I want is the truth ♪ - ♪ Truth ♪ 15 00:01:50,693 --> 00:01:53,780 - ♪ Just gimme some truth ♪ - ♪ Truth ♪ 16 00:01:53,863 --> 00:01:55,448 Live from Tiananmen Square… 17 00:01:55,532 --> 00:01:56,574 …from Baghdad, Iraq. 18 00:01:56,658 --> 00:01:58,785 …near the Cambodian border, South Vietnam. 19 00:01:58,868 --> 00:02:02,122 It's in the nature of reporters and politicians not to get along. 20 00:02:02,205 --> 00:02:03,373 That goes with the territory. 21 00:02:03,456 --> 00:02:06,376 - Are you running for something? - No, sir, Mr. President. Are you? 22 00:02:08,586 --> 00:02:11,381 Rather is just a son of a bitch, don't you think? 23 00:02:11,464 --> 00:02:14,008 How I see myself is as a watch dog. 24 00:02:14,092 --> 00:02:16,845 I'm not an attack dog, I'm not out to get anybody, 25 00:02:16,928 --> 00:02:18,138 but I'm not a lap dog either. 26 00:02:18,221 --> 00:02:21,307 Don't push me take your hands off of me unless you plan to arrest me. 27 00:02:22,851 --> 00:02:26,020 The fact that Dan Rather is located by some people 28 00:02:26,104 --> 00:02:27,981 as a uniquely malevolent figure 29 00:02:28,064 --> 00:02:30,233 is merely evidence that he has done his job. 30 00:02:30,984 --> 00:02:32,569 When people talk about liberal media, 31 00:02:32,652 --> 00:02:36,322 a lot of times they're really talking literally about Dan Rather, the man. 32 00:02:36,406 --> 00:02:38,783 This lady thinks Dan Rather's ears should be pinned back. 33 00:02:38,867 --> 00:02:41,786 I've always found Dan Rather to be a little odd. 34 00:02:41,870 --> 00:02:44,414 She ran away with it like a hobo with a sweet potato pie. 35 00:02:44,497 --> 00:02:45,665 Yeah! 36 00:02:48,418 --> 00:02:52,630 ♪ Truth, truth, truth, truth, truth ♪ 37 00:02:52,714 --> 00:02:56,509 It was a big mistake, but does it mean the end of Dan Rather? 38 00:02:57,302 --> 00:02:59,804 Rather now became the story. 39 00:02:59,888 --> 00:03:03,808 It was a damaging moment for media culture. 40 00:03:04,434 --> 00:03:06,686 Rather, the godfather of modern media fake news 41 00:03:06,769 --> 00:03:09,272 talking about how this is the greatest crisis we've ever seen 42 00:03:09,355 --> 00:03:11,792 - in modern political history. - From that point on 43 00:03:11,816 --> 00:03:15,820 it really is the start of a different kind of journalistic world. 44 00:03:19,365 --> 00:03:22,744 My teenagers don't even watch evening news, 45 00:03:22,827 --> 00:03:23,995 but they know Dan Rather. 46 00:03:24,078 --> 00:03:26,748 The level of shade on this man… Whew! 47 00:03:26,831 --> 00:03:29,167 Do you not give a shit anymore, Dan? 48 00:03:29,250 --> 00:03:31,461 Short answer: No. 49 00:03:36,257 --> 00:03:38,927 ♪ All I want is the truth ♪ 50 00:03:45,391 --> 00:03:47,518 ♪ All I want is the truth ♪ 51 00:03:48,353 --> 00:03:50,980 ♪ Just give me some truth ♪ 52 00:03:57,320 --> 00:04:01,950 I've never known why it is that I aspired to be a reporter. 53 00:04:03,785 --> 00:04:07,497 The best guess that I can come up with is that because my mother and father 54 00:04:07,580 --> 00:04:09,666 were so riveted to newspapers. 55 00:04:09,749 --> 00:04:13,294 Newspapers were around the house, they were discussing newspapers. 56 00:04:13,378 --> 00:04:16,714 At an early age, I came to believe newspapers must be important. 57 00:04:16,798 --> 00:04:21,177 So the dream for me was always to be "a reporter." 58 00:04:22,262 --> 00:04:23,972 Keep in mind at that time, 59 00:04:24,055 --> 00:04:26,975 being a reporter basically meant being a newspaper person. 60 00:04:28,518 --> 00:04:32,021 The television news revolution was only just beginning. 61 00:04:33,940 --> 00:04:38,111 There were the three TV networks: CBS, ABC and NBC. 62 00:04:39,070 --> 00:04:41,781 CBS was known as the Tiffany Network. 63 00:04:41,864 --> 00:04:45,118 They were the gold standard, and there wasn't a lot of choice. 64 00:04:45,994 --> 00:04:50,873 The benefit of that was that everybody had the same grounding in reality. 65 00:04:52,250 --> 00:04:55,795 CBS News built an amazing organization and reputation. 66 00:04:56,504 --> 00:04:59,757 Literally were like The New York Times of television. 67 00:04:59,841 --> 00:05:03,720 This is the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. 68 00:05:03,803 --> 00:05:05,930 There may be something brewing in Cuba, 69 00:05:06,014 --> 00:05:08,141 besides coffee, that is. For the first time… 70 00:05:08,224 --> 00:05:11,978 Walter Cronkite was the most admired man in America, 71 00:05:12,061 --> 00:05:14,480 and he developed a bipartisan following. 72 00:05:15,273 --> 00:05:19,986 There was a widespread belief among the people who owned the networks 73 00:05:20,069 --> 00:05:23,114 that a network news division was a public trust. 74 00:05:25,867 --> 00:05:31,456 There's an enormous responsibility that goes with being a broadcaster, 75 00:05:31,539 --> 00:05:36,461 that you're talking to literally 20 million people. 76 00:05:37,086 --> 00:05:40,256 Here is Dan Rather speaking directly from Galveston. 77 00:05:40,339 --> 00:05:46,339 As of the moment, Hurricane Carla is spotted near latitude 26.0 north 78 00:05:46,554 --> 00:05:50,808 and 92.9 west, that's 255 miles southeast of… 79 00:05:52,268 --> 00:05:55,688 I was the news director broadcasting live from Galveston. 80 00:05:57,774 --> 00:05:59,859 The story became a national story, 81 00:05:59,942 --> 00:06:03,905 and first CBS News began monitoring what we were doing. 82 00:06:04,822 --> 00:06:08,076 These are by far the calmest people in a flood I've ever seen. 83 00:06:08,159 --> 00:06:12,830 We superimposed a scale map of the Texas coast 84 00:06:12,914 --> 00:06:17,001 onto the Galveston radar image of this gigantic storm 85 00:06:17,085 --> 00:06:19,587 which put the storm in perspective. 86 00:06:21,923 --> 00:06:23,508 Nobody had ever done it before. 87 00:06:24,592 --> 00:06:27,178 About half a million people took one look at it 88 00:06:27,261 --> 00:06:29,680 and basically fled to higher ground. 89 00:06:32,225 --> 00:06:36,020 That job at the television station as anchor 90 00:06:36,104 --> 00:06:39,065 had resulted in our coverage of the hurricane, 91 00:06:39,148 --> 00:06:44,028 which CBS had seen and as result of that hired me, 92 00:06:44,112 --> 00:06:49,242 and so by 1962 I'm working at CBS News. 93 00:06:50,618 --> 00:06:53,913 But very quickly having gone to New York, 94 00:06:53,996 --> 00:06:56,916 moved back to Dallas to open the Dallas Bureau, 95 00:06:56,999 --> 00:06:59,919 and the biggest, most important running domestic story 96 00:07:00,002 --> 00:07:01,379 was Dr. Martin Luther King 97 00:07:01,462 --> 00:07:03,923 and the early stages of the civil rights movement. 98 00:07:06,884 --> 00:07:10,263 The Negroes who live in this rural area have been told for years 99 00:07:10,346 --> 00:07:12,974 that that moss-covered oak back there, 100 00:07:13,057 --> 00:07:16,394 was a hanging tree during the time of the Civil War. 101 00:07:17,603 --> 00:07:21,399 I think my dad had a certain destiny that he listened to. 102 00:07:21,482 --> 00:07:23,860 He had a calling to do what he does. 103 00:07:23,943 --> 00:07:26,696 My dad is a deeply, deeply religious person. 104 00:07:26,779 --> 00:07:28,698 - Start walking. - Right. 105 00:07:28,781 --> 00:07:32,326 My dad reads the Bible often. It's a source of comfort to him. 106 00:07:32,952 --> 00:07:36,164 His faith, that you love your fellow man, 107 00:07:36,247 --> 00:07:40,501 and his particular way of showing love is reporting. 108 00:07:43,254 --> 00:07:45,548 The Albany Movement depends on these people, 109 00:07:46,257 --> 00:07:47,508 they are the heart of it. 110 00:07:48,551 --> 00:07:51,596 This is Dan Rather in Albany, Georgia. 111 00:08:02,815 --> 00:08:06,027 ♪ Oh, sinnerman, where you gonna run to? ♪ 112 00:08:06,777 --> 00:08:09,447 ♪ Sinnerman, where you gonna run to? ♪ 113 00:08:11,365 --> 00:08:13,784 The violence against us, 114 00:08:13,868 --> 00:08:19,868 the destruction of any little sense of progress and prosperity that we had, 115 00:08:20,958 --> 00:08:22,793 just to keep people down, 116 00:08:23,544 --> 00:08:26,923 that was not known until television came. 117 00:08:27,882 --> 00:08:29,592 There was a lot of violence, 118 00:08:29,675 --> 00:08:35,014 women, children, older men, threatened, beaten, 119 00:08:35,765 --> 00:08:38,893 dogs turned loose on them, fire hoses turned loose on them. 120 00:08:39,477 --> 00:08:43,231 Klan rallies at night. Terrible Klan rallies. 121 00:08:43,314 --> 00:08:45,775 You got a bunch of people standing right over here 122 00:08:45,858 --> 00:08:48,611 with their cameras and their news things. 123 00:08:48,694 --> 00:08:52,114 Half of them ain't got enough backbone to get them a job and go to work. 124 00:08:52,198 --> 00:08:53,866 They'll print half of the story. 125 00:08:53,950 --> 00:08:55,910 They ain't got enough backbone to tell the truth. 126 00:08:55,993 --> 00:08:58,913 Anybody that lies with the devil will die and go to hell without God. 127 00:09:01,374 --> 00:09:05,253 The sights, sounds, smells… 128 00:09:05,336 --> 00:09:10,258 I do remember even the smell of the wooden cross burning. 129 00:09:10,341 --> 00:09:13,344 And I defy anyone to go to a Klan rally 130 00:09:13,427 --> 00:09:17,682 and not be deeply affected by what it really represented. 131 00:09:17,765 --> 00:09:19,559 Deep hate. 132 00:09:19,642 --> 00:09:20,935 ♪ Oh, yeah… ♪ 133 00:09:21,936 --> 00:09:24,772 For the first time I began to understand 134 00:09:24,855 --> 00:09:28,818 what this emerging civil rights movement was about, 135 00:09:28,901 --> 00:09:32,697 and I began to see up-close, personal, 136 00:09:32,780 --> 00:09:38,578 bear witness to the violence of institutionalized racism. 137 00:09:40,454 --> 00:09:41,998 If the bombings do not stop, 138 00:09:42,665 --> 00:09:47,712 someone is going to be confronted with a full-scale race riot here, 139 00:09:47,795 --> 00:09:51,674 because I know of people personally that's not going to be tolerated with, 140 00:09:51,757 --> 00:09:54,510 bombing in their sleep and shooting them on the streets. 141 00:09:57,805 --> 00:10:01,017 CBS was called the Colored Broadcasting System, 142 00:10:01,100 --> 00:10:03,394 the Communist Broadcasting System. 143 00:10:03,477 --> 00:10:05,563 Station after station wouldn't feed our material, 144 00:10:05,646 --> 00:10:08,190 some stations wouldn't carry the CBS Evening News. 145 00:10:09,775 --> 00:10:12,778 We were often accused of being liberal in the news media. 146 00:10:12,862 --> 00:10:15,740 That's what a journalist is, a seeker of causes, 147 00:10:15,823 --> 00:10:18,117 but we, I believe, presented the truth. 148 00:10:18,909 --> 00:10:22,330 Mr. Singleman, you must be aware that at least one Northern newspaper 149 00:10:22,413 --> 00:10:25,833 has termed you a bigot and a racist. What's your reaction to that? 150 00:10:25,916 --> 00:10:27,501 They can call me anything they want 151 00:10:27,585 --> 00:10:30,046 as long as they don't call me too late for dinner. 152 00:10:31,922 --> 00:10:34,759 We always had our demonstrations in the morning. 153 00:10:35,468 --> 00:10:37,970 We had to be through by twelve o'clock 154 00:10:38,054 --> 00:10:40,222 because they'd have to take-off 155 00:10:40,306 --> 00:10:43,392 and fly the news back to New York every day. 156 00:10:46,312 --> 00:10:49,690 I was very impressed with Dr. King from the moment I met him. 157 00:10:50,775 --> 00:10:55,863 I had never seen anyone up close and personal that heroic. 158 00:10:55,946 --> 00:10:59,033 Now let's move out or you're under arrest. Either one now. 159 00:10:59,116 --> 00:11:04,121 Moment to moment, on the razor's edge of lethal danger. 160 00:11:06,332 --> 00:11:12,332 The fear that I felt seeing this deep hate changed me as a person, 161 00:11:13,923 --> 00:11:15,966 and changed me as a professional. 162 00:11:17,468 --> 00:11:20,554 The press was hated almost as much as we were 163 00:11:20,638 --> 00:11:24,975 so it required a lot of courage just to tell the story, 164 00:11:25,059 --> 00:11:27,937 because the same people that were beating us up, 165 00:11:28,020 --> 00:11:29,397 started beating them up. 166 00:11:31,565 --> 00:11:33,692 Then there was guilt, 167 00:11:33,776 --> 00:11:35,736 something nobody really likes to talk about. 168 00:11:37,655 --> 00:11:40,282 I have the job I dreamed of doing, 169 00:11:41,200 --> 00:11:45,162 but I did have those moments, and I said, "Easy for you, Dan." 170 00:11:46,956 --> 00:11:49,041 "Should you just quit this work" 171 00:11:49,125 --> 00:11:53,462 "and become part of the active effort to change this?" 172 00:11:55,631 --> 00:12:00,886 As a journalist you're not saying, "Damn it, I want this to be fixed" 173 00:12:00,970 --> 00:12:04,265 or "Damn it, I'm going to cause the change." 174 00:12:04,348 --> 00:12:06,642 You're showing people what happens, 175 00:12:06,725 --> 00:12:08,978 they decide what to do with that information. 176 00:12:09,061 --> 00:12:11,981 Savannah, Georgia which has had more racial violence 177 00:12:12,064 --> 00:12:15,860 the past few weeks than any other city in the Deep South is not… 178 00:12:15,943 --> 00:12:18,612 The role I'm in as being a chronicler of this, 179 00:12:18,696 --> 00:12:20,531 being an eyewitness to it 180 00:12:20,614 --> 00:12:24,160 and bringing it to people's screens, is important work. 181 00:12:24,869 --> 00:12:27,329 This is Dan Rather in Savannah, Georgia. 182 00:12:31,876 --> 00:12:34,879 It was very difficult as reporters 183 00:12:34,962 --> 00:12:38,466 during this period covering Dr. King and the movement. 184 00:12:39,967 --> 00:12:44,763 On the one hand, you wanna be an honest broker of information. 185 00:12:46,098 --> 00:12:51,061 On the other hand, some of the things were so outrageous, so disturbing, 186 00:12:52,188 --> 00:12:55,441 there was a constant struggle within yourself to say, 187 00:12:55,524 --> 00:12:57,735 "Remember what your role is here." 188 00:12:59,695 --> 00:13:03,324 You wanna be the witness, that's your job, 189 00:13:04,533 --> 00:13:06,785 and you're trained as a journalist to do it, 190 00:13:08,204 --> 00:13:11,123 and for me that all started in Houston. 191 00:13:12,541 --> 00:13:13,626 Stand by, please. 192 00:13:20,591 --> 00:13:25,638 I began working at the radio station KTRH, 50,000-watt, 193 00:13:25,721 --> 00:13:28,307 Voice of the Golden Gulf Coast in Houston. 194 00:13:29,225 --> 00:13:33,521 I've gotten a job there beginning in late 1954. 195 00:13:34,396 --> 00:13:37,942 I was on the air, I was doing play-by-play work. 196 00:13:38,025 --> 00:13:41,111 - Again, Dan Rather. - Houston leads… 197 00:13:41,195 --> 00:13:45,616 All that experience at the tiny radio station 198 00:13:45,699 --> 00:13:48,244 paid enormous dividends later on, 199 00:13:48,327 --> 00:13:53,082 because I was in the process of making myself a strong ad-libber, 200 00:13:53,666 --> 00:13:56,293 frequently with no script, 201 00:13:56,377 --> 00:14:01,090 and that gave me the confidence that I could talk and describe 202 00:14:01,173 --> 00:14:03,259 and create word pictures, 203 00:14:03,926 --> 00:14:09,890 and I don't think I would've made it in television without that ability. 204 00:14:11,183 --> 00:14:14,353 It was fast becoming a kind of dream job for me, 205 00:14:15,145 --> 00:14:18,357 but from time to time, you know, I certainly wanted a family, 206 00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:23,988 and there came to work at the radio station Jean Grace Goebel. 207 00:14:24,613 --> 00:14:28,659 First time I saw her, I know it's cliche but it's true, 208 00:14:28,742 --> 00:14:30,286 it was "Wow." 209 00:14:30,369 --> 00:14:31,996 She has such a winning smile. 210 00:14:33,581 --> 00:14:36,876 Just everything about her got my immediate attention. 211 00:14:38,836 --> 00:14:41,964 One thing developed into another, and I finally asked her out. 212 00:14:43,340 --> 00:14:46,343 I was working parts of seven days a week. 213 00:14:47,136 --> 00:14:49,847 She would come and sit with me in the newsroom 214 00:14:49,930 --> 00:14:52,725 as I did my work on Saturday nights. 215 00:14:55,644 --> 00:14:57,062 I asked her to marry me. 216 00:14:57,730 --> 00:15:00,608 Jean surprised me by saying "Yes." 217 00:15:02,151 --> 00:15:05,195 My grandparents have the best relationship that I know of, 218 00:15:05,279 --> 00:15:07,781 because of the level of trust and communication 219 00:15:07,865 --> 00:15:09,992 that the two of them have with one another. 220 00:15:10,075 --> 00:15:13,662 And I guess that's no surprise since they've been married for over 60 years. 221 00:15:15,080 --> 00:15:19,251 She was so supportive, and so kind, and really smart, 222 00:15:19,960 --> 00:15:22,463 and besides that she was smoking-hot. 223 00:15:30,471 --> 00:15:33,641 And now, As The World Turns. 224 00:15:33,724 --> 00:15:35,684 Your great-grandson and his mother 225 00:15:35,768 --> 00:15:38,395 are going to have Thanksgiving dinner with us. 226 00:15:40,147 --> 00:15:42,066 I must say I'm surprised. 227 00:15:44,902 --> 00:15:47,404 This is Walter Cronkite in our newsroom. 228 00:15:47,488 --> 00:15:49,615 There has been an attempt, as perhaps you know now, 229 00:15:49,698 --> 00:15:51,241 on the life of President Kennedy. 230 00:15:51,325 --> 00:15:54,078 Something has happened in the motorcade. 231 00:15:54,161 --> 00:15:58,082 The presidential car coming up now. You can see Mrs. Kennedy's pink suit. 232 00:15:58,165 --> 00:16:01,418 There's a Secret Service man spread-eagled over the top of the car 233 00:16:01,502 --> 00:16:04,088 We can't see who has been hit, if anybody's been hit, 234 00:16:04,171 --> 00:16:07,007 but something is wrong here. Something is terribly wrong. 235 00:16:07,091 --> 00:16:09,593 President Kennedy's been given a blood transfusion 236 00:16:09,677 --> 00:16:12,346 at Parkland Hospital here in Dallas in an effort to save his life. 237 00:16:12,429 --> 00:16:16,183 We just have a report from our correspondent Dan Rather in Dallas 238 00:16:16,266 --> 00:16:20,020 that he has confirmed that President Kennedy is dead. 239 00:16:20,771 --> 00:16:23,232 There is still no official confirmation of this… 240 00:16:23,315 --> 00:16:26,068 I remember in the first seconds and minutes 241 00:16:26,151 --> 00:16:32,151 my own emotions of anger, fear, heartbreak. 242 00:16:32,700 --> 00:16:33,909 "Get that out." 243 00:16:34,952 --> 00:16:36,704 "You can't afford to do that." 244 00:16:36,787 --> 00:16:38,872 "Just concentrate on the story." 245 00:16:40,833 --> 00:16:43,502 But that's just an announcement: the President's dead. 246 00:16:43,585 --> 00:16:45,838 What happened? Who killed Kennedy? 247 00:16:46,547 --> 00:16:49,883 Nobody had answers, the only people who had answers was CBS. 248 00:16:49,967 --> 00:16:51,427 Dan Rather in Dallas. 249 00:16:51,510 --> 00:16:54,888 And Dan Rather was at the right place at the right time. 250 00:16:55,514 --> 00:16:57,933 A definite air of anticipation 251 00:16:58,684 --> 00:17:03,022 has built up here in downtown Dallas in front of the county jail. 252 00:17:04,106 --> 00:17:08,110 The county jail is where 24-year-old Lee Oswald 253 00:17:08,193 --> 00:17:10,738 is expected to be brought anytime now. 254 00:17:11,363 --> 00:17:13,907 The assassination of President Kennedy, 255 00:17:13,991 --> 00:17:18,203 it's one of the signal events in modern American history. 256 00:17:18,287 --> 00:17:22,499 It comes along at a time when TV is in its infancy 257 00:17:22,583 --> 00:17:28,583 and Dan Rather makes a name for himself by covering this huge event. 258 00:17:30,090 --> 00:17:32,593 Dallas Police this morning resumed questioning 259 00:17:32,676 --> 00:17:36,180 the man they have formally charged with the assassination of President Kennedy. 260 00:17:36,263 --> 00:17:38,015 This is the kind of headline… 261 00:17:38,098 --> 00:17:44,098 That weekend, CBS played the role of rabbi, preacher, hand holder, therapist, 262 00:17:45,189 --> 00:17:48,734 news source, investigators. They were everything. 263 00:17:48,817 --> 00:17:50,736 This is a terrible thing for our country. 264 00:17:50,819 --> 00:17:53,280 Not only for our country but for the entire world. 265 00:17:53,363 --> 00:17:57,201 And now, let's go back to Dallas and to Dan Rather. 266 00:17:59,369 --> 00:18:02,623 There was no time to draft a script, not at all. 267 00:18:02,706 --> 00:18:06,043 When it was airtime, it was just stand and deliver. 268 00:18:10,172 --> 00:18:13,217 This is the basement floor of the Dallas City Hall, 269 00:18:13,300 --> 00:18:15,427 and that's a scuffle on the basement floor. 270 00:18:15,511 --> 00:18:17,137 It seems to concern the target… 271 00:18:18,722 --> 00:18:20,432 Oswald had been shot. 272 00:18:23,727 --> 00:18:26,146 What kind of man shot Lee Oswald? 273 00:18:26,230 --> 00:18:31,151 Dan was just young, aggressive, serious. 274 00:18:31,235 --> 00:18:32,528 He was about business. 275 00:18:32,611 --> 00:18:38,450 Lee Oswald, like President Kennedy, had no chance to live after he was shot. 276 00:18:39,993 --> 00:18:43,205 Television's coverage of this national tragedy 277 00:18:43,288 --> 00:18:44,832 changed the country. 278 00:18:46,083 --> 00:18:51,296 It also changed the basic relationship people at home had with their television. 279 00:18:52,464 --> 00:18:55,884 As night fell in Dallas, the man accused of assassinating, 280 00:18:55,968 --> 00:18:58,220 the accused assassin of President Kennedy, 281 00:18:58,303 --> 00:19:00,222 was still at police headquarters. 282 00:19:00,889 --> 00:19:03,225 Following the Kennedy assassination, 283 00:19:03,308 --> 00:19:05,561 Dan Rather's stature was elevated. 284 00:19:05,644 --> 00:19:07,855 He became the voice from Dallas. 285 00:19:08,438 --> 00:19:10,274 He became a household name. 286 00:19:10,357 --> 00:19:13,443 There was no mistaking him with any other correspondent. 287 00:19:14,319 --> 00:19:17,322 And it happened to be that Kennedy was killed in Texas, 288 00:19:17,406 --> 00:19:19,700 and Dan Rather grew up in Texas. 289 00:19:19,783 --> 00:19:22,202 This was where he was born and raised, 290 00:19:22,286 --> 00:19:25,122 and now he was back covering the story of a lifetime. 291 00:19:25,831 --> 00:19:29,209 So there was something organic about the coverage. 292 00:19:36,425 --> 00:19:40,345 ♪ Well, why don't you love me Like you used to do? ♪ 293 00:19:40,429 --> 00:19:43,682 ♪ How come you treat me Like a worn out shoe? ♪ 294 00:19:43,765 --> 00:19:47,102 ♪ My hair's still curly And my eyes are still blue ♪ 295 00:19:47,186 --> 00:19:49,730 ♪ Why don't you love me Like you used to do? ♪ 296 00:19:49,813 --> 00:19:52,399 Being a Texan is everything to my dad. 297 00:19:52,482 --> 00:19:57,237 It is in him. It's in his DNA. He's fourth-generation Texan. 298 00:19:57,321 --> 00:20:01,325 There's a real deep pride. The eyes of Texas are upon you. 299 00:20:02,826 --> 00:20:04,369 This is a picture of my father, 300 00:20:04,453 --> 00:20:08,916 but obviously this is not a workday because my father is dressed in 301 00:20:08,999 --> 00:20:10,834 what I think were his best clothes. 302 00:20:12,502 --> 00:20:17,257 My father's father laid pipeline in the ground, 303 00:20:17,341 --> 00:20:20,052 in the hot 100-degree Texas sun. 304 00:20:21,136 --> 00:20:23,639 My father preached the gospel of 305 00:20:23,722 --> 00:20:26,308 "You're never gonna be the smartest person around." 306 00:20:26,808 --> 00:20:30,479 "There's no excuse for you not working as hard as you possibly can." 307 00:20:33,607 --> 00:20:38,612 When I was growing up in Houston, roughly between ages 10 and 14, 308 00:20:38,695 --> 00:20:41,198 I was diagnosed with rheumatic fever, 309 00:20:42,157 --> 00:20:45,702 and the doctor told my mother there's no cure for it. 310 00:20:48,247 --> 00:20:51,833 I know my father was very disappointed in that, to say the least. 311 00:20:53,168 --> 00:20:55,921 He used to come in sometimes at night after he'd work. 312 00:20:56,797 --> 00:20:59,174 He would say, "Steady, steady, steady." 313 00:20:59,758 --> 00:21:05,758 So that word stuck in my head, of just, "Well, don't lose your composure." 314 00:21:10,686 --> 00:21:12,062 My companion was a radio 315 00:21:12,145 --> 00:21:14,523 and that turned out to be a big break for me. 316 00:21:16,233 --> 00:21:19,403 Hello, America. This is Edward Murrow speaking from London. 317 00:21:19,486 --> 00:21:23,198 You can have little understanding of the life in London these days. 318 00:21:23,282 --> 00:21:26,576 To him, Edward R. Murrow was a heroic figure. 319 00:21:27,369 --> 00:21:30,247 Someone that put it all on the line in war, 320 00:21:30,330 --> 00:21:32,582 to really bring perspective and truth back. 321 00:21:34,126 --> 00:21:37,379 The rheumatic fever began to fade. 322 00:21:38,338 --> 00:21:40,090 I was thin as a riding whip. 323 00:21:40,757 --> 00:21:44,344 My father said, "What Dan needs is to go to work." 324 00:21:44,428 --> 00:21:47,264 "It needs to be physical work. He needs to be outside." 325 00:21:48,223 --> 00:21:50,892 I cut brush for a survey crew. 326 00:21:51,893 --> 00:21:54,021 Very quickly began to regain my strength. 327 00:21:56,565 --> 00:21:59,609 I graduated from Sam Houston State Teachers College. 328 00:22:00,527 --> 00:22:02,195 The Korean War was on. 329 00:22:02,779 --> 00:22:04,406 I volunteered for the Marines. 330 00:22:05,157 --> 00:22:08,160 Rheumatic fever was a disqualifying disease. 331 00:22:09,828 --> 00:22:11,788 There's no pride in it, matter of fact, 332 00:22:11,872 --> 00:22:14,833 in many ways I'm ashamed of it, but I lied about it, 333 00:22:14,916 --> 00:22:17,002 because I wanted to get in and I wanted to serve. 334 00:22:18,045 --> 00:22:20,464 When I got in the Marines, they found out. 335 00:22:21,465 --> 00:22:24,468 I asked them to stay in, but they said, "No." 336 00:22:26,053 --> 00:22:28,388 In his fashion, he served the country. 337 00:22:28,472 --> 00:22:31,892 His way of expressing that is to chase the good stories, 338 00:22:31,975 --> 00:22:34,686 to find what they're trying to hide and bring it into the light 339 00:22:34,770 --> 00:22:37,397 because he thinks that's what's best for the country. 340 00:22:50,285 --> 00:22:52,287 We've been in one company strength, 341 00:22:52,370 --> 00:22:55,540 but now the other company is moving in by helicopter. 342 00:22:55,624 --> 00:22:57,542 We're now getting the second company. 343 00:22:58,168 --> 00:23:01,004 The Vietnam War was becoming a big story. 344 00:23:02,130 --> 00:23:05,342 I wanted to go, I asked to go, and was eventually sent to Vietnam 345 00:23:05,425 --> 00:23:07,052 and spent almost a year there. 346 00:23:09,805 --> 00:23:11,598 What about these rocket launchers, Colonel? 347 00:23:11,681 --> 00:23:13,308 I don't believe I've seen these before. 348 00:23:13,809 --> 00:23:16,144 We've captured these rocket launchers 349 00:23:16,228 --> 00:23:19,064 on several occasions when operating against the North Vietnamese. 350 00:23:19,147 --> 00:23:21,858 It's a Chinese rocket launcher, and… 351 00:23:21,942 --> 00:23:25,821 The key to this victory was this particular company of the 101st Airborne 352 00:23:25,904 --> 00:23:29,825 under the command of Captain Hank Lunde of Clarksville, Tennessee. 353 00:23:30,492 --> 00:23:32,410 When I first went to Vietnam, 354 00:23:32,494 --> 00:23:38,125 combat units were disproportionately made up of young Black men 355 00:23:38,208 --> 00:23:40,752 out of places like Watts and Harlem, 356 00:23:41,753 --> 00:23:46,299 and white country-boy men out of places like East Texas. 357 00:23:48,176 --> 00:23:50,720 When you ask them, "What about race in the ranks?" 358 00:23:52,389 --> 00:23:58,186 The infantryman saying was, "Same mud, same blood." 359 00:24:03,150 --> 00:24:06,987 For more than two days elements of the 101st Airborne brigade 360 00:24:07,070 --> 00:24:09,030 were engaged against North Vietnamese troops 361 00:24:09,114 --> 00:24:11,950 in this extremely thick jungle near the Cambodian border. 362 00:24:12,033 --> 00:24:13,910 You can see how thick this bamboo is. 363 00:24:15,328 --> 00:24:18,123 Reporters couldn't get in here, neither could helicopters of any kind, 364 00:24:18,206 --> 00:24:21,751 and only today is the full extent of the battle being known. 365 00:24:22,586 --> 00:24:25,672 A number of bodies, the wounded, already have been taken out. 366 00:24:26,590 --> 00:24:28,717 Emergency medevac ASAP! 367 00:24:28,800 --> 00:24:31,928 People don't understand how deeply patriotic my dad is. 368 00:24:32,012 --> 00:24:36,308 My dad is old-school, to the bone patriotic. 369 00:24:37,684 --> 00:24:41,271 I didn't go in with any agenda. I had no agenda while I was there, 370 00:24:41,980 --> 00:24:47,360 except to put on American television screens the war as it was. 371 00:24:54,201 --> 00:24:55,869 Manny? Is the pain a lot, Manny? 372 00:25:00,165 --> 00:25:03,793 - You want any water or anything? - Take it easy, Manny. You're laid down. 373 00:25:05,212 --> 00:25:08,882 When my dad was away for months at a time, he sent a lot of postcards 374 00:25:08,965 --> 00:25:11,885 and he wrote the exact same thing on every postcard. 375 00:25:12,636 --> 00:25:15,055 He wrote, "War is hell. Love, Dad." 376 00:25:16,223 --> 00:25:17,641 The rebels during the night 377 00:25:17,724 --> 00:25:21,436 extended their perimeter at least four blocks in one direction, 378 00:25:21,519 --> 00:25:24,231 and now the Marines are trying to recapture those four blocks. 379 00:25:25,899 --> 00:25:28,735 You know, as a young girl, you understand that's dangerous, 380 00:25:28,818 --> 00:25:32,030 but at the same time, he always did that. 381 00:25:32,113 --> 00:25:35,408 I never knew a time when he wasn't doing that, as a young girl. 382 00:25:35,492 --> 00:25:38,536 There are a lot of civilians up and down these streets. 383 00:25:38,620 --> 00:25:42,123 In the distance, someone is screaming in Vietnamese, "My father is wounded!" 384 00:25:42,207 --> 00:25:45,126 A grenade came through an open window in the next room, 385 00:25:45,210 --> 00:25:47,087 where a sniper was believed hiding. 386 00:25:47,170 --> 00:25:50,757 And for the first time an all-out attack by Premier Ky's Skyraider. 387 00:25:51,591 --> 00:25:54,469 My mother didn't shield us from what he was doing. 388 00:25:54,552 --> 00:25:56,346 I have a lot of memories of my dad 389 00:25:56,429 --> 00:25:59,557 with him crouched down and bullets everywhere. 390 00:26:00,141 --> 00:26:02,852 This is the 25th Infantry Division. 391 00:26:02,936 --> 00:26:06,314 The newest troops in South Vietnam for the United States. 392 00:26:06,398 --> 00:26:08,566 This is part of their first heaviest action. 393 00:26:11,278 --> 00:26:13,238 I really, really missed him. 394 00:26:13,321 --> 00:26:16,241 I didn't really have a perspective on his work. 395 00:26:17,867 --> 00:26:20,662 We tried our best to tell it as it was. 396 00:26:21,371 --> 00:26:22,372 "Here's your war." 397 00:26:23,081 --> 00:26:24,916 "For better or for worse, know what it is." 398 00:26:26,835 --> 00:26:30,213 Five hours after the Buddhist nun burned herself in Hue, 399 00:26:30,297 --> 00:26:33,591 Saigon Buddhists marched downtown in what they hope will be 400 00:26:33,675 --> 00:26:37,095 their biggest demonstration in more than two years. 401 00:26:38,972 --> 00:26:40,557 I saw a good deal of Vietnam. 402 00:26:41,433 --> 00:26:44,436 And increasingly, the more of the war I saw, 403 00:26:44,519 --> 00:26:47,939 what was being said in Washington about what was happening in the war 404 00:26:48,023 --> 00:26:49,941 did not match the facts on the ground. 405 00:26:50,692 --> 00:26:56,323 So it became a clash between those who knew what the war was, 406 00:26:56,406 --> 00:26:57,699 what it really was, 407 00:26:57,782 --> 00:27:00,910 and those who were trying to convince the American people, 408 00:27:00,994 --> 00:27:02,746 "Look, don't listen to those guys." 409 00:27:04,831 --> 00:27:07,042 We will see this through. 410 00:27:07,792 --> 00:27:09,919 We shall persist. 411 00:27:10,503 --> 00:27:12,130 We shall succeed. 412 00:27:13,423 --> 00:27:17,010 When officials began to make representations about the war 413 00:27:17,093 --> 00:27:19,304 that were demonstrated to be false and untrue, 414 00:27:19,387 --> 00:27:22,057 for example, that we are winning the war, 415 00:27:22,140 --> 00:27:24,976 and journalists began pointing that out, 416 00:27:25,060 --> 00:27:28,063 they used the phrase "credibility gap." 417 00:27:28,146 --> 00:27:29,272 It was a euphemism. 418 00:27:29,981 --> 00:27:32,233 They were talking about the government lying. 419 00:27:33,485 --> 00:27:36,404 Lyndon Johnson would actually pick up the phone when he was president 420 00:27:36,488 --> 00:27:37,947 and call you. Is that right? 421 00:27:38,031 --> 00:27:39,699 Yes. As well as other reporters. 422 00:27:39,783 --> 00:27:42,577 It was fairly common for him to call reporters and say, 423 00:27:42,660 --> 00:27:45,413 - "What the hell are you doing to me, boy?" - Yeah. 424 00:27:45,497 --> 00:27:47,017 - I mean, you're a Texan. - Yeah. 425 00:27:47,082 --> 00:27:48,750 We have to stick together. 426 00:27:48,833 --> 00:27:52,712 What folks saw on television was increasingly at variance 427 00:27:52,796 --> 00:27:54,381 with what they were being told. 428 00:27:55,382 --> 00:27:59,677 That dichotomy would eventually call the whole US commitment into question. 429 00:27:59,761 --> 00:28:02,847 ♪ If you love your Uncle Sam ♪ 430 00:28:02,931 --> 00:28:05,850 ♪ Bring them home, bring them home ♪ 431 00:28:05,934 --> 00:28:08,812 ♪ Support our boys in Vietnam… ♪ 432 00:28:09,562 --> 00:28:12,524 That ancient nemesis of armies, rain, 433 00:28:12,607 --> 00:28:15,693 has washed out the hopes of 15,000 American troops. 434 00:28:15,777 --> 00:28:17,612 ♪ I may be right, I may be wrong ♪ 435 00:28:17,695 --> 00:28:18,905 ♪ Bring them home ♪ 436 00:28:18,988 --> 00:28:21,199 If you want us to stop our bombing, 437 00:28:21,282 --> 00:28:23,076 you have to ask them to stop their bombings. 438 00:28:25,453 --> 00:28:28,164 These marines are trying to move in on the pagoda 439 00:28:28,248 --> 00:28:30,125 which is the rebel headquarters. 440 00:28:30,208 --> 00:28:33,878 The bombs in Vietnam explode at home. 441 00:28:33,962 --> 00:28:39,467 They destroy the dream and possibility for a decent America. 442 00:28:40,468 --> 00:28:43,096 ♪ Bring them home, home! ♪ 443 00:28:44,347 --> 00:28:47,100 Lyndon Johnson, he had no idea what was going on. 444 00:28:47,183 --> 00:28:52,689 Why is CBS showing American troops at war in a grim fashion? 445 00:28:52,772 --> 00:28:55,275 Because we did not do that in World War II. 446 00:28:55,358 --> 00:28:57,110 We were all in it together. 447 00:28:57,193 --> 00:29:00,864 The press worked as a propaganda arm of the US Military. 448 00:29:01,865 --> 00:29:03,616 This was something new. 449 00:29:03,700 --> 00:29:05,702 Dan Rather was part of all that. 450 00:29:06,578 --> 00:29:08,788 Dan Rather, CBS News, Da Nang. 451 00:29:14,377 --> 00:29:18,089 Many in the upper echelons of government and in the military 452 00:29:18,173 --> 00:29:19,883 absolutely felt and they stated 453 00:29:19,966 --> 00:29:23,470 that television incited much of the anti-war movement. 454 00:29:23,553 --> 00:29:25,555 As a matter of fact, it's not a Vietnamese war now. 455 00:29:25,638 --> 00:29:28,975 It's now a land war in Asia that everybody's worried about for 20 years, 456 00:29:29,058 --> 00:29:31,603 and we're in, and we want it out now. 457 00:29:31,686 --> 00:29:34,856 If we may to continue to wrap here for moment, another point that… 458 00:29:34,939 --> 00:29:38,485 To them, the press was the real enemy. 459 00:29:38,568 --> 00:29:42,781 We don't let people influence us and pressure and force us 460 00:29:42,864 --> 00:29:46,743 to divide our nation in a time of national peril. 461 00:29:46,826 --> 00:29:48,745 The hour is here. 462 00:29:48,828 --> 00:29:52,332 There's an old saying that "The first casualty of war is truth." 463 00:29:52,415 --> 00:29:54,209 And the stakes are so high. 464 00:29:54,292 --> 00:29:58,505 When you're asking people to surrender their very lives for their country, 465 00:29:58,588 --> 00:30:00,965 you have to ennoble the enterprise, 466 00:30:01,049 --> 00:30:03,676 and often the way that enterprise is ennobled by lies 467 00:30:03,760 --> 00:30:07,013 and the greatest threat to that is journalism. 468 00:30:08,807 --> 00:30:11,059 For it seems now more certain than ever 469 00:30:11,142 --> 00:30:15,438 that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate. 470 00:30:15,522 --> 00:30:18,691 When Walter Cronkite said the war in Vietnam couldn't be won, 471 00:30:19,359 --> 00:30:20,360 it was over. 472 00:30:21,152 --> 00:30:25,156 When should an anchor person, an anchorman, become a commentator? 473 00:30:25,240 --> 00:30:26,741 Maybe once in a lifetime. 474 00:30:27,408 --> 00:30:29,410 When the most trusted man in America 475 00:30:29,494 --> 00:30:34,165 tells you something pretty stunning about your government 476 00:30:34,249 --> 00:30:37,335 and its role in a foreign war, 477 00:30:37,418 --> 00:30:41,172 people listened, and it was very consequential. 478 00:30:43,591 --> 00:30:47,762 This is a CBS News campaign '68 Convention special. 479 00:30:47,846 --> 00:30:49,722 What's going to happen in Chicago? 480 00:30:49,806 --> 00:30:52,976 Here is CBS News correspondent Walter Cronkite. 481 00:30:53,643 --> 00:30:55,144 Good evening from Chicago 482 00:30:55,228 --> 00:30:58,773 where the 35th National Democratic Convention opens tomorrow 483 00:30:58,857 --> 00:31:01,734 with the promise of turmoil inside this hall 484 00:31:01,818 --> 00:31:03,778 and a threat of violence without. 485 00:31:03,862 --> 00:31:04,863 By the end of the week, 486 00:31:04,946 --> 00:31:08,324 Hubert Humphrey probably will emerge as the party's nominee. 487 00:31:08,408 --> 00:31:12,787 Inside the hall we can expect floor fights over the rules, over credentials, 488 00:31:12,871 --> 00:31:15,999 a bitter one over the Vietnam plank and the platform, 489 00:31:16,082 --> 00:31:19,043 but throughout, the political process continues. 490 00:31:20,420 --> 00:31:22,881 The counterculture was there in Chicago 491 00:31:22,964 --> 00:31:27,427 and it was basically a war in the city between Mayor Daley and protesters. 492 00:31:27,510 --> 00:31:29,721 Tear gas flew every which way, 493 00:31:29,804 --> 00:31:34,350 and it was almost impossible to hold a sane Democratic Convention. 494 00:31:35,810 --> 00:31:39,522 Mr. Chairman, most delegates to this convention 495 00:31:39,606 --> 00:31:43,276 do not know that thousands of young people are being beaten 496 00:31:43,359 --> 00:31:45,278 in the streets of Chicago. 497 00:31:49,991 --> 00:31:54,162 And for that reason, I request a suspension of the rules 498 00:31:54,245 --> 00:31:56,831 for the purpose of adjournment for two weeks. 499 00:31:57,957 --> 00:32:02,337 Wisconsin is not recognized for that purpose! 500 00:32:03,171 --> 00:32:06,382 Looks like a couple of the sergeants-at-arms security people 501 00:32:06,466 --> 00:32:10,178 have one of the members under both armpits and forcing him out. 502 00:32:10,261 --> 00:32:11,262 Dan Rather? 503 00:32:11,346 --> 00:32:13,556 What is your name, sir? 504 00:32:13,640 --> 00:32:16,309 Take your hands off of me unless you intend to arrest me. 505 00:32:16,392 --> 00:32:17,685 Don't push me, please. 506 00:32:17,769 --> 00:32:20,021 - Sir, I'm trying to... - I know, but don't push me. 507 00:32:20,104 --> 00:32:22,482 Take your hands off of me unless you plan to arrest me. 508 00:32:22,565 --> 00:32:24,067 Wait a minute, wait a minute. 509 00:32:25,777 --> 00:32:27,236 Walter, as you can see... 510 00:32:29,322 --> 00:32:31,032 I don't know what's going on, 511 00:32:31,115 --> 00:32:34,619 but these are security people apparently around Dan, 512 00:32:34,702 --> 00:32:36,162 obviously getting roughed up. 513 00:32:36,245 --> 00:32:39,040 We tried to talk to the man and we got bodily pushed out the way. 514 00:32:39,123 --> 00:32:42,001 This is the kind of thing that's been going on outside the hall. 515 00:32:42,085 --> 00:32:45,004 This is the first time we've had it happen inside the hall. 516 00:32:45,880 --> 00:32:48,716 I'm sorry to be out of breath but somebody belted me in the stomach. 517 00:32:48,800 --> 00:32:51,302 I think we've got a bunch of thugs here, Dan, 518 00:32:51,386 --> 00:32:53,012 if I may be permitted to say so. 519 00:32:53,096 --> 00:32:57,725 Well, mind you, Walter, I'm all right. It's… It's all in a day's work. 520 00:32:57,809 --> 00:32:59,978 Thank you, Dan, for staying in there 521 00:33:00,061 --> 00:33:03,481 pitching despite every handicap that they can possibly put in our way 522 00:33:03,564 --> 00:33:06,985 from free flow of information at this Democratic National Convention. 523 00:33:07,860 --> 00:33:13,366 Nowadays there's a tremendous amount of antipathy towards the press, 524 00:33:13,449 --> 00:33:19,449 but it was pretty startling to see that happen in 1968. 525 00:33:20,873 --> 00:33:24,335 Rather, at that moment, became a heroic figure 526 00:33:24,419 --> 00:33:27,505 for standing up for reporters to do their work 527 00:33:27,588 --> 00:33:31,175 without fear of violence or death, 528 00:33:31,259 --> 00:33:36,848 and at that point, Rather really becomes part of the history of 1968. 529 00:33:37,598 --> 00:33:40,309 As I stood and watched Hubert Humphrey tonight 530 00:33:40,393 --> 00:33:42,437 stand where he has wanted to for so long 531 00:33:42,520 --> 00:33:44,856 at the very top of the Democratic Party heap, 532 00:33:46,065 --> 00:33:48,443 my first thought was, "Some heap." 533 00:33:55,366 --> 00:33:58,703 Richard Milhous Nixon in a stunning political comeback 534 00:33:58,786 --> 00:34:00,705 almost denied him in the closing days, 535 00:34:00,788 --> 00:34:03,249 perhaps even the closing hours of the campaign, 536 00:34:03,332 --> 00:34:06,878 has been elected the 37th President of the United States 537 00:34:06,961 --> 00:34:10,298 with an electoral majority over Vice President Hubert Humphrey. 538 00:34:12,175 --> 00:34:15,344 Richard Nixon despised the press 539 00:34:15,428 --> 00:34:18,765 as this sort of unelected cast of aristocrats 540 00:34:18,848 --> 00:34:22,143 who didn't report the news, but created the news 541 00:34:22,226 --> 00:34:24,395 and decided what Americans should think. 542 00:34:25,354 --> 00:34:29,358 Nixon got screwed in the 1960 presidential election 543 00:34:29,442 --> 00:34:32,612 because the media was all JFK crazy. 544 00:34:32,695 --> 00:34:35,907 In 1967, you know, preparing this run for president, 545 00:34:35,990 --> 00:34:38,910 this young producer whose name was Roger Ailes, 546 00:34:38,993 --> 00:34:42,080 responded, "If you had taken TV more seriously in 1960", 547 00:34:42,163 --> 00:34:45,625 "maybe you would be president right now." And Richard Nixon hired him. 548 00:34:45,708 --> 00:34:47,543 The president is said by aides 549 00:34:47,627 --> 00:34:50,505 to be especially anxious now to improve his image. 550 00:34:50,588 --> 00:34:54,175 There's always somebody in the press corps that's gonna stand up and ask 551 00:34:54,258 --> 00:34:58,763 this sort of in-your-face question, and Rather assumed that role. 552 00:34:58,846 --> 00:35:00,765 Mr. President, I wanna state this question 553 00:35:00,848 --> 00:35:03,476 with due respect to your office, but also as directly... 554 00:35:03,559 --> 00:35:05,978 That would be unusual. 555 00:35:06,062 --> 00:35:07,355 I'd like to think not. 556 00:35:07,980 --> 00:35:10,525 There became a counter offensive 557 00:35:10,608 --> 00:35:13,236 to start trying to even the playing field. 558 00:35:13,319 --> 00:35:14,319 Mr. President... 559 00:35:14,946 --> 00:35:15,780 Thank you. 560 00:35:15,863 --> 00:35:16,864 The background of this... 561 00:35:22,203 --> 00:35:24,413 Thank you, Mr. President. I remember yours too. 562 00:35:26,374 --> 00:35:30,086 It is important to reflect on history 563 00:35:30,169 --> 00:35:34,590 and all the moments in which the downfall of democracy 564 00:35:34,674 --> 00:35:40,346 has been preceded and accompanied and hastened by rhetoric 565 00:35:40,429 --> 00:35:42,807 trying to turn the press into the enemy of the people. 566 00:35:45,309 --> 00:35:48,229 At first it was called the Watergate caper. 567 00:35:48,312 --> 00:35:52,525 Five men apparently caught in the act of burglarizing and bugging 568 00:35:52,608 --> 00:35:54,777 Democratic headquarters in Washington. 569 00:35:55,695 --> 00:36:01,659 Nixon didn't like it when there were leaks given to the press. 570 00:36:01,742 --> 00:36:03,452 You hire a plumber to stop a leak. 571 00:36:04,912 --> 00:36:07,957 The so-called plumbers were a highly skilled group 572 00:36:08,040 --> 00:36:10,168 in the political dark arts, 573 00:36:10,251 --> 00:36:12,503 wiretapping, home break-ins, 574 00:36:12,587 --> 00:36:15,506 against personal enemies and beyond. 575 00:36:16,340 --> 00:36:18,551 The President's men also claim that CBS News, 576 00:36:18,634 --> 00:36:21,679 in passing along the allegations of others, 577 00:36:21,762 --> 00:36:25,308 is being politically unfair to Mr. Nixon by spreading the smear. 578 00:36:26,267 --> 00:36:29,103 Nixon hated the press and he thought the press hated him, 579 00:36:29,187 --> 00:36:33,149 but in the end, Watergate was not the press at fault. 580 00:36:33,232 --> 00:36:35,776 They didn't invade Watergate. He did. 581 00:36:35,860 --> 00:36:37,945 …the strong America that I wanna build, 582 00:36:38,029 --> 00:36:42,825 people who do not want these things naturally would exploit any issue, 583 00:36:42,909 --> 00:36:44,869 if it weren't Watergate, anything else, 584 00:36:44,952 --> 00:36:47,455 in order to keep the president from doing his job. 585 00:36:48,122 --> 00:36:50,499 Politicians are there to deliver their message 586 00:36:50,583 --> 00:36:54,337 and the media is there to tell people if this message should be believed or not. 587 00:36:54,921 --> 00:36:58,299 What we're talking about here is possible criminal acts 588 00:36:58,382 --> 00:37:00,635 by the highest ranking White House officials. 589 00:37:01,344 --> 00:37:03,679 Well, there was tension in the news room 590 00:37:03,763 --> 00:37:05,848 because we knew we were under attack. 591 00:37:06,682 --> 00:37:12,480 But you know, all that did was force us to hone our product. 592 00:37:13,105 --> 00:37:15,816 The President's popularity rating continued to drop. 593 00:37:15,900 --> 00:37:18,527 The House Judiciary Committee began to consider impeachment. 594 00:37:18,611 --> 00:37:21,030 And Dan, more than anyone else, 595 00:37:21,113 --> 00:37:24,283 was the brunt of the pressure that was being brought. 596 00:37:24,367 --> 00:37:29,288 The possibility of resigning or being impeached 597 00:37:29,372 --> 00:37:32,833 and being tagged historically as the man who led 598 00:37:32,917 --> 00:37:35,711 perhaps the most corrupt administration in our history. 599 00:38:00,361 --> 00:38:04,782 I'm quite confident that Nixon's plumbers group went after Dan. 600 00:38:05,783 --> 00:38:07,326 Our house got burgled. 601 00:38:08,786 --> 00:38:09,787 My main memory of it 602 00:38:09,870 --> 00:38:14,166 is my dad standing with a shotgun on the landing of the stairs, 603 00:38:14,250 --> 00:38:17,962 cocking the rifle to try to scare these burglars away, 604 00:38:18,045 --> 00:38:19,297 which he did. 605 00:38:20,756 --> 00:38:22,258 They weren't stealing. 606 00:38:22,341 --> 00:38:25,011 They were opening safes, they were looking for papers. 607 00:38:25,094 --> 00:38:26,971 They were looking for stuff to burn my dad with 608 00:38:27,054 --> 00:38:28,514 and they didn't get it, 609 00:38:28,597 --> 00:38:30,558 but to me it was just a really scary thing. 610 00:38:32,518 --> 00:38:35,021 Thank you, Mr. President. Dan Rather with CBS News. 611 00:38:39,483 --> 00:38:40,484 Mr. President… 612 00:38:42,278 --> 00:38:45,698 Are you running for something? 613 00:38:55,041 --> 00:38:57,460 No, sir, Mr. President. Are you? 614 00:38:59,587 --> 00:39:03,257 It was kind of just a moment, it was a funny repartee, 615 00:39:03,341 --> 00:39:08,471 but people really held onto that as Dan taking on the president. 616 00:39:09,096 --> 00:39:12,391 How can the House meet its constitutional responsibilities 617 00:39:13,100 --> 00:39:15,519 while you, the person under investigation, 618 00:39:15,603 --> 00:39:18,939 are allowed to limit their access to potential evidence? 619 00:39:19,023 --> 00:39:21,817 I am suggesting that the House follow the Constitution. 620 00:39:21,901 --> 00:39:23,194 If they do, I will. 621 00:39:25,988 --> 00:39:29,700 What people don't understand about that exchange is actually the aftermath, 622 00:39:29,784 --> 00:39:33,120 because CBS got a ton of heat from their affiliates. 623 00:39:33,204 --> 00:39:35,456 And so, my main memory from that time 624 00:39:35,539 --> 00:39:37,833 is actually hoping he didn't get fired for it. 625 00:39:38,584 --> 00:39:43,047 But Dan relished the role. You could feel it. 626 00:39:43,130 --> 00:39:47,218 He did gain respect, notoriety, 627 00:39:47,301 --> 00:39:51,722 and quite frankly, the ire of the Nixon White House. 628 00:39:53,349 --> 00:39:55,601 The President's remark that payment would be wrong 629 00:39:55,684 --> 00:39:58,729 seems to be not during the discussion of hush money, 630 00:39:58,813 --> 00:40:01,148 but during one about clemency instead. 631 00:40:01,232 --> 00:40:03,609 He simply is never going to look the same again 632 00:40:03,692 --> 00:40:06,529 to anyone who reads these pages of private conversation. 633 00:40:09,031 --> 00:40:11,617 In the Founding Fathers' minds, 634 00:40:11,700 --> 00:40:14,537 the reason they thought the fourth estate, the press, 635 00:40:14,620 --> 00:40:19,458 was such an important institution to be part of the building blocks of democracy, 636 00:40:19,542 --> 00:40:23,587 is that they knew that there needed to be an independent watchdog of government. 637 00:40:27,133 --> 00:40:29,969 In the past few days, it has become evident to me 638 00:40:30,052 --> 00:40:34,682 that I no longer have a strong-enough political base in the Congress. 639 00:40:35,349 --> 00:40:40,604 Therefore, I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow. 640 00:40:47,611 --> 00:40:50,531 Dan, this must be something of an emotional moment for you. 641 00:40:50,614 --> 00:40:53,576 You have covered the entire Nixon presidency 642 00:40:53,659 --> 00:40:57,413 and have been in the forefront of some of the conflict 643 00:40:57,496 --> 00:40:59,748 between the press and the President. 644 00:40:59,832 --> 00:41:04,003 My own feelings are those of sadness, no bitterness, 645 00:41:04,086 --> 00:41:07,840 and some exuberance about the great American experiment 646 00:41:07,923 --> 00:41:11,218 showing that it's still strong and healthy and viable, Walter. 647 00:41:13,679 --> 00:41:19,679 Many people in the Republican Party held The Washington Post and CBS News 648 00:41:21,729 --> 00:41:26,901 as primarily responsible for what happened to the Nixon presidency. 649 00:41:40,247 --> 00:41:42,625 When you cover a story like this 650 00:41:42,708 --> 00:41:47,129 and when you have emotional feelings on all sides of the story, 651 00:41:48,088 --> 00:41:51,091 particularly those who felt they have lost, 652 00:41:52,051 --> 00:41:53,511 they're gonna blame somebody. 653 00:41:55,304 --> 00:42:00,518 CBS News and myself as the Chief White House Correspondent, 654 00:42:00,601 --> 00:42:02,603 had been under tremendous pressure. 655 00:42:03,938 --> 00:42:08,317 In that moment, what I was feeling was, 656 00:42:08,400 --> 00:42:10,444 "We've been through a lot. It's finally over." 657 00:42:11,779 --> 00:42:12,780 "Now what?" 658 00:42:20,246 --> 00:42:24,667 Things happened pretty quickly after President Nixon resigned. 659 00:42:24,750 --> 00:42:28,837 CBS said they wanted me to move from the White House. 660 00:42:28,921 --> 00:42:31,840 Mike Wallace asked me to come to 60 Minutes. 661 00:42:31,924 --> 00:42:33,092 I'm Mike Wallace. 662 00:42:33,175 --> 00:42:34,343 I'm Morely Safer. 663 00:42:34,426 --> 00:42:35,678 I'm Dan Rather. 664 00:42:35,761 --> 00:42:39,181 In a moment, those stories and more tonight on 60 Minutes. 665 00:42:39,265 --> 00:42:43,727 Moving to 60 Minutes was a watershed moment. 666 00:42:43,811 --> 00:42:45,896 The pace at 60 Minutes 667 00:42:45,980 --> 00:42:49,233 was immediately really rapid and I loved that. 668 00:42:50,109 --> 00:42:52,611 It took off and became a talk-about program. 669 00:42:52,695 --> 00:42:54,822 - Take one. - Whatever happened to the hippies? 670 00:42:54,905 --> 00:42:57,575 There's nothing new about prostitution in Rock Springs. 671 00:42:57,658 --> 00:42:59,034 Indeed it's an old tradition here. 672 00:42:59,118 --> 00:43:02,454 If I asked you to grade yourself, A through F, foreign policy. 673 00:43:02,538 --> 00:43:04,290 Dan, this is a little bit embarrassing. 674 00:43:04,373 --> 00:43:06,208 Will there be other elections soon? 675 00:43:06,292 --> 00:43:08,532 Actually, the elections went perfectly well. 676 00:43:10,296 --> 00:43:13,924 This is the scene outside a New York disco called Studio 54. 677 00:43:14,675 --> 00:43:17,720 Oftentimes Dan was the one calling with, 678 00:43:17,803 --> 00:43:20,889 "Should we be doing this?" 679 00:43:20,973 --> 00:43:24,059 Little or nothing in the way of news comes out of Afghanistan. 680 00:43:24,143 --> 00:43:26,478 So the only way to find out what goes on there 681 00:43:26,562 --> 00:43:28,355 is to go in and see for yourself. 682 00:43:28,439 --> 00:43:31,900 I'm standing on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, 683 00:43:31,984 --> 00:43:34,320 a border that is now closed to most everyone 684 00:43:34,403 --> 00:43:36,739 except refugees fleeing the Soviet invasion. 685 00:43:38,490 --> 00:43:40,909 He was told not to go into Afghanistan 686 00:43:40,993 --> 00:43:43,662 because it was dangerous, but he wanted to do it, 687 00:43:43,746 --> 00:43:45,581 with the possibility of never coming back. 688 00:43:45,664 --> 00:43:47,249 I mean, they knew he was coming. 689 00:43:48,792 --> 00:43:50,502 I was in college then, 690 00:43:50,586 --> 00:43:53,255 and I literally thought he wasn't gonna make it back. 691 00:43:53,339 --> 00:43:55,799 I went home to basically say good-bye. 692 00:43:56,842 --> 00:44:00,304 These Afghan clothes I'm wearing were part of an operation to sneak me 693 00:44:00,387 --> 00:44:03,140 and a CBS News film crew into Afghanistan. 694 00:44:04,308 --> 00:44:07,770 If there's a story to be gotten, Dan's gonna get it. 695 00:44:07,853 --> 00:44:09,229 And if somebody thinks that 696 00:44:09,313 --> 00:44:11,899 he's dressed up in a way that looks ridiculous, 697 00:44:11,982 --> 00:44:13,233 not gonna stop him. 698 00:44:13,984 --> 00:44:17,196 People made fun of Gunga Dan and the clothing. 699 00:44:17,279 --> 00:44:21,367 But you know what? He went and he reported. 700 00:44:22,743 --> 00:44:25,204 This is a training session for new recruits. 701 00:44:25,287 --> 00:44:27,706 Afghans who have settled their families in Pakistan 702 00:44:27,790 --> 00:44:30,125 and are now ready to go back home and fight. 703 00:44:30,209 --> 00:44:33,170 Television is about ratings and money. 704 00:44:33,253 --> 00:44:36,340 It's an industry, and 60 Minutes was dominant. 705 00:44:39,009 --> 00:44:40,969 There is a theory at CBS 706 00:44:41,053 --> 00:44:44,348 that the worst thing to happen to CBS News was 60 Minutes, 707 00:44:45,182 --> 00:44:48,227 because it proved you can make money from news. 708 00:44:48,310 --> 00:44:49,311 Bullshit. 709 00:44:50,521 --> 00:44:56,521 I think 60 Minutes is the best thing that happened to enhance the value of CBS. 710 00:45:00,781 --> 00:45:02,866 Television journalism, as you well know, 711 00:45:02,950 --> 00:45:06,620 has become show business to a certain extent. 712 00:45:06,703 --> 00:45:09,706 The most important thing in news, I think, for the long run, 713 00:45:09,790 --> 00:45:12,793 is the believability of the person who's giving you the news. 714 00:45:12,876 --> 00:45:16,130 That's what Walter Cronkite has going for him, tremendous believability. 715 00:45:16,213 --> 00:45:17,798 And Cronkite got ratings. 716 00:45:17,881 --> 00:45:21,301 Cronkite could read the phone book and have an audience. 717 00:45:21,385 --> 00:45:24,304 CBS presents this program in color. 718 00:45:26,390 --> 00:45:30,978 This is my last broadcast as the anchorman of the CBS Evening News. 719 00:45:31,061 --> 00:45:34,148 For me, it's a moment for which I long have planned, but which… 720 00:45:34,231 --> 00:45:37,234 He was by far the number-one news anchor on television, 721 00:45:37,317 --> 00:45:41,113 but he was also getting up in years, so he accepted the retirement. 722 00:45:42,406 --> 00:45:47,077 Walter Cronkite was probably the biggest shoes that you could ever fill 723 00:45:47,161 --> 00:45:49,371 in TV news. 724 00:45:50,289 --> 00:45:53,208 Cronkite knew what a great reporter Rather was, 725 00:45:53,292 --> 00:45:56,003 and was very comfortable having him be his successor. 726 00:45:57,379 --> 00:46:00,966 When I came to the anchor chair, I wouldn't try to mislead anybody 727 00:46:01,049 --> 00:46:03,969 and I wouldn't be believable if I did try to mislead them. 728 00:46:04,553 --> 00:46:05,721 It felt terrific. 729 00:46:08,474 --> 00:46:14,104 I felt in some ways I'd been preparing for this moment most of my adult life. 730 00:46:15,772 --> 00:46:18,108 You're gonna ask Leslie two questions, probably? 731 00:46:18,192 --> 00:46:19,902 Three. I got an opening question, 732 00:46:19,985 --> 00:46:22,237 one interior question, and a closed question. 733 00:46:22,321 --> 00:46:24,823 - The total thing is 1:30. - Okay. 734 00:46:24,907 --> 00:46:28,243 If it runs any more than that, it's Harry Caray time. 735 00:46:28,327 --> 00:46:29,411 - Okay. - Okay? 736 00:46:31,788 --> 00:46:35,042 Cronkite's sign-off was, "And that's the way it is." 737 00:46:35,125 --> 00:46:38,212 And that's the way it is. Friday, March 6th, 1981. 738 00:46:38,295 --> 00:46:42,049 So Dan had to do a different kind of show that played to his strengths. 739 00:46:42,132 --> 00:46:44,510 And he wanted to sign off by saying, "Courage." 740 00:46:44,593 --> 00:46:47,095 Courage to everybody who's laying pipeline, 741 00:46:47,179 --> 00:46:48,805 working on a railroad. 742 00:46:48,889 --> 00:46:51,433 48 Hours on Crack Street. 743 00:46:51,517 --> 00:46:54,311 Until then, Dan Rather. Courage. 744 00:46:54,394 --> 00:46:57,898 And the network execs were just absolutely not having it. 745 00:46:58,732 --> 00:47:01,109 A guy walks into Dan's office and says, 746 00:47:01,193 --> 00:47:04,446 "Dan, why are you signing off with 'Courage'?" 747 00:47:04,530 --> 00:47:05,864 And Dan said to him, 748 00:47:05,948 --> 00:47:09,117 "Because it's my favorite word and it means something to me." 749 00:47:09,618 --> 00:47:13,997 And the guy said to Dan, "Dan, my favorite word is bullshit," 750 00:47:14,081 --> 00:47:15,999 "and you can't say it on TV, okay?" 751 00:47:16,667 --> 00:47:18,126 Sound up. Mic. Cue. 752 00:47:18,210 --> 00:47:20,045 Good evening, this is the CBS Evening News. 753 00:47:20,128 --> 00:47:22,089 We had to get through a transition. 754 00:47:22,172 --> 00:47:25,968 Dan was so attractive and sharp in the suit and so forth, 755 00:47:26,051 --> 00:47:29,763 and following Walter, who was much more a crumpled star, in a way, 756 00:47:30,764 --> 00:47:33,517 there was an idea that we should put him in a sweater. 757 00:47:34,518 --> 00:47:37,187 - Have you seen the ratings lately? - No, I haven't. 758 00:47:37,980 --> 00:47:40,232 You're doing okay. They like the sweater, 759 00:47:40,315 --> 00:47:44,528 but it still doesn't quite say "CBS News" to me, I don't know… 760 00:47:44,611 --> 00:47:46,572 He had skirmishes like that 761 00:47:46,655 --> 00:47:49,324 between what upper management thought he should be as an anchor 762 00:47:49,408 --> 00:47:53,203 and what he really was as an anchor, which was really a reporter. 763 00:47:53,287 --> 00:47:54,621 Petroleum refining? 764 00:47:56,039 --> 00:47:58,079 I'm sorry, I do have it. 765 00:47:58,125 --> 00:47:59,125 Please. 766 00:47:59,167 --> 00:48:01,795 I was a 22-year-old desk assistant. 767 00:48:01,878 --> 00:48:03,880 He would always say hello to everyone. 768 00:48:03,964 --> 00:48:06,466 "Hello. Hello. How are you?" 769 00:48:07,134 --> 00:48:08,468 "Hello. How are you?" 770 00:48:08,552 --> 00:48:11,513 You know, very intense in his broadcaster voice. 771 00:48:11,597 --> 00:48:15,183 He's a big man, he's larger than life. 772 00:48:15,267 --> 00:48:17,978 He's got a huge head, big face. 773 00:48:18,061 --> 00:48:20,522 Quadruple checking. It's not that I doubt McManus, 774 00:48:20,606 --> 00:48:23,025 but you know, trust your mother, but check it out. 775 00:48:23,108 --> 00:48:24,192 Five minutes. 776 00:48:24,276 --> 00:48:27,195 My grandmother thought Dan Rather was just 777 00:48:28,196 --> 00:48:29,615 perfection. 778 00:48:29,698 --> 00:48:33,076 Keep it warm and friendly. Think warm and friendly. 779 00:48:33,160 --> 00:48:36,663 I believe I can manage that without any problem at all. 780 00:48:37,873 --> 00:48:38,957 All right. Quiet! 781 00:48:39,041 --> 00:48:40,417 - Can you do it? - Do it! 782 00:48:40,500 --> 00:48:42,544 And that's the way it is. 783 00:48:42,628 --> 00:48:45,047 Nobody can be another Walter Cronkite. 784 00:48:45,130 --> 00:48:47,883 It would be a mistake to try to be Walter Cronkite. 785 00:48:47,966 --> 00:48:51,470 I better be the best Dan Rather I could be. 786 00:48:51,553 --> 00:48:53,388 Good evening. This is the CBS Evening News. 787 00:48:53,472 --> 00:48:54,348 Dan Rather reporting. 788 00:48:54,431 --> 00:48:56,558 Good evening. The fate of Korean Airlines flight 007… 789 00:48:56,642 --> 00:48:59,686 Good evening. I'm Tom Brokaw with NBC Nightly News. 790 00:48:59,770 --> 00:49:03,190 That was the age of the anchorman. 791 00:49:03,273 --> 00:49:05,275 It was like Mount Rushmore, 792 00:49:05,359 --> 00:49:09,154 and Dan Rather was in front and then there was Brokaw and Jennings. 793 00:49:11,365 --> 00:49:14,409 Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather 794 00:49:14,493 --> 00:49:19,831 existed at a time when three broadcasts dominated the airwaves, 795 00:49:19,915 --> 00:49:24,544 at a time when the nation could agree on the facts. 796 00:49:25,545 --> 00:49:31,545 It was 45 million people a night for ABC, CBS, and NBC. 797 00:49:33,220 --> 00:49:34,888 It's not Super Bowl, but it's damn close. 798 00:49:37,599 --> 00:49:43,146 You're constantly inhaling NASA-grade rocket fuel for the ego. 799 00:49:43,230 --> 00:49:46,274 How do we make ours better than either one of the other two? 800 00:49:46,358 --> 00:49:50,404 He really respected them. They really respected him back. 801 00:49:50,487 --> 00:49:52,572 But it was a game of who's scooping who. 802 00:49:53,532 --> 00:49:56,868 Okay. Okay. All right. Well let's go. 803 00:49:57,619 --> 00:50:00,956 - Okay, I'll meet you right down there. - Bill is coming with my bag. 804 00:50:01,039 --> 00:50:04,584 It may be delayed a second or so. Shall I meet you back down here? 805 00:50:04,668 --> 00:50:08,171 Dan's instinct every time there's a story, 806 00:50:08,255 --> 00:50:10,632 it's, "Let's get on a plane and go there" 807 00:50:10,716 --> 00:50:14,136 "and let's do the broadcast from the place of the story." 808 00:50:14,219 --> 00:50:20,219 And Jennings and Brokaw always felt that we were too quick to move out, 809 00:50:20,642 --> 00:50:23,645 that we went to stories that weren't that important. 810 00:50:24,354 --> 00:50:27,357 George Bush at that time was gonna make a quick trip 811 00:50:27,441 --> 00:50:29,860 to Beijing on the weekend. 812 00:50:29,943 --> 00:50:32,821 Brokaw and Jennings said, "No way." 813 00:50:32,904 --> 00:50:37,284 And we walked away with a big smile on our face 814 00:50:37,367 --> 00:50:40,954 and said, "This is just going to be big." 815 00:50:43,874 --> 00:50:46,376 Okay. 816 00:50:46,460 --> 00:50:47,502 You ready, Jorgen? 817 00:50:48,128 --> 00:50:49,546 Day four of the student strike. 818 00:50:49,629 --> 00:50:52,007 Day four for the 3,000 or so hunger strikers… 819 00:50:52,090 --> 00:50:56,094 And while we were there, it became patently clear 820 00:50:56,178 --> 00:50:59,264 that the Chinese students were going to try an uprising. 821 00:50:59,347 --> 00:51:02,476 In the middle of all of this is the hospital tent 822 00:51:02,559 --> 00:51:04,186 which handles the worst cases. 823 00:51:04,269 --> 00:51:07,814 This is day four of the student sit-in. 824 00:51:07,898 --> 00:51:09,816 Day four of the hunger strike. 825 00:51:09,900 --> 00:51:13,320 The sound of ambulances is almost everywhere because they do lose… 826 00:51:13,403 --> 00:51:17,991 As soon as the uprising began, the Chinese shut the doors. 827 00:51:18,867 --> 00:51:23,371 Brokaw and Jennings at that point could not get in, 828 00:51:23,455 --> 00:51:26,666 and we had the story completely to ourselves. 829 00:51:28,710 --> 00:51:33,465 There was this new fantastic device called a video camera. 830 00:51:34,299 --> 00:51:38,094 It's just past midnight Beijing time now, under a full moon… 831 00:51:38,178 --> 00:51:39,679 A television network, 832 00:51:39,763 --> 00:51:43,099 if they were willing to spend the money could cover the world. 833 00:51:43,725 --> 00:51:44,810 Hunger strikers had 834 00:51:44,893 --> 00:51:47,646 what may be their last meeting before the army moves in. 835 00:51:47,729 --> 00:51:50,190 There's instantaneous news. 836 00:51:53,109 --> 00:51:57,113 Eventually our live broadcasts from Beijing 837 00:51:57,197 --> 00:51:58,782 were getting so much attention, 838 00:52:00,158 --> 00:52:03,370 the Chinese government made the decision, 839 00:52:03,453 --> 00:52:07,999 "We will not allow you to use our satellites to broadcast." 840 00:52:08,083 --> 00:52:10,502 Shortly before midnight, Eastern Time, 841 00:52:10,585 --> 00:52:13,338 Rather made one last effort to keep broadcasting. 842 00:52:13,421 --> 00:52:16,091 I do protest in the most respectful manner. 843 00:52:16,174 --> 00:52:18,343 But the Chinese had finally had enough. 844 00:52:18,426 --> 00:52:22,305 There would be no more live coverage. The satellite was being shut off. 845 00:52:25,892 --> 00:52:29,354 It was a huge moment both for us, 846 00:52:29,437 --> 00:52:32,315 and a black eye for the Chinese government. 847 00:52:34,192 --> 00:52:39,447 It was amazing to be with Dan at moments of historic significance. 848 00:52:40,031 --> 00:52:43,618 The Berlin Wall. Once, it divided East from West. 849 00:52:44,160 --> 00:52:47,122 Because he understood the value of it, 850 00:52:47,205 --> 00:52:50,250 and he also understood the responsibility of it. 851 00:52:50,333 --> 00:52:52,836 If you were here, the feeling that you would feel 852 00:52:52,919 --> 00:52:56,840 is a kind of combination of 4th of July and Thanksgiving Day. 853 00:52:56,923 --> 00:53:01,678 He was so open to doing what was required. 854 00:53:01,761 --> 00:53:06,516 He was as much a producer as the producer traveling with him. 855 00:53:06,600 --> 00:53:08,935 He'd say, "What do we do? Where do we go?" 856 00:53:09,019 --> 00:53:10,562 How far we could push it. 857 00:53:10,645 --> 00:53:12,689 And he'd be the first out the door. 858 00:53:12,772 --> 00:53:15,942 You know how he'd travel with some gold sewn into his clothes 859 00:53:16,026 --> 00:53:17,569 so he had emergency funds. 860 00:53:18,153 --> 00:53:21,072 He looked at his work like you were in a battle. 861 00:53:21,197 --> 00:53:22,824 Scattered gunshots were heard 862 00:53:22,908 --> 00:53:25,118 as the Marines moved and secured the seaport. 863 00:53:25,201 --> 00:53:27,370 Airport terminal building, Mogadishu. 864 00:53:27,454 --> 00:53:30,081 Out there in the darkness, US Navy SEALs… 865 00:53:30,165 --> 00:53:35,128 There is a bond that comes on people working on a broadcast, 866 00:53:35,211 --> 00:53:39,591 not unlike soldiers fighting in the field together. 867 00:53:39,674 --> 00:53:42,218 You depend upon one another. 868 00:53:43,845 --> 00:53:45,680 He truly believed that 869 00:53:45,764 --> 00:53:50,143 he could tell the story better than anyone else. 870 00:53:51,061 --> 00:53:55,857 He knew the politics. His preparation gave us, 871 00:53:55,941 --> 00:53:58,693 the grunts who worked with him, a lot of confidence. 872 00:54:00,236 --> 00:54:02,447 You know, reporters get paid to be skeptical. 873 00:54:03,323 --> 00:54:04,783 Here we go. Quiet down. 874 00:54:06,159 --> 00:54:09,913 It didn't matter what Dan Rather reported on, 875 00:54:09,996 --> 00:54:12,916 he was going to be labeled a liberal, 876 00:54:12,999 --> 00:54:18,713 and oftentimes it came from people who just didn't want to hear the truth. 877 00:54:19,464 --> 00:54:21,132 The real threat to freedom, 878 00:54:21,216 --> 00:54:23,635 the real threat to freedom of speech, 879 00:54:23,718 --> 00:54:26,096 and the real threat to our constitutional system 880 00:54:26,179 --> 00:54:27,931 is on our TV screens every evening 881 00:54:28,014 --> 00:54:30,600 and on the front pages of our newspapers every day. 882 00:54:31,977 --> 00:54:34,521 The press has always had an adversarial relationship 883 00:54:34,604 --> 00:54:36,982 with the government because that's part of their job, 884 00:54:37,065 --> 00:54:39,067 and what the Founding Fathers wanted. 885 00:54:39,150 --> 00:54:42,278 Is it as strong as we thought it was gonna be in terms of its content? 886 00:54:42,362 --> 00:54:43,989 Yes, yes. It is. It's very strong. 887 00:54:44,072 --> 00:54:46,241 Everything started coming unglued 888 00:54:46,324 --> 00:54:48,493 with the rise of Ronald Reagan. 889 00:54:48,576 --> 00:54:51,204 Reagan is all about deregulating, 890 00:54:51,287 --> 00:54:55,667 and cable turns out to be the friend of the right 891 00:54:55,750 --> 00:55:00,213 because they're able to create constituency television. 892 00:55:00,964 --> 00:55:06,964 The only way to really stop what we see as a slide towards liberalism in this country 893 00:55:07,679 --> 00:55:11,683 is to bring an end to the bias, 894 00:55:11,766 --> 00:55:13,727 the liberal bias that exists in the major media. 895 00:55:13,810 --> 00:55:17,022 Today, Helms spoke of journalists who he said have 896 00:55:17,105 --> 00:55:20,442 "forgotten the God that the rest of us believed blessed us." 897 00:55:20,525 --> 00:55:26,031 And "if they do not hate America, have smug contempt for American ideals." 898 00:55:26,114 --> 00:55:27,282 End of quote. 899 00:55:27,365 --> 00:55:28,825 This one is Dan Rather. 900 00:55:31,077 --> 00:55:34,873 If it looked like the right wing was out to get Dan Rather, 901 00:55:34,956 --> 00:55:36,666 you were right, they were. 902 00:55:36,750 --> 00:55:38,209 And they still are. 903 00:55:38,293 --> 00:55:41,796 Republican Senator Jesse Helms wants to take over CBS. 904 00:55:41,880 --> 00:55:43,923 He says if one million Conservatives 905 00:55:44,007 --> 00:55:46,760 each buys 20 shares in the broadcast network, 906 00:55:46,843 --> 00:55:50,430 they can take it over and "become Dan Rather's boss." 907 00:55:50,513 --> 00:55:54,225 It seems Jesse Helms feels CBS is the most anti-Reagan network, 908 00:55:54,309 --> 00:55:55,393 and by taking it over 909 00:55:55,477 --> 00:55:58,521 Conservatives can end what they feel is biased reporting. 910 00:55:59,856 --> 00:56:03,193 The fact that Dan Rather is located by some people 911 00:56:03,276 --> 00:56:05,361 as a uniquely malevolent figure 912 00:56:05,445 --> 00:56:08,364 is merely evidence that he has done his job. 913 00:56:08,448 --> 00:56:09,949 0%. 914 00:56:10,033 --> 00:56:14,079 0% said they thought that you cared a great deal 915 00:56:14,162 --> 00:56:15,997 about the needs and problems of the poor. 916 00:56:16,081 --> 00:56:19,000 Now, let's set aside what you've done or have not done. 917 00:56:19,084 --> 00:56:21,419 Do you think that you need to do something 918 00:56:21,503 --> 00:56:24,714 that Blacks will perceive as being positive for them? 919 00:56:26,299 --> 00:56:30,470 I don't know whether they would hear about it. 920 00:56:31,054 --> 00:56:34,474 I think we have been doing things that are positive for them. 921 00:56:34,557 --> 00:56:36,476 A good journalist to me 922 00:56:36,559 --> 00:56:40,522 is willing to be very unliked and unpopular in the moment 923 00:56:40,605 --> 00:56:43,191 and willing to be hated. 924 00:56:43,733 --> 00:56:45,193 If you're gonna be in journalism 925 00:56:45,276 --> 00:56:47,487 and you wanna be loved, you better get a dog. 926 00:56:54,661 --> 00:56:56,454 "Kenneth, what's the frequency?" 927 00:56:56,538 --> 00:56:59,332 Those strange, unexplained words may hold the clue 928 00:56:59,415 --> 00:57:04,671 to the identities of two well-dressed men who attacked CBS newscaster Dan Rather. 929 00:57:04,754 --> 00:57:07,882 As Rather began walking south down Park Avenue, 930 00:57:07,966 --> 00:57:12,387 he said two well-dressed men in dark suits and white shirts approached him. 931 00:57:12,470 --> 00:57:16,099 According to police, one of the men said, "Kenneth, what is the frequency?" 932 00:57:16,182 --> 00:57:19,060 When Rather replied, "You have the wrong guy," 933 00:57:19,144 --> 00:57:21,771 Rather said one of the men punched him in the head, 934 00:57:21,855 --> 00:57:24,649 knocked him to the ground and kicked him repeatedly. 935 00:57:27,110 --> 00:57:30,113 Everybody who disliked Dan for whatever reason, 936 00:57:30,196 --> 00:57:33,700 particularly politicians, didn't believe the story. 937 00:57:34,576 --> 00:57:36,453 The motive remains a mystery. 938 00:57:36,536 --> 00:57:39,038 It doesn't appear to have been a robbery attempt, 939 00:57:39,122 --> 00:57:42,000 and police say it may have been just a case of mistaken identity. 940 00:57:42,083 --> 00:57:45,420 Meanwhile, they're still searching for Dan Rather's attackers. 941 00:57:45,503 --> 00:57:49,883 People thought that he faked his own assault? 942 00:57:50,467 --> 00:57:51,634 Dan Rather? 943 00:57:52,719 --> 00:57:54,220 Straight-arrow Dan Rather? 944 00:57:54,929 --> 00:57:57,307 The What's-the-Frequency guy got caught. 945 00:57:57,390 --> 00:58:01,019 He was a real person, and he was a real dangerous person. 946 00:58:01,102 --> 00:58:03,646 He killed someone at the Today show. 947 00:58:03,730 --> 00:58:06,941 Tager is charged with pumping the bullets into Theron's body 948 00:58:07,025 --> 00:58:09,611 outside of the Today show studios Wednesday… 949 00:58:09,694 --> 00:58:11,112 People thought it was funny. 950 00:58:11,196 --> 00:58:13,448 It wasn't funny. He… he nearly died. 951 00:58:13,531 --> 00:58:16,367 He has injuries to this day from that assault. 952 00:58:16,993 --> 00:58:20,455 My dad could have easily lost his life and got beaten within an inch of it. 953 00:58:21,164 --> 00:58:24,834 But a couple years later, R.E.M. made a really great song out of it. 954 00:58:32,967 --> 00:58:35,094 One, two, three, four. 955 00:58:35,595 --> 00:58:37,597 ♪ What's the frequency, Kenneth? ♪ 956 00:58:37,680 --> 00:58:40,141 And my dad can't dance or sing worth a flip 957 00:58:40,225 --> 00:58:42,602 but somehow he went and sang with R.E.M. 958 00:58:42,685 --> 00:58:45,813 And it's one of the geekiest, most embarrassing clips 959 00:58:45,897 --> 00:58:49,067 my dad has ever done, but he's hilarious. 960 00:58:49,150 --> 00:58:51,152 He's a really fun dad. 961 00:58:52,237 --> 00:58:55,782 A leading psychologist says that Dan Rather is troubled, 962 00:58:55,865 --> 00:58:58,451 but David Turkat of the media psychology newsletter 963 00:58:58,535 --> 00:59:01,996 says that exactly what is troubling him, only he knows. 964 00:59:03,248 --> 00:59:07,502 There was a school of people who thought Dan was a little nuts, 965 00:59:07,585 --> 00:59:09,629 that he was gonna crack on the air. 966 00:59:09,712 --> 00:59:13,758 He was considered to be intense, 967 00:59:13,841 --> 00:59:15,843 maybe divisive, 968 00:59:15,927 --> 00:59:19,556 and maybe frankly a little off. 969 00:59:19,639 --> 00:59:21,641 - ♪ Uh-huh ♪ - [Dan mouthing along] 970 00:59:21,724 --> 00:59:22,934 Whoo! 971 00:59:24,435 --> 00:59:26,813 When you're anchorman, you have to be thoughtful 972 00:59:26,896 --> 00:59:28,398 and careful about what you say 973 00:59:28,481 --> 00:59:31,776 because you represent the institution, CBS News, 974 00:59:31,859 --> 00:59:33,403 and you're talking to the nation. 975 00:59:33,486 --> 00:59:35,655 So, in some ways he was a chained tiger 976 00:59:35,738 --> 00:59:38,074 and occasionally he'd get into trouble for it. 977 00:59:42,870 --> 00:59:47,417 There was a sports overrun in Miami that would push the Evening News 978 00:59:47,500 --> 00:59:49,460 maybe even off the air in the East Coast. 979 00:59:49,544 --> 00:59:52,589 Rather was told the Steffi Graf-Lori McNeil tennis match 980 00:59:52,672 --> 00:59:55,508 would run late, delaying the start of his newscast. 981 00:59:55,592 --> 00:59:59,095 Rather reported to be angry about the late start, called New York, 982 00:59:59,178 --> 01:00:01,764 and when the tennis match finally ended, 983 01:00:01,848 --> 01:00:05,435 instead of Rather news, affiliates received nothing. 984 01:00:05,518 --> 01:00:06,518 Black. 985 01:00:06,978 --> 01:00:08,771 Dan was not in the chair. 986 01:00:08,855 --> 01:00:12,692 And that was the wrong thing to do. 987 01:00:12,775 --> 01:00:14,819 Some network affiliate executives say 988 01:00:14,902 --> 01:00:19,157 that Rather was trying to make a point that the news should have gone on on time, 989 01:00:19,240 --> 01:00:21,200 and that he was acting like a prima donna. 990 01:00:21,284 --> 01:00:23,202 I think he was angry. 991 01:00:23,286 --> 01:00:25,330 Do you see this as a general drift 992 01:00:25,413 --> 01:00:27,457 of entertainment versus the news? 993 01:00:27,540 --> 01:00:30,251 Of course I do, because that's where the money is. 994 01:00:30,335 --> 01:00:35,006 You can have a stellar career, but there can be mistakes. 995 01:00:37,216 --> 01:00:38,718 Okay. I do. 996 01:00:38,801 --> 01:00:40,928 We need to raise the audio, just a little low. 997 01:00:41,012 --> 01:00:43,389 10 seconds. Open up, Dan, full 9. 998 01:00:43,931 --> 01:00:47,518 Eight, seven, six, five… 999 01:00:47,602 --> 01:00:50,021 The climax of this convention comes tomorrow night. 1000 01:00:50,104 --> 01:00:52,357 George Bush will deliver his acceptance speech 1001 01:00:52,440 --> 01:00:55,151 to delegates here and to a national TV audience. 1002 01:00:55,234 --> 01:00:57,528 His political career on the line. 1003 01:00:57,612 --> 01:01:01,199 Early on, one of the senior producers 1004 01:01:01,282 --> 01:01:05,453 had written a letter asking for a general interview 1005 01:01:05,536 --> 01:01:08,581 that we asked all of the candidates to do. 1006 01:01:08,665 --> 01:01:11,709 Many felt, rightly or wrongly, that Vice President Bush 1007 01:01:11,793 --> 01:01:14,379 is hiding information that the public ought to know. 1008 01:01:14,462 --> 01:01:19,175 The Iran-Contra scandal was very much in the air. 1009 01:01:19,258 --> 01:01:21,219 We really like what we've got. 1010 01:01:21,302 --> 01:01:24,097 Saying arms have been traded for hostages. 1011 01:01:24,180 --> 01:01:26,224 - To the mad Iranians. - To the Iranians. 1012 01:01:26,307 --> 01:01:29,352 And the White House saying, "Absolutely no way." 1013 01:01:29,435 --> 01:01:32,689 The question was, what was Bush's role in this? 1014 01:01:32,772 --> 01:01:36,442 Which at that point he was saying, "I didn't have anything to do with it." 1015 01:01:36,526 --> 01:01:41,656 The question about arms for hostages has been answered over and over again. 1016 01:01:41,739 --> 01:01:46,327 Roger Ailes, who was an advisor to Bush, 1017 01:01:46,411 --> 01:01:48,955 agreed to a live interview. 1018 01:01:49,038 --> 01:01:54,293 And the problem in a live interview is that the clock is running out on you. 1019 01:01:54,377 --> 01:01:56,379 Mr. Vice President, thank you for being with us. 1020 01:01:56,462 --> 01:01:58,840 Donald Gregg still serves as your trusted advisor. 1021 01:01:58,923 --> 01:02:01,050 He was deeply involved in running arms for the Contras 1022 01:02:01,134 --> 01:02:02,677 and he didn't inform you. 1023 01:02:02,760 --> 01:02:06,264 Why is Mr. Gregg still in the White House and still a trusted advisor? 1024 01:02:06,347 --> 01:02:08,182 Because I have confidence in him, 1025 01:02:08,266 --> 01:02:12,145 and because this matter, Dan, as you well know, and your editors know, 1026 01:02:12,228 --> 01:02:15,732 has been looked at by the $10-million study 1027 01:02:15,815 --> 01:02:17,275 by the Senate and the House. 1028 01:02:17,358 --> 01:02:21,946 And Roger Ailes, then advising Bush, 1029 01:02:22,029 --> 01:02:27,577 saw an opening in which Bush could be the tough guy by saying, 1030 01:02:27,660 --> 01:02:29,620 "You asked me for a general interview." 1031 01:02:30,580 --> 01:02:33,583 Now if this is a political profile for an election, 1032 01:02:33,666 --> 01:02:36,627 I have a very different opinion as to what one should be. 1033 01:02:36,711 --> 01:02:39,756 You said that if you had known this was an arms-for-hostages swap, 1034 01:02:39,839 --> 01:02:41,340 that you would've opposed it. 1035 01:02:41,424 --> 01:02:43,801 - Exactly. - You also said that you did not know... 1036 01:02:43,885 --> 01:02:46,721 - May I answer that? - It wasn't a question. It was a statement. 1037 01:02:46,804 --> 01:02:48,181 A statement, and I'll answer it. 1038 01:02:48,264 --> 01:02:50,391 What nobody saw at home was that 1039 01:02:50,475 --> 01:02:53,936 Roger Ailes was holding up cue cards for George Bush 1040 01:02:54,020 --> 01:02:56,147 and giving him the answers. 1041 01:02:57,940 --> 01:03:03,940 Roger Ailes was a master at manipulation and creating scenes. 1042 01:03:04,739 --> 01:03:06,824 Did Dan fall into the trap? Yeah. 1043 01:03:06,908 --> 01:03:09,327 You set the rules for this talk here. 1044 01:03:09,410 --> 01:03:12,497 I didn't mean to step on your line, but you insisted that this be live, 1045 01:03:12,580 --> 01:03:14,415 and you know we have a limited amount of time. 1046 01:03:14,499 --> 01:03:16,793 I am in the control room. 1047 01:03:16,876 --> 01:03:20,880 When it gets that intense, Dan can't listen to me. 1048 01:03:20,963 --> 01:03:24,300 So all I'm doing is saying, "Three minutes." 1049 01:03:24,383 --> 01:03:25,760 May I explain out of the loop? 1050 01:03:25,843 --> 01:03:28,095 No operational role. Go ahead. 1051 01:03:28,179 --> 01:03:30,765 You said if you knew it was an arms-for-hostages swap, 1052 01:03:30,848 --> 01:03:32,809 you'd oppose it. You said the first you knew… 1053 01:03:32,892 --> 01:03:37,980 Four minutes within a broadcast that has only 22 minutes of air time. 1054 01:03:38,064 --> 01:03:41,526 We can't go any further than six minutes. 1055 01:03:41,609 --> 01:03:42,609 …what they were doing. 1056 01:03:42,652 --> 01:03:47,198 How can you reconcile you were there on three separate occasions… 1057 01:03:47,281 --> 01:03:49,450 I wasn't in the studio that day 1058 01:03:50,284 --> 01:03:54,163 and I came back and I knew the impact it was gonna have. 1059 01:03:54,247 --> 01:03:57,416 - I expressed my concerns and reservations. - That you can't remember it. 1060 01:03:57,500 --> 01:04:00,628 - Others say he was apoplectic. - Maybe I wasn't there at that point. 1061 01:04:00,711 --> 01:04:03,631 Lesley Stahl and I are in Iowa for the primary. 1062 01:04:03,714 --> 01:04:06,509 We're in the back room and we're sitting there watching it, 1063 01:04:06,592 --> 01:04:10,429 and we're holding onto each other like we were watching a horror film 1064 01:04:10,513 --> 01:04:12,640 'cause we thought it was really bad. 1065 01:04:13,224 --> 01:04:16,894 It's not fair to judge my whole career by a rehash on Iran. 1066 01:04:16,978 --> 01:04:19,188 How would you like it if I judged your career 1067 01:04:19,272 --> 01:04:21,941 by those seven minutes when you walked off the set in New York? 1068 01:04:22,024 --> 01:04:23,025 Mr. Vice President... 1069 01:04:23,109 --> 01:04:25,570 I respect you but not for what you're doing tonight. 1070 01:04:25,653 --> 01:04:28,281 Six minutes, I'm saying, "Cut." 1071 01:04:28,364 --> 01:04:30,408 Iran was officially a terrorist state. 1072 01:04:30,491 --> 01:04:32,410 "You've gotta stop. You've gotta stop." 1073 01:04:32,493 --> 01:04:36,122 Are you willing to go to a news conference before Iowa caucuses, 1074 01:04:36,205 --> 01:04:39,500 - answer questions from all... - Been to 86 news conferences since March. 1075 01:04:39,584 --> 01:04:41,669 - 86 since March. - I gather that the answer is "no." 1076 01:04:41,752 --> 01:04:44,297 Thank you very much for being with us, Mr. Vice President. 1077 01:04:44,881 --> 01:04:46,966 We'll be back with more news in a moment. 1078 01:04:48,259 --> 01:04:49,760 Good morning. Good morning. 1079 01:04:50,803 --> 01:04:53,514 We don't misrepresent. We come straight at people. 1080 01:04:54,181 --> 01:04:56,183 That's my record and my history, 1081 01:04:56,267 --> 01:04:58,477 and that's CBS News's record and its history. 1082 01:04:58,561 --> 01:04:59,478 Clearly understand… 1083 01:04:59,562 --> 01:05:01,480 That's Dan unchained, 1084 01:05:01,564 --> 01:05:04,066 and I knew Dan was going to get in trouble for it. 1085 01:05:04,734 --> 01:05:06,611 As a flaming executive, 1086 01:05:06,694 --> 01:05:09,363 I knew I was gonna have to deal with the consequences. 1087 01:05:09,447 --> 01:05:11,991 It was an important… very important issue 1088 01:05:12,074 --> 01:05:15,661 which Dan Rather pursued characteristically with energy. 1089 01:05:15,745 --> 01:05:17,455 That's what Dan does for a living, 1090 01:05:17,538 --> 01:05:20,583 that's what a great reporter does for a living. 1091 01:05:20,666 --> 01:05:23,127 I called a couple people in New York 1092 01:05:23,210 --> 01:05:29,133 and they were thrilled with it, and I was horrified. 1093 01:05:29,216 --> 01:05:31,302 We promoted all weekend long on our air, 1094 01:05:31,385 --> 01:05:34,639 an interview with the Vice President on the Iran-Contra Affair. 1095 01:05:34,722 --> 01:05:36,557 It was in the morning papers 1096 01:05:36,641 --> 01:05:39,685 and why the Vice President didn't understand that, we don't know. 1097 01:05:39,769 --> 01:05:44,857 The headlines the next day were exactly what Roger Ailes and Bush wanted, 1098 01:05:44,941 --> 01:05:48,986 that "Rather bushwhacks the Vice President." 1099 01:05:49,070 --> 01:05:51,989 The Bush people say he was bushwhacked. 1100 01:05:53,032 --> 01:05:56,994 Well, maybe they were interested in the alliteration more than the reality. 1101 01:05:57,078 --> 01:06:01,916 It made Dan Rather a central character in that election. 1102 01:06:02,541 --> 01:06:05,628 Good evening. A heated exchange between Vice President George Bush 1103 01:06:05,711 --> 01:06:07,964 and CBS anchor Dan Rather about the Vice President's… 1104 01:06:08,047 --> 01:06:09,674 Morning. Rather's a jerk. 1105 01:06:09,757 --> 01:06:12,259 This lady thinks Rather's ears should be pinned back, 1106 01:06:12,343 --> 01:06:15,012 and if the Vice President can stand up to him, he can to anybody. 1107 01:06:15,096 --> 01:06:19,642 I think George Bush has decided that press bashing is a blood sport. 1108 01:06:19,725 --> 01:06:22,395 He picked out Dan Rather last night and had a shot at him. 1109 01:06:22,478 --> 01:06:26,190 My job is to ask honest questions and try to get honest answers, 1110 01:06:26,273 --> 01:06:27,817 and I'm comfortable with that. 1111 01:06:27,900 --> 01:06:30,528 It's not always comfortable for everybody involved, 1112 01:06:30,611 --> 01:06:32,154 but I'm comfortable being a reporter. 1113 01:06:32,238 --> 01:06:34,073 I'm lucky to have this job. I like it a lot. 1114 01:06:34,156 --> 01:06:37,118 I wanna get to it. Thanks. 1115 01:06:37,201 --> 01:06:40,246 - Thanks a lot. - If you'll let us get to work. 1116 01:06:40,329 --> 01:06:42,748 People'd say, "Why is he always in the news?" 1117 01:06:42,832 --> 01:06:44,917 That's the dangerous thing about publicity. 1118 01:06:45,001 --> 01:06:48,671 The spotlight burns as much as it illuminates. 1119 01:06:48,754 --> 01:06:52,299 When you're in the spotlight all the time, you'll get into trouble 1120 01:06:52,383 --> 01:06:54,552 because there are people looking to get you. 1121 01:06:56,262 --> 01:06:59,974 Elephants never forget. Republicans never forget. 1122 01:07:00,558 --> 01:07:02,059 They're shrewd tacticians, 1123 01:07:03,144 --> 01:07:05,771 but more importantly, they're long-term strategists. 1124 01:07:07,773 --> 01:07:10,317 Fox News Channel. Fair and balanced. 1125 01:07:10,401 --> 01:07:12,737 Where news is going where news should be. 1126 01:07:12,820 --> 01:07:15,698 What I recognized was, the American people 1127 01:07:15,781 --> 01:07:17,616 didn't wanna be told what to think 1128 01:07:17,700 --> 01:07:19,577 about the information they were receiving. 1129 01:07:19,660 --> 01:07:20,953 So we came up with, 1130 01:07:21,037 --> 01:07:23,372 "We report, you decide. Fair and balanced." 1131 01:07:28,002 --> 01:07:30,588 There is a master propagandist at work. 1132 01:07:30,671 --> 01:07:33,466 If you look at the three networks, ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN, 1133 01:07:33,549 --> 01:07:36,635 but take the three commercial, not cable networks, 1134 01:07:36,719 --> 01:07:38,220 any difference in those newscasts? 1135 01:07:38,304 --> 01:07:42,141 I think by and large, ABC and NBC come at it pretty straight. 1136 01:07:42,224 --> 01:07:43,642 - Do you really? - Yeah. 1137 01:07:43,726 --> 01:07:45,561 And it's only CBS that you think is biased... 1138 01:07:45,644 --> 01:07:48,355 Well, I think it's Dan Rather who hates George Bush, 1139 01:07:48,439 --> 01:07:49,815 wants to nail him every night. 1140 01:07:49,899 --> 01:07:52,693 Dan Rather is upset because George Bush knocked him on his fanny 1141 01:07:52,777 --> 01:07:55,112 in 1988 in that debate. 1142 01:07:55,196 --> 01:08:00,951 I don't think that Dan was trying to make something happen politically. 1143 01:08:01,035 --> 01:08:04,622 - You don't think he's out to ding… - Oh, abso… What? 1144 01:08:05,706 --> 01:08:07,833 Let's not kid ourselves. Of course he is. 1145 01:08:07,917 --> 01:08:10,044 But it was useful for Ailes 1146 01:08:10,127 --> 01:08:13,506 to act like this is a representative of the Democrats, 1147 01:08:13,589 --> 01:08:17,218 this is a lefty, and we need to take him down. 1148 01:08:17,843 --> 01:08:21,514 It's useful to have a demon to vilify. 1149 01:08:22,223 --> 01:08:25,392 It's one of the ways that this effort works. 1150 01:08:27,895 --> 01:08:30,689 When Ailes came in, he said, 1151 01:08:30,773 --> 01:08:33,943 "I have a vision to serve part of the country" 1152 01:08:34,026 --> 01:08:37,113 "that I don't think has been served in the news" 1153 01:08:37,196 --> 01:08:38,781 "in a more conservative approach." 1154 01:08:39,490 --> 01:08:42,243 How did you do it? I mean, tell me what the formula is. 1155 01:08:42,326 --> 01:08:44,829 - Whatever the ratings comparison is… - Right. 1156 01:08:44,912 --> 01:08:48,332 …has led Fox News channel to be considered. 1157 01:08:48,415 --> 01:08:49,708 Here to stay. 1158 01:08:49,792 --> 01:08:53,504 I think it all comes down to people and a vision and... 1159 01:08:53,587 --> 01:08:55,089 So what's the vision? 1160 01:08:55,172 --> 01:08:59,135 Roger Ailes is a man with a very strongly held set of views 1161 01:08:59,218 --> 01:09:01,929 about how he wants the world to work. Okay? 1162 01:09:02,012 --> 01:09:05,766 And what he did was he took all of his brain power and energy 1163 01:09:05,850 --> 01:09:07,059 and Rupert Murdoch's money 1164 01:09:07,143 --> 01:09:10,980 to establish a system, an information processing system, 1165 01:09:11,063 --> 01:09:14,650 that delivers to an audience Roger Ailes's worldview. 1166 01:09:16,777 --> 01:09:21,740 The culture of cable news partisanship is not limited to Fox. 1167 01:09:21,824 --> 01:09:26,036 I think that it's a pitfall on both sides of the aisle. 1168 01:09:26,745 --> 01:09:31,125 But Fox has been uniquely significant in pioneering a model 1169 01:09:31,208 --> 01:09:36,881 that entwines showmanship and partisan rancor. 1170 01:09:36,964 --> 01:09:41,260 But the philosophy is that in primetime you have to create personalities. 1171 01:09:41,343 --> 01:09:44,138 - Is that the idea? - Yeah. You have to create ratings. 1172 01:09:44,221 --> 01:09:46,140 In the end, it's about ratings. 1173 01:09:46,223 --> 01:09:51,729 Roger Ailes really was a canny and talented inventor of that model, 1174 01:09:51,812 --> 01:09:54,190 certainly a popularizer of it. 1175 01:09:54,273 --> 01:09:56,984 Not only do today's liberals, many of them, 1176 01:09:57,067 --> 01:09:58,736 hate our American traditions… 1177 01:09:58,819 --> 01:10:03,699 Nothing will get better in this country until the culture changes. 1178 01:10:03,782 --> 01:10:06,911 Right now it's really easy to monetize crap. 1179 01:10:07,953 --> 01:10:11,040 As we've learned of late, you can make up your own truth 1180 01:10:11,123 --> 01:10:13,751 and enough people will believe it. 1181 01:10:13,834 --> 01:10:16,879 We have to tell the truth to our viewers, that's a minimum. 1182 01:10:17,463 --> 01:10:21,634 We can all be confused from time to time based on circumstances. 1183 01:10:21,717 --> 01:10:23,844 But the sky is blue, and the water is wet. 1184 01:10:24,428 --> 01:10:29,058 And anybody who begins with something other than those kinds of truth 1185 01:10:29,141 --> 01:10:30,726 doesn't deserve our time. 1186 01:10:30,809 --> 01:10:34,146 And you watch Dan Rather for a while and you know who he is. 1187 01:10:34,230 --> 01:10:36,607 He's a truth teller. He's a truth seeker. 1188 01:10:37,983 --> 01:10:39,735 Dan doesn't take sides. 1189 01:10:40,319 --> 01:10:45,491 He pulls every lever he can to get every ounce of truth 1190 01:10:45,574 --> 01:10:47,743 out of every person he interviews. 1191 01:10:49,036 --> 01:10:53,707 Could you describe to me what you believe to be the responsibilities of a husband 1192 01:10:53,791 --> 01:10:55,251 of a United States Senator? 1193 01:10:59,588 --> 01:11:01,465 I don't know, but I'm willing to fulfill them. 1194 01:11:01,548 --> 01:11:03,801 It didn't matter if he was at the White House 1195 01:11:03,884 --> 01:11:06,762 or at a flood or at a hurricane. 1196 01:11:06,845 --> 01:11:10,224 The wind doesn't get much worse than it is right here. 1197 01:11:10,307 --> 01:11:12,851 When you want to know what it feels like, 1198 01:11:12,935 --> 01:11:16,605 Dan Rather brings you there. 1199 01:11:17,856 --> 01:11:19,316 Showdown with Saddam. 1200 01:11:19,400 --> 01:11:21,026 The deadline for war. 1201 01:11:21,110 --> 01:11:23,612 Commando missions set up inside Iraq 1202 01:11:23,696 --> 01:11:27,574 as huge force prepares to invade on a moment's notice. 1203 01:11:29,702 --> 01:11:34,123 At the height of the Iraq War, I was a frequent flyer to Baghdad. 1204 01:11:34,206 --> 01:11:36,875 Are you afraid of being killed or captured? 1205 01:11:39,503 --> 01:11:42,631 I get a phone call, and it was the press person, and he said, 1206 01:11:42,715 --> 01:11:44,758 "Boy, do I have the mother of all stories for you." 1207 01:11:44,842 --> 01:11:46,927 And I said, "What?" and he goes, 1208 01:11:47,011 --> 01:11:51,974 "There are pictures of American soldiers" 1209 01:11:52,057 --> 01:11:54,810 "treating prisoners disrespectfully," 1210 01:11:55,769 --> 01:11:57,771 "borderline torturing them," 1211 01:11:57,855 --> 01:11:59,940 "and no one's talking about it." 1212 01:12:00,024 --> 01:12:01,942 So we started tracking and hunting that story. 1213 01:12:09,366 --> 01:12:13,412 You'll see some of the pictures that led to the Army investigation. 1214 01:12:13,495 --> 01:12:16,915 We want to warn you, the pictures are difficult to look at. 1215 01:12:18,083 --> 01:12:20,836 Americans did this to an Iraqi prisoner. 1216 01:12:21,420 --> 01:12:22,963 According to the US Army, 1217 01:12:23,047 --> 01:12:27,426 the man was told to stand on a box with his head covered, 1218 01:12:27,509 --> 01:12:30,179 with wires attached to his hands. 1219 01:12:30,262 --> 01:12:34,183 He was told that if he fell off the box, he would be electrocuted. 1220 01:12:34,975 --> 01:12:36,977 When it comes to people, 1221 01:12:37,061 --> 01:12:40,439 American soldiers risking their lives for our country 1222 01:12:40,522 --> 01:12:44,401 versus a few bad eggs, I guess you could say, 1223 01:12:44,485 --> 01:12:46,445 and how much weight you give that story, 1224 01:12:46,528 --> 01:12:49,907 it doesn't feel good to do that, but it's still an important story. 1225 01:12:50,866 --> 01:12:54,620 There are bodies that were eaten by dogs, tortured, 1226 01:12:55,454 --> 01:12:58,957 you know, electrodes coming out of walls, scratches on the walls… 1227 01:12:59,041 --> 01:13:00,209 It was an awful place. 1228 01:13:00,292 --> 01:13:03,045 We went into Iraq to stop things like this from happening. 1229 01:13:03,128 --> 01:13:05,881 And indeed, here they are happening under our tutelage. 1230 01:13:07,966 --> 01:13:11,178 When we got the story, strange things began to happen. 1231 01:13:11,762 --> 01:13:13,562 "We're not gonna put it on the air this week." 1232 01:13:13,639 --> 01:13:16,934 "We want another week to work on it. We think you can improve it." 1233 01:13:17,017 --> 01:13:19,686 I said, "Wait a minute. We've got the story." 1234 01:13:20,270 --> 01:13:23,982 So one week led to two weeks, led to three weeks. 1235 01:13:25,859 --> 01:13:29,321 They held it off the air until we came to them and said, 1236 01:13:29,405 --> 01:13:32,950 "Some of the sources on this story who have helped us do it," 1237 01:13:33,033 --> 01:13:35,285 "have become convinced you're not going to run it," 1238 01:13:35,369 --> 01:13:36,995 "and they're talking to Sy Hersh." 1239 01:13:37,079 --> 01:13:39,373 One of the great investigative reporters of our time. 1240 01:13:39,456 --> 01:13:42,668 That got their attention, because now they're in a box. 1241 01:13:44,211 --> 01:13:48,048 Very big business is in bed with very big government. 1242 01:13:49,174 --> 01:13:52,970 They don't want reporters digging around on stories that can embarrass them. 1243 01:13:53,053 --> 01:13:56,974 Two weeks ago, we received an appeal to delay this broadcast, 1244 01:13:57,057 --> 01:13:59,852 given the danger and tension on the ground in Iraq. 1245 01:13:59,935 --> 01:14:03,689 This week, with the photos beginning to circulate elsewhere, 1246 01:14:03,772 --> 01:14:07,359 and with other journalists about to publish their versions of the story, 1247 01:14:07,443 --> 01:14:10,362 the Defense Department agreed to cooperate in our report. 1248 01:14:11,155 --> 01:14:12,948 60 Minutes II was on a roll. 1249 01:14:14,074 --> 01:14:16,452 They had just reported the Abu Ghraib story. 1250 01:14:16,535 --> 01:14:18,662 I mean, they were rocking. 1251 01:14:18,745 --> 01:14:23,625 Accepting the Peabody Award, Dan Rather, correspondent for 60 Minutes. 1252 01:14:23,709 --> 01:14:27,421 When it comes striving to meet the responsibilities of the public trust, 1253 01:14:28,297 --> 01:14:30,799 that is the practice of journalism in this country… 1254 01:14:30,883 --> 01:14:32,718 Everyone was flying high. 1255 01:14:32,801 --> 01:14:35,846 We've done an award-winning story that everyone's talking about. 1256 01:14:35,929 --> 01:14:39,850 US officials are making changes at Abu Ghraib prison. 1257 01:14:39,933 --> 01:14:43,437 Today, the US military set free more than 300 inmates. 1258 01:14:43,520 --> 01:14:49,520 What took place in that prison does not represent America that I know. 1259 01:14:50,402 --> 01:14:53,071 There's a little bit of a Teflon that goes up, you know, 1260 01:14:53,155 --> 01:14:56,617 "Okay, don't mess with them. They are on a roll. Let them keep going." 1261 01:14:57,743 --> 01:15:02,789 The outcome of this election will set the direction of the war against terror. 1262 01:15:06,460 --> 01:15:08,295 The prospect of doing a piece 1263 01:15:08,378 --> 01:15:12,299 on George W. Bush's highly irregular military career 1264 01:15:12,382 --> 01:15:17,638 was something that producer Mary Mapes had first mentioned to me in 2000. 1265 01:15:17,721 --> 01:15:19,598 385, 386. 1266 01:15:20,974 --> 01:15:25,395 If you have a commander-in-chief who is commanding two overseas wars, 1267 01:15:25,479 --> 01:15:30,025 what he did and didn't do when it was his time to serve, 1268 01:15:30,108 --> 01:15:31,193 that's a story. 1269 01:15:31,860 --> 01:15:36,490 And if it turns out that he avoided going to a combat area 1270 01:15:36,573 --> 01:15:39,159 through the influence of his father, 1271 01:15:39,243 --> 01:15:43,163 and then disappeared while he was supposed to be on duty, for a year, 1272 01:15:43,247 --> 01:15:47,167 whether he was a Democrat or Republican, that's a story. 1273 01:15:48,043 --> 01:15:52,548 Sometimes you can be blinded by a story 1274 01:15:52,631 --> 01:15:57,719 that you think points out an inequity and a special treatment. 1275 01:15:57,803 --> 01:16:01,765 The bottom line is you gotta have the goods. 1276 01:16:02,474 --> 01:16:06,603 Did then-Lieutenant Bush fulfill all of his military commitments? 1277 01:16:06,687 --> 01:16:10,274 CBS showed what it said are exclusively obtained memos, 1278 01:16:10,357 --> 01:16:15,112 supposedly proving that three decades ago, Bush did not follow orders. 1279 01:16:15,195 --> 01:16:17,531 The memos have come under withering criticism 1280 01:16:17,614 --> 01:16:19,866 with several experts saying they're fake. 1281 01:16:20,909 --> 01:16:24,830 We had a document which I believed was what it purported to be. 1282 01:16:26,081 --> 01:16:29,626 Was the information coming from a flawed source? 1283 01:16:29,710 --> 01:16:33,630 That was really the crux of the problem. 1284 01:16:34,840 --> 01:16:36,508 The story was true. 1285 01:16:36,592 --> 01:16:40,429 Because it was true, those who wanted to discredit the story 1286 01:16:40,512 --> 01:16:43,932 had to attack the process by which we got to the truth. 1287 01:16:45,309 --> 01:16:48,270 The Republican party had become very adept 1288 01:16:48,353 --> 01:16:53,442 at going on the offensive by coming up with schemes. 1289 01:16:54,067 --> 01:16:57,112 And Rather was the bane of the Bush family. 1290 01:16:57,195 --> 01:16:58,655 They despised him. 1291 01:16:59,865 --> 01:17:01,158 Was it planned? 1292 01:17:01,241 --> 01:17:02,284 We'll never know. 1293 01:17:02,367 --> 01:17:07,080 Did the phone start ringing off the hook 30 seconds after it aired? 1294 01:17:07,164 --> 01:17:08,206 Yes. 1295 01:17:09,249 --> 01:17:10,250 Coincidence? 1296 01:17:10,834 --> 01:17:12,753 I don't know. Not likely. 1297 01:17:14,129 --> 01:17:15,839 Rather now became the story. 1298 01:17:15,922 --> 01:17:18,342 It was that Rather had bought a bad bill of goods. 1299 01:17:18,425 --> 01:17:20,636 A couple quick questions about these memos? 1300 01:17:20,719 --> 01:17:22,929 - We're late here. - No. Thank you. 1301 01:17:23,013 --> 01:17:24,348 Thank you, Jim. 1302 01:17:24,431 --> 01:17:27,309 Even my dog knew these documents were forged. 1303 01:17:27,392 --> 01:17:31,104 Dan Rather's still telling the Chicago Tribune they're not forged. 1304 01:17:31,188 --> 01:17:34,483 CBS News said today it was misled about documents 1305 01:17:34,566 --> 01:17:37,527 that questioned the President's National Guard service 1306 01:17:37,611 --> 01:17:40,614 and it was a mistake to broadcast their contents. 1307 01:17:42,240 --> 01:17:46,370 CBS has taken steps to hold people accountable, 1308 01:17:46,453 --> 01:17:48,622 and we appreciate those steps. 1309 01:17:48,705 --> 01:17:52,918 We also hope that CBS will take steps 1310 01:17:53,001 --> 01:17:56,630 to prevent something like this from happening again. 1311 01:17:58,048 --> 01:18:00,509 That piece should never have gone on the air, 1312 01:18:00,592 --> 01:18:02,719 and it cost a lot of people their careers. 1313 01:18:03,595 --> 01:18:04,595 He suffered. 1314 01:18:05,138 --> 01:18:06,223 So did CBS. 1315 01:18:06,306 --> 01:18:08,684 There was a substantial lawsuit against them. 1316 01:18:16,149 --> 01:18:18,110 I never thought it would happen. 1317 01:18:19,319 --> 01:18:23,490 I had convinced myself that somehow, some way, 1318 01:18:23,573 --> 01:18:25,617 I would stay on at CBS. 1319 01:18:27,035 --> 01:18:31,832 It was my wife Jean who provided the perspective that I needed to hear. 1320 01:18:32,916 --> 01:18:37,295 She said, "You got into a fight with the President of the United States" 1321 01:18:38,130 --> 01:18:40,006 "during a re-election campaign." 1322 01:18:41,466 --> 01:18:43,593 "What did you think was going to happen?" 1323 01:18:48,390 --> 01:18:51,810 It was a mistake. CBS News deeply regrets it. 1324 01:18:51,893 --> 01:18:55,605 Also, I want to say personally and directly, I'm sorry. 1325 01:18:59,860 --> 01:19:05,782 The saddest thing about the story is that it's true. 1326 01:19:05,866 --> 01:19:10,495 George Bush had a checkered record with some real problems in it, 1327 01:19:10,579 --> 01:19:13,123 all of which was covered in that report. 1328 01:19:14,791 --> 01:19:18,962 Dan is a really good human. 1329 01:19:19,045 --> 01:19:22,048 He appreciated the loyalty in people. 1330 01:19:22,132 --> 01:19:23,759 He appreciated the work. 1331 01:19:23,842 --> 01:19:29,842 I think the mistake was that he so trusted the people around him 1332 01:19:30,182 --> 01:19:33,685 that they had done the deeper dive, 1333 01:19:33,769 --> 01:19:35,854 but that's Dan's responsibility also. 1334 01:19:37,856 --> 01:19:40,734 When CBS said, "Well, we'll let you keep your job," 1335 01:19:40,817 --> 01:19:45,489 "if you make it very clear that it's Mary's fault that Memogate happened," 1336 01:19:45,572 --> 01:19:46,615 he wasn't having that. 1337 01:19:46,698 --> 01:19:48,366 He said, "Absolutely not." 1338 01:19:48,450 --> 01:19:51,411 And some people have said, "Wow, what a dumb thing to do." 1339 01:19:51,495 --> 01:19:53,121 "You had the greatest job in the world." 1340 01:19:53,205 --> 01:19:55,373 "All you had to do was throw Mary under the bus." 1341 01:19:55,457 --> 01:19:56,958 And that's just not him. 1342 01:20:00,504 --> 01:20:04,216 When it was announced Dan was leaving, I was really heartbroken. 1343 01:20:04,299 --> 01:20:06,885 He had this long, esteemed career. 1344 01:20:06,968 --> 01:20:08,512 It was a dream job. 1345 01:20:08,595 --> 01:20:11,932 To have that rug pulled out from under you in the way that it was 1346 01:20:12,015 --> 01:20:14,684 was hard for him. It was hard for all of us. 1347 01:20:21,817 --> 01:20:25,862 We've shared a lot in the 24 years we've been meeting here each evening. 1348 01:20:25,946 --> 01:20:29,741 And before I say good night this night, I need to say thank you. 1349 01:20:30,659 --> 01:20:34,579 Thank you to the thousands of wonderful professionals at CBS News, 1350 01:20:34,663 --> 01:20:36,039 past and present, 1351 01:20:36,122 --> 01:20:38,792 with whom it's been my honor to work over these years. 1352 01:20:41,628 --> 01:20:46,466 The final sign off of my time at the CBS Evening News 1353 01:20:47,342 --> 01:20:52,013 was going to be an emotional time for me and for my family. 1354 01:20:53,557 --> 01:20:55,767 And my daughter, Robin, 1355 01:20:55,851 --> 01:21:01,851 who is almost mystically in tune with my moods, 1356 01:21:02,566 --> 01:21:04,276 she knew I was having trouble. 1357 01:21:04,985 --> 01:21:06,903 That was a very emotional time for him. 1358 01:21:06,987 --> 01:21:09,030 He was going out not the way he wanted to go out, 1359 01:21:09,114 --> 01:21:10,282 but because he really had to. 1360 01:21:10,365 --> 01:21:14,828 And he wanted to go out with strength and he wanted to go out his way. 1361 01:21:17,122 --> 01:21:19,332 Not long after I first came to the anchor chair, 1362 01:21:19,416 --> 01:21:22,335 I briefly signed off using the word "courage." 1363 01:21:23,169 --> 01:21:26,131 I want to return to it now in a different way. 1364 01:21:28,967 --> 01:21:33,680 To my fellow journalists in places where reporting the truth means risking all, 1365 01:21:34,890 --> 01:21:36,474 and to each of you, 1366 01:21:37,684 --> 01:21:38,685 courage. 1367 01:21:40,645 --> 01:21:44,482 For the CBS Evening News, Dan Rather reporting. 1368 01:21:45,609 --> 01:21:46,610 Good night. 1369 01:22:03,460 --> 01:22:06,421 The truth is, if you're on the air that much 1370 01:22:06,504 --> 01:22:08,048 doing cutting-edge journalism, 1371 01:22:08,131 --> 01:22:10,258 then you're going to have moments that don't work. 1372 01:22:11,134 --> 01:22:13,595 And Rather fell into a sand trap 1373 01:22:13,678 --> 01:22:16,681 with this showdown over the Texas Air Guard. 1374 01:22:16,765 --> 01:22:18,308 And so, from that point on, 1375 01:22:18,391 --> 01:22:22,771 when Dan Rather leaves CBS in a fit of anger 1376 01:22:22,854 --> 01:22:24,689 and lawsuits that don't work, 1377 01:22:25,398 --> 01:22:29,861 it really is the start of a different kind of journalistic world. 1378 01:22:31,237 --> 01:22:33,698 I think a lot of people in his position would have 1379 01:22:33,782 --> 01:22:37,535 just sort of packed it in at that point and would've said, "I had a great career." 1380 01:22:37,619 --> 01:22:40,705 "I'm gonna rest on my laurels," in some ways. 1381 01:22:42,707 --> 01:22:43,875 I think he could have become 1382 01:22:43,959 --> 01:22:46,878 one of the world's great octogenarian fly fishermen. 1383 01:22:46,962 --> 01:22:47,963 I really do. 1384 01:22:49,339 --> 01:22:51,841 But I just think that's so antithetical to who he is. 1385 01:22:52,801 --> 01:22:55,845 Anybody who knows me knows that, you know, I wanna work. 1386 01:22:56,888 --> 01:22:59,516 I'd much rather wear out than rust out. 1387 01:22:59,599 --> 01:23:05,063 ♪ This little light of mine I'm gonna let it shine… ♪ 1388 01:23:05,146 --> 01:23:07,148 America loves a second act. 1389 01:23:07,232 --> 01:23:09,359 I don't take any credit because he's Dan Rather, 1390 01:23:09,442 --> 01:23:13,238 he would've come back one way or the other just through the quality of his work. 1391 01:23:13,321 --> 01:23:18,201 Haiti is and will remain a disaster seemingly without end. 1392 01:23:18,284 --> 01:23:19,703 Is it like this every day? 1393 01:23:19,786 --> 01:23:23,331 Yeah, every day that we have this food give-out, it's always like this. 1394 01:23:24,082 --> 01:23:27,502 The most devastating impact to my grandfather 1395 01:23:27,585 --> 01:23:29,838 surrounding the Bush story 1396 01:23:29,921 --> 01:23:32,090 was that people thought that he was retired. 1397 01:23:32,173 --> 01:23:33,466 People thought that he was done. 1398 01:23:33,550 --> 01:23:34,634 Bonjour, madame. 1399 01:23:35,510 --> 01:23:36,636 Salut. 1400 01:23:36,720 --> 01:23:40,140 I looked at it as, "Dan, what's interesting to you?" 1401 01:23:40,223 --> 01:23:43,852 "What do you see is happening in the world that you want to convey?" 1402 01:23:43,935 --> 01:23:45,854 And that's exactly what he did. 1403 01:23:45,937 --> 01:23:49,274 How does anybody living like this have even a shred of dignity? 1404 01:23:50,817 --> 01:23:52,610 Dad literally called Wayne 1405 01:23:52,694 --> 01:23:56,156 and said, "Let's put together a crack production team and go get it." 1406 01:23:56,740 --> 01:23:58,658 Probably the hardest time of my life. 1407 01:23:58,742 --> 01:24:01,745 It is unbelievable to put together 1408 01:24:01,828 --> 01:24:04,748 an hour of investigative journalism every week. 1409 01:24:04,831 --> 01:24:07,125 And we were doing 40 episodes a year. 1410 01:24:07,208 --> 01:24:12,297 The floodwaters have long ago receded, and so has the nation's attention. 1411 01:24:12,380 --> 01:24:16,926 But for the people down here, time stands still. 1412 01:24:17,010 --> 01:24:19,763 For the first time in a long time, he really enjoyed himself. 1413 01:24:19,846 --> 01:24:24,434 I mean, he was really sort of free to do what he wants to do, 1414 01:24:24,517 --> 01:24:25,810 and that was report. 1415 01:24:25,894 --> 01:24:30,398 For HDNet, from New York, Dan Rather reporting. 1416 01:24:31,149 --> 01:24:32,275 Good night. 1417 01:24:32,358 --> 01:24:38,031 I do sincerely believe that a career in breaking tough investigative stories 1418 01:24:38,114 --> 01:24:42,368 and doing it thoroughly and meticulously and in an impartial way 1419 01:24:42,452 --> 01:24:43,870 is a public service. 1420 01:24:43,953 --> 01:24:48,958 I think it constrains powerful interests who might otherwise abuse that power. 1421 01:24:49,751 --> 01:24:51,002 When Dan started, 1422 01:24:51,086 --> 01:24:55,298 the level of power that journalists had was insane. 1423 01:24:55,381 --> 01:24:59,969 You were one effectively of three networks and what you reported had an impact. 1424 01:25:00,053 --> 01:25:02,555 The audience was in the tens of millions. 1425 01:25:03,556 --> 01:25:08,144 But as the media landscape changed, the audience got smaller. 1426 01:25:08,228 --> 01:25:10,021 Because there were more options. 1427 01:25:11,356 --> 01:25:12,899 But Dan never changed. 1428 01:25:12,982 --> 01:25:16,361 Dan took the same responsibility, to get it right. 1429 01:25:22,617 --> 01:25:24,536 Life's filled with surprises. 1430 01:25:26,121 --> 01:25:28,706 I was slow to come to social media. 1431 01:25:28,790 --> 01:25:32,377 Frankly, I felt I was too old to learn the new tricks. 1432 01:25:33,044 --> 01:25:35,922 But I finally agreed to try it. 1433 01:25:36,005 --> 01:25:37,215 And lo and behold, 1434 01:25:38,216 --> 01:25:43,847 I've reached an audience that has no idea that I once anchored the CBS Evening News, 1435 01:25:43,930 --> 01:25:45,640 or care, for that matter. 1436 01:25:47,267 --> 01:25:50,770 My dad really, really believes in democracy. 1437 01:25:50,854 --> 01:25:55,358 And so he was watching Trump, worried sick 1438 01:25:55,441 --> 01:26:01,114 that the very fundamental institutions that form our democracy 1439 01:26:01,197 --> 01:26:03,116 were intentionally being betrayed. 1440 01:26:03,199 --> 01:26:06,828 The political press is among the most dishonest people that I've ever met. 1441 01:26:06,911 --> 01:26:08,496 I'll continue to attack the press. 1442 01:26:08,580 --> 01:26:10,039 These people are the worst. 1443 01:26:10,123 --> 01:26:11,249 Thank you all very much. 1444 01:26:12,000 --> 01:26:16,129 And his response to that was to go to social media 1445 01:26:16,212 --> 01:26:18,339 and very calmly say, "That's not right." 1446 01:26:21,217 --> 01:26:26,556 Dan has been a very important voice of reason in the Trump era. 1447 01:26:26,639 --> 01:26:30,977 And the Trump era has been a chaotic, crazy time 1448 01:26:31,060 --> 01:26:33,563 in which norms were being busted right and left, 1449 01:26:33,646 --> 01:26:37,859 and the idea that someone has a handle on it. 1450 01:26:37,942 --> 01:26:39,736 He's got a lot to say, 1451 01:26:39,819 --> 01:26:45,700 and he says it in a way that brings history and immediate perspective 1452 01:26:45,783 --> 01:26:48,119 to each one of these news developments. 1453 01:26:48,203 --> 01:26:50,038 I think that's part of the appeal. 1454 01:26:51,331 --> 01:26:56,127 We're witnessing an incredible second or third or fourth 1455 01:26:56,211 --> 01:26:59,589 or whatever you want to call this act of Dan's right now on social media. 1456 01:27:01,049 --> 01:27:05,345 How could Dan Rather, a 90-year-old gentleman, 1457 01:27:05,428 --> 01:27:10,850 be so highly regarded by people like the millennials in my family? 1458 01:27:11,559 --> 01:27:12,559 You know why? 1459 01:27:13,144 --> 01:27:18,399 Because everything he does is based on real knowledge and fact. 1460 01:27:19,400 --> 01:27:22,612 I'm thrilled that the young people are impressed with Dan now 1461 01:27:22,695 --> 01:27:26,741 but they're seeing him at the present and they're seeing what he stands for. 1462 01:27:27,659 --> 01:27:29,661 My teenagers know him. 1463 01:27:29,744 --> 01:27:32,121 They have no idea 1464 01:27:32,205 --> 01:27:34,791 that he anchored the evening news at CBS News for a long time. 1465 01:27:34,874 --> 01:27:38,086 I don't think they even watch evening news at all. 1466 01:27:38,169 --> 01:27:39,420 But they know Dan Rather. 1467 01:27:40,964 --> 01:27:43,967 It seems like he's having fun on social media. 1468 01:27:44,050 --> 01:27:47,637 He has really introduced himself to a whole new audience 1469 01:27:47,720 --> 01:27:52,016 of sassy young people who are like, "Yeah, man, tell it like it is." 1470 01:27:52,100 --> 01:27:56,187 If anybody that sees this is on Twitter, and you do not follow Dan Rather, 1471 01:27:56,271 --> 01:27:57,438 you need to right away. 1472 01:27:57,522 --> 01:27:59,399 It is comedy. 1473 01:27:59,482 --> 01:28:02,860 I just wanted to point out that Dan Rather is a national treasure. 1474 01:28:02,944 --> 01:28:06,197 The level of shade on this man… Whew! 1475 01:28:06,281 --> 01:28:09,993 I've had so many people who are my age 1476 01:28:10,076 --> 01:28:11,577 come up to me and say, 1477 01:28:11,661 --> 01:28:14,080 "I have no idea who your grandfather is." 1478 01:28:14,163 --> 01:28:16,582 "I've seen him on Twitter, I've seen him on Facebook." 1479 01:28:16,666 --> 01:28:18,042 "I love what he's doing there." 1480 01:28:18,126 --> 01:28:20,712 Dan Rather gives no more fucks. Okay? 1481 01:28:20,795 --> 01:28:22,005 He's given enough. 1482 01:28:23,172 --> 01:28:25,675 He's having fun, and I love it. 1483 01:28:27,969 --> 01:28:31,055 I think the media landscape has changed around him, 1484 01:28:31,139 --> 01:28:36,394 but his brand of giving important, essential, truthful information 1485 01:28:36,477 --> 01:28:39,772 has been true from the days that he was a college reporter 1486 01:28:39,856 --> 01:28:41,941 to now, you know, having viral tweets. 1487 01:28:42,025 --> 01:28:44,235 And I think that's why folks have trusted him 1488 01:28:44,319 --> 01:28:45,528 and will continue to do so. 1489 01:28:48,823 --> 01:28:50,658 You know, it's not uncommon. 1490 01:28:50,742 --> 01:28:52,452 It's a function of age for people to say, 1491 01:28:52,535 --> 01:28:55,204 "Well, what have you learned? What does it all mean?" 1492 01:28:56,539 --> 01:28:57,749 What old man do you know 1493 01:28:57,832 --> 01:29:01,252 that doesn't want to tell you what he's learned out of life? 1494 01:29:03,087 --> 01:29:06,591 Working in television, social media… 1495 01:29:08,301 --> 01:29:10,261 Things like, "Did he cover Tiananmen Square?" 1496 01:29:10,345 --> 01:29:11,971 "Did he cover the Vietnam War?" 1497 01:29:12,055 --> 01:29:13,931 "Did he cover Watergate?" 1498 01:29:14,015 --> 01:29:16,142 "Did he cover the Kennedy assassination?" 1499 01:29:18,603 --> 01:29:22,732 As time goes along, that's not gonna amount to very much. 1500 01:29:24,067 --> 01:29:27,904 In the end, whatever remains of one's life, 1501 01:29:27,987 --> 01:29:30,114 family, friends, 1502 01:29:30,198 --> 01:29:34,285 those are gonna be the things for which you're remembered. 1503 01:29:36,079 --> 01:29:39,165 Dad and I have a sign-off, which is LNF. 1504 01:29:39,248 --> 01:29:42,001 LNF is "Love Never Fails." 1505 01:29:43,920 --> 01:29:45,963 As a journalist, he's all about courage. 1506 01:29:46,047 --> 01:29:49,092 As a father, he's all about the love, all the time. 1507 01:29:49,175 --> 01:29:51,344 The absolute unconditional love. 1508 01:29:51,427 --> 01:29:54,388 I want my grandfather to be remembered 1509 01:29:54,472 --> 01:29:58,559 as someone who did his absolute best 1510 01:29:58,643 --> 01:30:01,979 to represent the ideals of this country. 1511 01:30:06,359 --> 01:30:11,322 There's just something sweet about this cowboy 1512 01:30:11,405 --> 01:30:14,492 who is still at the rodeo. 1513 01:30:16,244 --> 01:30:18,121 Horse isn't riding as fast, 1514 01:30:20,248 --> 01:30:22,792 he's not at the top, but he's still there. 1515 01:30:25,253 --> 01:30:27,630 He's still exactly who he is. 1516 01:30:27,713 --> 01:30:31,384 And there's something poetic about that. 1517 01:30:35,263 --> 01:30:37,974 Journalism is a higher calling. 1518 01:30:38,057 --> 01:30:39,600 It's not a career. 1519 01:30:39,684 --> 01:30:43,688 And when you're looking at who were successful journalists 1520 01:30:43,771 --> 01:30:45,148 over the last 50 years, 1521 01:30:45,231 --> 01:30:47,650 Dan Rather would be at the very top of that list. 1522 01:30:47,733 --> 01:30:48,651 This is Dan Rather. 1523 01:30:48,734 --> 01:30:50,194 - CBS News… - …live… 1524 01:30:50,278 --> 01:30:51,487 From Afghanistan. 1525 01:30:51,571 --> 01:30:53,531 - Dan Rather reporting. - Dan Rather reporting. 1526 01:30:54,407 --> 01:30:56,617 We've been through very difficult times before. 1527 01:30:56,701 --> 01:30:59,412 We've been through times of great division. 1528 01:31:01,247 --> 01:31:04,834 It's a time, I think, to take a deep breath, 1529 01:31:06,294 --> 01:31:07,628 whisper to ourselves, 1530 01:31:08,796 --> 01:31:09,797 "Steady." 1531 01:31:21,934 --> 01:31:22,810 Stop it, stop it. 1532 01:31:22,894 --> 01:31:25,271 I can be dumb as a brick wall about a lot of things. 1533 01:31:25,354 --> 01:31:26,355 Okay, let's redo it. 1534 01:31:26,439 --> 01:31:27,815 Sorry, my fault. 1535 01:31:27,899 --> 01:31:29,150 Start it over. 1536 01:31:29,233 --> 01:31:32,153 Part of my job is to separate bullshine from brass tacks. 1537 01:31:32,236 --> 01:31:34,655 I can't carry a tune in a bucket with a lid on it. 1538 01:31:34,739 --> 01:31:38,034 If bullshine were music, he'd be a full symphony orchestra. 1539 01:31:38,117 --> 01:31:41,370 If you ain't got the yolk, you can't emulsify the hollandaise. 1540 01:31:43,039 --> 01:31:46,334 Steve Bannon said the press needs to shut up. 1541 01:31:46,417 --> 01:31:50,463 Well our answer to that has to be, "With respect sir, no." 1542 01:31:51,714 --> 01:31:54,050 ♪ My friends come for Saturday night ♪ 1543 01:31:54,717 --> 01:31:58,596 ♪ Man, it's nice to make up Some sangria wine ♪ 1544 01:31:59,347 --> 01:32:02,350 ♪ It's organic And it comes from the vine ♪ 1545 01:32:02,975 --> 01:32:07,063 ♪ It's also legal And it gets you so high ♪ 1546 01:32:07,146 --> 01:32:10,650 ♪ Yeah, and I love that sangria wine ♪ 1547 01:32:11,234 --> 01:32:14,445 ♪ Love to drink it With old friends of mine ♪ 1548 01:32:15,321 --> 01:32:18,532 ♪ Yeah, I love to get drunk With friends of mine ♪ 1549 01:32:19,450 --> 01:32:23,120 ♪ When we're drinking That old sangria wine ♪ 1550 01:32:24,455 --> 01:32:30,455 ♪ Whoa, I love sangria wine ♪ 1551 01:32:32,630 --> 01:32:38,630 ♪ Whoa, I love sangria wine ♪ 1552 01:32:41,764 --> 01:32:43,766 ♪ Start with some wine ♪ 1553 01:32:43,849 --> 01:32:47,395 ♪ Add some apples and brandy And some sugar, some spice ♪ 1554 01:32:48,521 --> 01:32:51,357 ♪ Old friends always show up on time ♪ 1555 01:32:52,066 --> 01:32:56,070 ♪ That's why you add Sparkling burgundy wine ♪ 1556 01:32:56,153 --> 01:32:59,573 ♪ And I love old sangria wine ♪ 1557 01:33:00,199 --> 01:33:03,411 ♪ When I drink it With old friends of mine ♪ 1558 01:33:04,287 --> 01:33:07,415 ♪ Yeah, I love to drink With old friends of mine ♪ 1559 01:33:08,207 --> 01:33:11,919 ♪ When we get drunk on that sangria wine ♪ 1560 01:33:13,296 --> 01:33:19,296 ♪ Whoa, I love sangria wine ♪ 1561 01:33:21,512 --> 01:33:27,512 ♪ Whoa, I love sangria wine ♪ 1562 01:33:29,687 --> 01:33:35,687 ♪ Whoa, I love sangria wine ♪ 1563 01:33:37,361 --> 01:33:43,361 ♪ Yeah, whoa, I love sangria wine ♪ 1564 01:33:45,828 --> 01:33:51,828 ♪ Whoa, I love sangria wine ♪ 1565 01:33:53,419 --> 01:33:59,419 ♪ Whoa, I love sangria wine ♪