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[Dan Rather] Sometimes you investigate,
you get to the end of the alley,

and what you thought was there
is not there.

To get to the truth,

or as close to the truth
as is humanly possible to get,

requires a lot of persistence.

And also you have to be prepared
to pay the consequences,

that any very controversial story one does
involving powerful people,

eventually you're going to have to
face the furnace and take the heat,

and unless you're prepared to do that,

then you need to get another line of work.

["Gimme Some Truth"
by John Lennon playing]

Testing, testing, testing,
testing, testing testing.

Dan Rather has become
the symbol of television journalism.

♪ From uptight, short-sighted
Narrow-minded hypocrites ♪

-♪ All I want is the truth ♪
-♪ Truth ♪

-♪ Just gimme some truth ♪
-♪ Truth ♪

Live from Tiananmen Square…

…from Baghdad, Iraq.

…near the Cambodian border, South Vietnam.

It's in the nature of reporters
and politicians not to get along.

That goes with the territory.

-Are you running for something?
-No, sir, Mr. President. Are you?

[audience laughing]

[Nixon on tape] Rather is just
a son of a bitch, don't you think?

[Rather] How I see myself
is as a watch dog.

I'm not an attack dog,
I'm not out to get anybody,

but I'm not a lap dog either.

Don't push me take your hands off of me
unless you plan to arrest me.

[Rick Perlstein] The fact that Dan Rather
is located by some people

as a uniquely malevolent figure

is merely evidence
that he has done his job.

When people talk about liberal media,

a lot of times they're really talking
literally about Dan Rather, the man.

This lady thinks
Dan Rather's ears should be pinned back.

I've always found Dan Rather
to be a little odd.

She ran away with it
like a hobo with a sweet potato pie.

[Jon Stewart] Yeah!

♪ Truth, truth, truth, truth, truth ♪

[Wayne Nelson] It was a big mistake,
but does it mean the end of Dan Rather?

[Douglas Brinkley]
Rather now became the story.

It was a damaging moment
for media culture.

Rather, the godfather
of modern media fake news

talking about how this is
the greatest crisis we've ever seen

-in modern political history.
-[Brinkley] From that point on

it really is the start
of a different kind of journalistic world.

[screaming]

[Soledad O'Brien] My teenagers
don't even watch evening news,

but they know Dan Rather.

The level of shade on this man… Whew!

[Andy Cohen]
Do you not give a shit anymore, Dan?

-[audience laughing]
-Short answer: No.

[laughter and applause]

♪ All I want is the truth ♪

♪ All I want is the truth ♪

♪ Just give me some truth ♪

[song fades out]

[keyboard clacking]

[Dan] I've never known why it is
that I aspired to be a reporter.

The best guess that I can come up with
is that because my mother and father

were so riveted to newspapers.

Newspapers were around the house,
they were discussing newspapers.

At an early age, I came to believe
newspapers must be important.

So the dream for me
was always to be "a reporter."

Keep in mind at that time,

being a reporter
basically meant being a newspaper person.

The television news revolution
was only just beginning.

[Margaret Sullivan] There were
the three TV networks: CBS, ABC and NBC.

CBS was known as the Tiffany Network.

They were the gold standard,
and there wasn't a lot of choice.

The benefit of that was that everybody had
the same grounding in reality.

CBS News built an amazing organization
and reputation.

Literally were like
The New York Times of television.

[announcer] This is
the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.

There may be something brewing in Cuba,

besides coffee, that is.
For the first time…

[Brinkley] Walter Cronkite
was the most admired man in America,

and he developed a bipartisan following.

[Dan] There was a widespread belief
among the people who owned the networks

that a network news division
was a public trust.

There's an enormous responsibility
that goes with being a broadcaster,

that you're talking
to literally 20 million people.

[announcer] Here is Dan Rather
speaking directly from Galveston.

As of the moment, Hurricane Carla
is spotted near latitude 26.0 north

and 92.9 west,
that's 255 miles southeast of…

I was the news director
broadcasting live from Galveston.

The story became a national story,

and first CBS News
began monitoring what we were doing.

These are by far the calmest people
in a flood I've ever seen.

We superimposed
a scale map of the Texas coast

onto the Galveston radar image
of this gigantic storm

which put the storm in perspective.

Nobody had ever done it before.

About half a million people
took one look at it

and basically fled to higher ground.

That job at the television station
as anchor

had resulted in our coverage
of the hurricane,

which CBS had seen
and as result of that hired me,

and so by 1962 I'm working at CBS News.

But very quickly having gone to New York,

moved back to Dallas
to open the Dallas Bureau,

and the biggest, most important
running domestic story

was Dr. Martin Luther King

and the early stages
of the civil rights movement.

The Negroes who live in this rural area
have been told for years

that that moss-covered oak back there,

was a hanging tree
during the time of the Civil War.

[Robin Rather] I think my dad had
a certain destiny that he listened to.

He had a calling to do what he does.

My dad is
a deeply, deeply religious person.

-[man] Start walking.
-[Dan] Right.

[Robin] My dad reads the Bible often.
It's a source of comfort to him.

His faith, that you love your fellow man,

and his particular way of showing love
is reporting.

[choir singing indistinctly]

The Albany Movement
depends on these people,

they are the heart of it.

This is Dan Rather in Albany, Georgia.

["Sinnerman" by Nina Simone playing]

[explosion]

[people shouting indistinctly]

♪ Oh, sinnerman, where you gonna run to? ♪

♪ Sinnerman, where you gonna run to? ♪

[Andrew Young] The violence against us,

the destruction of any little sense
of progress and prosperity that we had,

just to keep people down,

that was not known until television came.

[Dan] There was a lot of violence,

women, children, older men,
threatened, beaten,

dogs turned loose on them,
fire hoses turned loose on them.

Klan rallies at night.
Terrible Klan rallies.

You got a bunch of people
standing right over here

with their cameras and their news things.

Half of them ain't got enough backbone
to get them a job and go to work.

They'll print half of the story.

They ain't got enough backbone
to tell the truth.

Anybody that lies with the devil
will die and go to hell without God.

[people cheering]

[Dan] The sights, sounds, smells…

I do remember even the smell
of the wooden cross burning.

And I defy anyone to go to a Klan rally

and not be deeply affected
by what it really represented.

Deep hate.

♪ Oh, yeah… ♪

[Dan] For the first time
I began to understand

what this emerging civil rights movement
was about,

and I began to see up-close, personal,

bear witness to the violence
of institutionalized racism.

[song ends]

If the bombings do not stop,

someone is going to be confronted
with a full-scale race riot here,

because I know of people personally
that's not going to be tolerated with,

bombing in their sleep
and shooting them on the streets.

[Dan] CBS was called
the Colored Broadcasting System,

the Communist Broadcasting System.

Station after station
wouldn't feed our material,

some stations wouldn't carry
the CBS Evening News.

[Howard Stringer] We were often accused
of being liberal in the news media.

That's what a journalist is,
a seeker of causes,

but we, I believe, presented the truth.

Mr. Singleman, you must be aware
that at least one Northern newspaper

has termed you a bigot and a racist.
What's your reaction to that?

They can call me anything they want

as long as they don't call me
too late for dinner.

[Young] We always had our demonstrations
in the morning.

We had to be through by twelve o'clock

because they'd have to take-off

and fly the news
back to New York every day.

[Dan] I was very impressed with Dr. King
from the moment I met him.

I had never seen anyone
up close and personal that heroic.

Now let's move out or you're under arrest.
Either one now.

[Dan] Moment to moment,
on the razor's edge of lethal danger.

The fear that I felt seeing this deep hate
changed me as a person,

and changed me as a professional.

[Young] The press was hated
almost as much as we were

so it required a lot of courage
just to tell the story,

because the same people
that were beating us up,

started beating them up.

Then there was guilt,

something nobody really likes
to talk about.

[dogs barking]

I have the job I dreamed of doing,

but I did have those moments,
and I said, "Easy for you, Dan.

"Should you just quit this work

"and become part of the active effort
to change this?"

As a journalist you're not saying,
"Damn it, I want this to be fixed"

or "Damn it,
I'm going to cause the change."

You're showing people what happens,

they decide what to do
with that information.

Savannah, Georgia
which has had more racial violence

the past few weeks than any other city
in the Deep South is not…

The role I'm in
as being a chronicler of this,

being an eyewitness to it

and bringing it to people's screens,
is important work.

This is Dan Rather in Savannah, Georgia.

[Dan] It was very difficult as reporters

during this period
covering Dr. King and the movement.

On the one hand, you wanna be
an honest broker of information.

On the other hand, some of the things
were so outrageous, so disturbing,

there was a constant struggle
within yourself to say,

"Remember what your role is here."

You wanna be the witness, that's your job,

and you're trained as a journalist
to do it,

and for me that all started in Houston.

[man] Stand by, please.

[mid-tempo jazz playing]

[Dan] I began working
at the radio station KTRH, 50,000-watt,

Voice of the Golden Gulf Coast in Houston.

I've gotten a job there
beginning in late 1954.

I was on the air,
I was doing play-by-play work.

-[man on radio] Again, Dan Rather.
-[Dan on radio] Houston leads…

All that experience
at the tiny radio station

paid enormous dividends later on,

because I was in the process
of making myself a strong ad-libber,

frequently with no script,

and that gave me the confidence
that I could talk and describe

and create word pictures,

and I don't think I would've made it
in television without that ability.

It was fast becoming
a kind of dream job for me,

but from time to time,
you know, I certainly wanted a family,

and there came to work
at the radio station Jean Grace Goebel.

First time I saw her,
I know it's cliche but it's true,

it was "Wow."

She has such a winning smile.

Just everything about her
got my immediate attention.

One thing developed into another,
and I finally asked her out.

I was working parts of seven days a week.

She would come
and sit with me in the newsroom

as I did my work on Saturday nights.

I asked her to marry me.

Jean surprised me by saying "Yes."

[Martin Rather] My grandparents
have the best relationship that I know of,

because of the level of trust
and communication

that the two of them have
with one another.

And I guess that's no surprise since
they've been married for over 60 years.

[Dan] She was so supportive,
and so kind, and really smart,

and besides that she was smoking-hot.

[opening theme of As The World Turns
playing on TV]

[announcer] And now, As The World Turns.

Your great-grandson and his mother

are going to have Thanksgiving dinner
with us.

[sighs]

I must say I'm surprised.

[static crackling]

This is Walter Cronkite in our newsroom.

There has been an attempt,
as perhaps you know now,

on the life of President Kennedy.

[reporter 1]
Something has happened in the motorcade.

The presidential car coming up now.
You can see Mrs. Kennedy's pink suit.

There's a Secret Service man
spread-eagled over the top of the car

We can't see who has been hit,
if anybody's been hit,

but something is wrong here.
Something is terribly wrong.

[reporter 2] President Kennedy's
been given a blood transfusion

at Parkland Hospital here in Dallas
in an effort to save his life.

We just have a report from
our correspondent Dan Rather in Dallas

that he has confirmed
that President Kennedy is dead.

There is still
no official confirmation of this…

[Dan] I remember
in the first seconds and minutes

my own emotions
of anger, fear, heartbreak.

"Get that out.

"You can't afford to do that.

"Just concentrate on the story."

[Brinkley] But that's just
an announcement: the President's dead.

What happened? Who killed Kennedy?

Nobody had answers,
the only people who had answers was CBS.

Dan Rather in Dallas.

[Brinkley] And Dan Rather
was at the right place at the right time.

A definite air of anticipation

has built up here in downtown Dallas
in front of the county jail.

The county jail
is where 24-year-old Lee Oswald

is expected to be brought anytime now.

[Sullivan] The assassination
of President Kennedy,

it's one of the signal events
in modern American history.

It comes along at a time
when TV is in its infancy

and Dan Rather makes a name for himself
by covering this huge event.

[Dan] Dallas Police this morning
resumed questioning

the man they have formally charged with
the assassination of President Kennedy.

This is the kind of headline…

That weekend, CBS played the role of
rabbi, preacher, hand holder, therapist,

news source, investigators.
They were everything.

This is a terrible thing for our country.

Not only for our country
but for the entire world.

And now, let's go back to Dallas
and to Dan Rather.

[Dan] There was no time to draft a script,
not at all.

When it was airtime,
it was just stand and deliver.

[gunshot]

[reporter] This is the basement floor
of the Dallas City Hall,

and that's a scuffle
on the basement floor.

It seems to concern the target…

Oswald had been shot.

[people shouting indistinctly]

What kind of man shot Lee Oswald?

Dan was just young, aggressive, serious.

He was about business.

Lee Oswald, like President Kennedy,
had no chance to live after he was shot.

Television's coverage
of this national tragedy

changed the country.

It also changed the basic relationship
people at home had with their television.

As night fell in Dallas,
the man accused of assassinating,

the accused assassin of President Kennedy,

was still at police headquarters.

[Brinkley]
Following the Kennedy assassination,

Dan Rather's stature was elevated.

He became the voice from Dallas.

He became a household name.

There was no mistaking him
with any other correspondent.

And it happened to be
that Kennedy was killed in Texas,

and Dan Rather grew up in Texas.

This was where he was born and raised,

and now he was back
covering the story of a lifetime.

So there was something organic
about the coverage.

["Why Don't You Love Me"
by Hank Williams playing]

♪ Well, why don't you love me
Like you used to do? ♪

♪ How come you treat me
Like a worn out shoe? ♪

♪ My hair's still curly
And my eyes are still blue ♪

♪ Why don't you love me
Like you used to do? ♪

[Robin] Being a Texan
is everything to my dad.

It is in him. It's in his DNA.
He's fourth-generation Texan.

There's a real deep pride.
The eyes of Texas are upon you.

This is a picture of my father,

but obviously this is not a workday
because my father is dressed in

what I think were his best clothes.

[Robin] My father's father
laid pipeline in the ground,

in the hot 100-degree Texas sun.

[Dan] My father preached the gospel of

"You're never gonna be
the smartest person around.

"There's no excuse for you not working
as hard as you possibly can."

[song ends]

[Dan] When I was growing up in Houston,
roughly between ages 10 and 14,

I was diagnosed with rheumatic fever,

and the doctor told my mother
there's no cure for it.

I know my father was very disappointed
in that, to say the least.

He used to come in sometimes at night
after he'd work.

He would say, "Steady, steady, steady."

So that word stuck in my head, of just,
"Well, don't lose your composure."

My companion was a radio

and that turned out to be
a big break for me.

Hello, America. This is Edward Murrow
speaking from London.

You can have little understanding
of the life in London these days.

[Robin] To him,
Edward R. Murrow was a heroic figure.

Someone that put it all on the line
in war,

to really bring
perspective and truth back.

[Dan] The rheumatic fever began to fade.

I was thin as a riding whip.

My father said,
"What Dan needs is to go to work.

"It needs to be physical work.
He needs to be outside."

I cut brush for a survey crew.

Very quickly began to regain my strength.

I graduated from
Sam Houston State Teachers College.

The Korean War was on.

I volunteered for the Marines.

Rheumatic fever
was a disqualifying disease.

There's no pride in it, matter of fact,

in many ways I'm ashamed of it,
but I lied about it,

because I wanted to get in
and I wanted to serve.

When I got in the Marines, they found out.

I asked them to stay in,
but they said, "No."

[Robin] In his fashion,
he served the country.

His way of expressing that
is to chase the good stories,

to find what they're trying to hide
and bring it into the light

because he thinks
that's what's best for the country.

[explosion, gunfire]

[indistinct conversation]

We've been in one company strength,

but now the other company
is moving in by helicopter.

We're now getting the second company.

The Vietnam War was becoming a big story.

I wanted to go, I asked to go,
and was eventually sent to Vietnam

and spent almost a year there.

What about these
rocket launchers, Colonel?

I don't believe I've seen these before.

[colonel] We've captured
these rocket launchers

on several occasions when operating
against the North Vietnamese.

It's a Chinese rocket launcher, and…

[Dan] The key to this victory was this
particular company of the 101st Airborne

under the command of Captain Hank Lunde
of Clarksville, Tennessee.

[Dan] When I first went to Vietnam,

combat units were disproportionately
made up of young Black men

out of places like Watts and Harlem,

and white country-boy men
out of places like East Texas.

When you ask them,
"What about race in the ranks?"

The infantryman saying was,
"Same mud, same blood."

For more than two days
elements of the 101st Airborne brigade

were engaged against
North Vietnamese troops

in this extremely thick jungle
near the Cambodian border.

You can see how thick this bamboo is.

Reporters couldn't get in here,
neither could helicopters of any kind,

and only today is the full extent
of the battle being known.

A number of bodies, the wounded,
already have been taken out.

[soldier] Emergency medevac ASAP!

[Robin] People don't understand
how deeply patriotic my dad is.

My dad is old-school,
to the bone patriotic.

[Dan] I didn't go in with any agenda.
I had no agenda while I was there,

except to put on American
television screens the war as it was.

[indistinct conversation]

Manny? Is the pain a lot, Manny?

[indistinct conversation]

-You want any water or anything?
-Take it easy, Manny. You're laid down.

When my dad was away for months at a time,
he sent a lot of postcards

and he wrote the exact same thing
on every postcard.

He wrote, "War is hell. Love, Dad."

The rebels during the night

extended their perimeter
at least four blocks in one direction,

and now the Marines are trying
to recapture those four blocks.

[explosion]

[Robin] You know, as a young girl,
you understand that's dangerous,

but at the same time, he always did that.

I never knew a time when
he wasn't doing that, as a young girl.

[Dan] There are a lot of civilians
up and down these streets.

In the distance, someone is screaming
in Vietnamese, "My father is wounded!"

A grenade came through an open window
in the next room,

where a sniper was believed hiding.

And for the first time an all-out attack
by Premier Ky's Skyraider.

[Robin] My mother didn't shield us
from what he was doing.

I have a lot of memories of my dad

with him crouched down
and bullets everywhere.

-[gunfire]
-This is the 25th Infantry Division.

The newest troops in South Vietnam
for the United States.

This is part of
their first heaviest action.

[gunfire continues]

[Robin] I really, really missed him.

I didn't really have a perspective
on his work.

[Dan] We tried our best
to tell it as it was.

"Here's your war.

"For better or for worse,
know what it is."

Five hours after the Buddhist nun
burned herself in Hue,

Saigon Buddhists marched downtown
in what they hope will be

their biggest demonstration
in more than two years.

I saw a good deal of Vietnam.

And increasingly,
the more of the war I saw,

what was being said in Washington
about what was happening in the war

did not match the facts on the ground.

So it became a clash
between those who knew what the war was,

what it really was,

and those who were trying
to convince the American people,

"Look, don't listen to those guys."

We will see this through.

We shall persist.

We shall succeed.

[Perlstein] When officials began
to make representations about the war

that were demonstrated
to be false and untrue,

for example, that we are winning the war,

and journalists began pointing that out,

they used the phrase "credibility gap."

It was a euphemism.

They were talking about
the government lying.

Lyndon Johnson would actually
pick up the phone when he was president

and call you. Is that right?

Yes. As well as other reporters.

It was fairly common for him
to call reporters and say,

-"What the hell are you doing to me, boy?"
-Yeah.

-[Dan] I mean, you're a Texan.
-Yeah.

[Dan] We have to stick together.

What folks saw on television
was increasingly at variance

with what they were being told.

That dichotomy would eventually call
the whole US commitment into question.

♪ If you love your Uncle Sam ♪

♪ Bring them home, bring them home ♪

♪ Support our boys in Vietnam… ♪

That ancient nemesis of armies, rain,

has washed out the hopes
of 15,000 American troops.

♪ I may be right, I may be wrong ♪

♪ Bring them home ♪

If you want us to stop our bombing,

you have to ask them
to stop their bombings.

-[shouts indistinctly]
-[guns firing]

These marines
are trying to move in on the pagoda

which is the rebel headquarters.

The bombs in Vietnam explode at home.

They destroy the dream
and possibility for a decent America.

♪ Bring them home, home! ♪

[Brinkley] Lyndon Johnson,
he had no idea what was going on.

Why is CBS showing American troops at war
in a grim fashion?

Because we did not do that
in World War II.

We were all in it together.

The press worked as a propaganda arm
of the US Military.

This was something new.

Dan Rather was part of all that.

Dan Rather, CBS News, Da Nang.

[Dan] Many in the upper echelons
of government and in the military

absolutely felt and they stated

that television incited
much of the anti-war movement.

As a matter of fact,
it's not a Vietnamese war now.

It's now a land war in Asia that
everybody's worried about for 20 years,

and we're in, and we want it out now.

If we may to continue to wrap here
for moment, another point that…

[Dan] To them,
the press was the real enemy.

We don't let people influence us
and pressure and force us

to divide our nation
in a time of national peril.

-[audience clapping]
-The hour is here.

There's an old saying that
"The first casualty of war is truth."

And the stakes are so high.

When you're asking people to surrender
their very lives for their country,

you have to ennoble the enterprise,

and often the way
that enterprise is ennobled by lies

and the greatest threat to that
is journalism.

For it seems now more certain than ever

that the bloody experience of Vietnam
is to end in a stalemate.

When Walter Cronkite said
the war in Vietnam couldn't be won,

it was over.

When should an anchor person,
an anchorman, become a commentator?

Maybe once in a lifetime.

[Sullivan]
When the most trusted man in America

tells you something pretty stunning
about your government

and its role in a foreign war,

people listened,
and it was very consequential.

[announcer] This is a CBS News campaign
'68 Convention special.

What's going to happen in Chicago?

Here is CBS News correspondent
Walter Cronkite.

Good evening from Chicago

where the 35th National
Democratic Convention opens tomorrow

with the promise of turmoil
inside this hall

and a threat of violence without.

By the end of the week,

Hubert Humphrey probably will emerge
as the party's nominee.

Inside the hall we can expect floor fights
over the rules, over credentials,

a bitter one
over the Vietnam plank and the platform,

but throughout,
the political process continues.

[Brinkley] The counterculture
was there in Chicago

and it was basically a war in the city
between Mayor Daley and protesters.

Tear gas flew every which way,

and it was almost impossible
to hold a sane Democratic Convention.

[Donald Peterson] Mr. Chairman,
most delegates to this convention

do not know that thousands of young people
are being beaten

in the streets of Chicago.

[people shouting indistinctly]

And for that reason,
I request a suspension of the rules

for the purpose of adjournment
for two weeks.

Wisconsin is not recognized
for that purpose!

[Walter Cronkite] Looks like a couple
of the sergeants-at-arms security people

have one of the members under both armpits
and forcing him out.

Dan Rather?

-[people clamoring]
-[Dan] What is your name, sir?

Take your hands off of me
unless you intend to arrest me.

Don't push me, please.

-Sir, I'm trying to--
-I know, but don't push me.

Take your hands off of me
unless you plan to arrest me.

Wait a minute, wait a minute.

Walter, as you can see--

[Cronkite] I don't know what's going on,

but these are security people
apparently around Dan,

obviously getting roughed up.

We tried to talk to the man
and we got bodily pushed out the way.

This is the kind of thing
that's been going on outside the hall.

This is the first time
we've had it happen inside the hall.

I'm sorry to be out of breath
but somebody belted me in the stomach.

[Cronkite] I think we've got
a bunch of thugs here, Dan,

if I may be permitted to say so.

Well, mind you, Walter, I'm all right.
It's… It's all in a day's work.

[Cronkite] Thank you, Dan,
for staying in there

pitching despite every handicap
that they can possibly put in our way

from free flow of information
at this Democratic National Convention.

Nowadays there's a tremendous amount
of antipathy towards the press,

but it was pretty startling
to see that happen in 1968.

[Brinkley] Rather, at that moment,
became a heroic figure

for standing up
for reporters to do their work

without fear of violence or death,

and at that point, Rather really becomes
part of the history of 1968.

As I stood and watched
Hubert Humphrey tonight

stand where he has wanted to for so long

at the very top
of the Democratic Party heap,

my first thought was, "Some heap."

[Cronkite] Richard Milhous Nixon
in a stunning political comeback

almost denied him in the closing days,

perhaps even
the closing hours of the campaign,

has been elected
the 37th President of the United States

with an electoral majority
over Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

[Perlstein] Richard Nixon
despised the press

as this sort of
unelected cast of aristocrats

who didn't report the news,
but created the news

and decided what Americans should think.

[Brinkley] Nixon got screwed
in the 1960 presidential election

because the media was all JFK crazy.

In 1967, you know,
preparing this run for president,

this young producer
whose name was Roger Ailes,

responded, "If you had taken TV
more seriously in 1960,

"maybe you would be president right now."
And Richard Nixon hired him.

The president is said by aides

to be especially anxious now
to improve his image.

There's always somebody in the press corps
that's gonna stand up and ask

this sort of in-your-face question,
and Rather assumed that role.

[Dan] Mr. President,
I wanna state this question

with due respect to your office,
but also as directly--

-That would be unusual.
-[laughter]

[Dan] I'd like to think not.

[Brinkley] There became
a counter offensive

to start trying to even the playing field.

[Dan] Mr. President--

[Dan] Thank you.

The background of this--

[Nixon speaking]

[laughter]

Thank you, Mr. President.
I remember yours too.

[laughter]

It is important to reflect on history

and all the moments
in which the downfall of democracy

has been preceded and accompanied
and hastened by rhetoric

trying to turn the press
into the enemy of the people.

[Cronkite] At first
it was called the Watergate caper.

Five men apparently caught in the act
of burglarizing and bugging

Democratic headquarters in Washington.

[Sullivan] Nixon didn't like it
when there were leaks given to the press.

You hire a plumber to stop a leak.

[Dan] The so-called plumbers
were a highly skilled group

in the political dark arts,

wiretapping, home break-ins,

against personal enemies and beyond.

The President's men also claim
that CBS News,

in passing along
the allegations of others,

is being politically unfair to Mr. Nixon
by spreading the smear.

Nixon hated the press
and he thought the press hated him,

but in the end,
Watergate was not the press at fault.

They didn't invade Watergate. He did.

…the strong America that I wanna build,

people who do not want these things
naturally would exploit any issue,

if it weren't Watergate, anything else,

in order to keep the president
from doing his job.

[Roberson] Politicians are there
to deliver their message

and the media is there to tell people
if this message should be believed or not.

What we're talking about here
is possible criminal acts

by the highest ranking
White House officials.

[Larry Doyle]
Well, there was tension in the news room

because we knew we were under attack.

But you know, all that did
was force us to hone our product.

[Dan] The President's popularity rating
continued to drop.

The House Judiciary Committee
began to consider impeachment.

[Doyle] And Dan, more than anyone else,

was the brunt of the pressure
that was being brought.

The possibility of resigning
or being impeached

and being tagged historically
as the man who led

perhaps the most corrupt administration
in our history.

[tape playing]

I'm quite confident that
Nixon's plumbers group went after Dan.

[Robin] Our house got burgled.

My main memory of it

is my dad standing with a shotgun
on the landing of the stairs,

cocking the rifle
to try to scare these burglars away,

which he did.

They weren't stealing.

They were opening safes,
they were looking for papers.

They were looking for stuff
to burn my dad with

and they didn't get it,

but to me
it was just a really scary thing.

Thank you, Mr. President.
Dan Rather with CBS News.

[people applauding, booing]

Mr. President…

-[Nixon] Are you running for something?
-[laughter and applause]

-No, sir, Mr. President. Are you?
-[laughter]

It was kind of just a moment,
it was a funny repartee,

but people really held onto that
as Dan taking on the president.

How can the House
meet its constitutional responsibilities

while you, the person under investigation,

are allowed to limit
their access to potential evidence?

I am suggesting
that the House follow the Constitution.

If they do, I will.

[applause]

What people don't understand about
that exchange is actually the aftermath,

because CBS got
a ton of heat from their affiliates.

And so, my main memory from that time

is actually hoping
he didn't get fired for it.

But Dan relished the role.
You could feel it.

He did gain respect, notoriety,

and quite frankly,
the ire of the Nixon White House.

The President's remark
that payment would be wrong

seems to be
not during the discussion of hush money,

but during one about clemency instead.

He simply is
never going to look the same again

to anyone who reads
these pages of private conversation.

[Jim Murphy]
In the Founding Fathers' minds,

the reason they thought
the fourth estate, the press,

was such an important institution to be
part of the building blocks of democracy,

is that they knew that there needed to be
an independent watchdog of government.

[Nixon] In the past few days,
it has become evident to me

that I no longer have a strong-enough
political base in the Congress.

Therefore, I shall resign the presidency
effective at noon tomorrow.

[Cronkite] Dan, this must be something
of an emotional moment for you.

You have covered
the entire Nixon presidency

and have been in the forefront
of some of the conflict

between the press and the President.

My own feelings are those of sadness,
no bitterness,

and some exuberance
about the great American experiment

showing that it's still strong
and healthy and viable, Walter.

Many people in the Republican Party
held The Washington Post and CBS News

as primarily responsible
for what happened to the Nixon presidency.

When you cover a story like this

and when you have emotional feelings
on all sides of the story,

particularly those
who felt they have lost,

they're gonna blame somebody.

CBS News and myself
as the Chief White House Correspondent,

had been under tremendous pressure.

In that moment, what I was feeling was,

"We've been through a lot.
It's finally over.

"Now what?"

Things happened pretty quickly
after President Nixon resigned.

CBS said they wanted me
to move from the White House.

Mike Wallace asked me
to come to 60 Minutes.

I'm Mike Wallace.

I'm Morely Safer.

I'm Dan Rather.

In a moment, those stories and more
tonight on 60 Minutes.

Moving to 60 Minutes
was a watershed moment.

[Dan] The pace at 60 Minutes

was immediately really rapid
and I loved that.

It took off
and became a talk-about program.

-[man] Take one.
-Whatever happened to the hippies?

There's nothing new about prostitution
in Rock Springs.

Indeed it's an old tradition here.

If I asked you to grade yourself,
A through F, foreign policy.

Dan, this is a little bit embarrassing.

Will there be other elections soon?

[In Spanish] Actually,
the elections went perfectly well.

[Dan, in English] This is the scene
outside a New York disco called Studio 54.

[Susan Zirinsky]
Oftentimes Dan was the one calling with,

"Should we be doing this?"

Little or nothing in the way of news
comes out of Afghanistan.

So the only way to find out
what goes on there

is to go in and see for yourself.

I'm standing on the border
between Pakistan and Afghanistan,

a border that is now closed
to most everyone

except refugees
fleeing the Soviet invasion.

[Stringer] He was told
not to go into Afghanistan

because it was dangerous,
but he wanted to do it,

with the possibility of never coming back.

I mean, they knew he was coming.

[Robin] I was in college then,

and I literally thought
he wasn't gonna make it back.

I went home to basically say good-bye.

These Afghan clothes I'm wearing
were part of an operation to sneak me

and a CBS News film crew into Afghanistan.

[Tom Bettag] If there's a story
to be gotten, Dan's gonna get it.

And if somebody thinks that

he's dressed up
in a way that looks ridiculous,

not gonna stop him.

[Zirinsky] People made fun of Gunga Dan
and the clothing.

But you know what?
He went and he reported.

[indistinct shouting]

[Dan] This is a training session
for new recruits.

Afghans who have settled their families
in Pakistan

and are now ready
to go back home and fight.

[Brinkley] Television is about
ratings and money.

It's an industry,
and 60 Minutes was dominant.

[David Buksbaum] There is a theory at CBS

that the worst thing to happen to CBS News
was 60 Minutes,

because it proved you
can make money from news.

Bullshit.

I think 60 Minutes is the best thing
that happened to enhance the value of CBS.

[theme music playing on TV]

Television journalism, as you well know,

has become show business
to a certain extent.

The most important thing in news,
I think, for the long run,

is the believability of the person
who's giving you the news.

That's what Walter Cronkite has
going for him, tremendous believability.

[Stringer] And Cronkite got ratings.

Cronkite could read the phone book
and have an audience.

[announcer]
CBS presents this program in color.

This is my last broadcast as the anchorman
of the CBS Evening News.

For me, it's a moment for which
I long have planned, but which…

He was by far
the number-one news anchor on television,

but he was also getting up in years,
so he accepted the retirement.

Walter Cronkite was probably
the biggest shoes that you could ever fill

in TV news.

[Brinkley] Cronkite knew
what a great reporter Rather was,

and was very comfortable
having him be his successor.

[Dan] When I came to the anchor chair,
I wouldn't try to mislead anybody

and I wouldn't be believable
if I did try to mislead them.

It felt terrific.

I felt in some ways I'd been preparing
for this moment most of my adult life.

[man] You're gonna ask Leslie
two questions, probably?

Three. I got an opening question,

one interior question,
and a closed question.

-The total thing is 1:30.
-Okay.

If it runs any more than that,
it's Harry Caray time.

-Okay.
-Okay?

Cronkite's sign-off was,
"And that's the way it is."

And that's the way it is.
Friday, March 6th, 1981.

So Dan had to do a different kind of show
that played to his strengths.

And he wanted to sign off
by saying, "Courage."

Courage to everybody
who's laying pipeline,

working on a railroad.

48 Hours on Crack Street.

Until then, Dan Rather. Courage.

And the network execs
were just absolutely not having it.

[Murphy] A guy walks into Dan's office
and says,

"Dan, why are you signing off
with 'Courage'?"

And Dan said to him,

"Because it's my favorite word
and it means something to me."

And the guy said to Dan,
"Dan, my favorite word is bullshit,

"and you can't say it on TV, okay?"

[man] Sound up. Mic. Cue.

Good evening,
this is the CBS Evening News.

[Stringer] We had to get through
a transition.

Dan was so attractive
and sharp in the suit and so forth,

and following Walter, who was much more
a crumpled star, in a way,

there was an idea
that we should put him in a sweater.

-Have you seen the ratings lately?
-No, I haven't.

You're doing okay. They like the sweater,

but it still doesn't quite say "CBS News"
to me, I don't know…

He had skirmishes like that

between what upper management
thought he should be as an anchor

and what he really was as an anchor,
which was really a reporter.

[Dan] Petroleum refining?

-[speaking indistinctly]
-I'm sorry, I do have it.

[Dan] Please.

[Cohen]
I was a 22-year-old desk assistant.

He would always say hello to everyone.

"Hello. Hello. How are you?

"Hello. How are you?"

You know, very intense
in his broadcaster voice.

He's a big man, he's larger than life.

He's got a huge head, big face.

Quadruple checking.
It's not that I doubt McManus,

but you know,
trust your mother, but check it out.

[man] Five minutes.

My grandmother thought Dan Rather was just

[kisses] perfection.

Keep it warm and friendly.
Think warm and friendly.

[apathetically] I believe I can
manage that without any problem at all.

[canned laughter]

All right. Quiet!

-Can you do it?
-Do it!

And that's the way it is.

Nobody can be another Walter Cronkite.

It would be a mistake
to try to be Walter Cronkite.

I better be
the best Dan Rather I could be.

Good evening.
This is the CBS Evening News.

Dan Rather reporting.

Good evening.
The fate of Korean Airlines flight 007…

Good evening.
I'm Tom Brokaw with NBC Nightly News.

[Cohen] That was the age of the anchorman.

It was like Mount Rushmore,

and Dan Rather was in front
and then there was Brokaw and Jennings.

[Bettag] Peter Jennings,
Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather

existed at a time when
three broadcasts dominated the airwaves,

at a time when
the nation could agree on the facts.

[Nelson] It was 45 million people a night
for ABC, CBS, and NBC.

It's not Super Bowl, but it's damn close.

You're constantly inhaling
NASA-grade rocket fuel for the ego.

How do we make ours better
than either one of the other two?

[Robin] He really respected them.
They really respected him back.

But it was a game of who's scooping who.

[Dan] Okay. Okay.
All right. Well let's go.

-Okay, I'll meet you right down there.
-Bill is coming with my bag.

It may be delayed a second or so.
Shall I meet you back down here?

[Bettag] Dan's instinct
every time there's a story,

it's, "Let's get on a plane and go there

"and let's do the broadcast
from the place of the story."

And Jennings and Brokaw always felt
that we were too quick to move out,

that we went to stories
that weren't that important.

George Bush at that time
was gonna make a quick trip

to Beijing on the weekend.

Brokaw and Jennings said, "No way."

And we walked away
with a big smile on our face

and said, "This is just going to be big."

-[man speaking other language]
-[in English] Okay.

You ready, Jorgen?

Day four of the student strike.

Day four
for the 3,000 or so hunger strikers…

[Bettag] And while we were there,
it became patently clear

that the Chinese students
were going to try an uprising.

In the middle of all of this
is the hospital tent

which handles the worst cases.

-This is day four of the student sit-in.
-[siren wailing]

Day four of the hunger strike.

The sound of ambulances
is almost everywhere because they do lose…

As soon as the uprising began,
the Chinese shut the doors.

Brokaw and Jennings
at that point could not get in,

and we had the story
completely to ourselves.

There was this new fantastic device
called a video camera.

It's just past midnight Beijing time now,
under a full moon…

[Nelson] A television network,

if they were willing to spend the money
could cover the world.

[Dan] Hunger strikers had

what may be their last meeting
before the army moves in.

[Nelson] There's instantaneous news.

[Bettag] Eventually
our live broadcasts from Beijing

were getting so much attention,

the Chinese government made the decision,

"We will not allow you
to use our satellites to broadcast."

[reporter] Shortly before midnight,
Eastern Time,

Rather made one last effort
to keep broadcasting.

I do protest
in the most respectful manner.

[reporter] But the Chinese
had finally had enough.

There would be no more live coverage.
The satellite was being shut off.

[static beeping]

[Bettag] It was a huge moment both for us,

and a black eye
for the Chinese government.

It was amazing to be with Dan
at moments of historic significance.

[Dan] The Berlin Wall.
Once, it divided East from West.

[Zirinsky] Because he understood
the value of it,

and he also understood
the responsibility of it.

If you were here,
the feeling that you would feel

is a kind of combination
of 4th of July and Thanksgiving Day.

He was so open to doing what was required.

He was as much a producer
as the producer traveling with him.

[Stringer] He'd say,
"What do we do? Where do we go?"

How far we could push it.

And he'd be the first out the door.

You know how he'd travel
with some gold sewn into his clothes

so he had emergency funds.

He looked at his work
like you were in a battle.

[Dan] Scattered gunshots were heard

as the Marines moved
and secured the seaport.

Airport terminal building, Mogadishu.

Out there in the darkness, US Navy SEALs…

[Bettag] There is a bond that comes
on people working on a broadcast,

not unlike soldiers
fighting in the field together.

You depend upon one another.

He truly believed that

he could tell the story
better than anyone else.

[Doyle] He knew the politics.
His preparation gave us,

the grunts who worked with him,
a lot of confidence.

You know,
reporters get paid to be skeptical.

[man] Here we go. Quiet down.

[Nelson] It didn't matter
what Dan Rather reported on,

he was going to be labeled a liberal,

and oftentimes it came from people
who just didn't want to hear the truth.

The real threat to freedom,

the real threat to freedom of speech,

and the real threat
to our constitutional system

is on our TV screens every evening

and on the front pages
of our newspapers every day.

[Murphy] The press has always had
an adversarial relationship

with the government
because that's part of their job,

and what the Founding Fathers wanted.

Is it as strong as we thought
it was gonna be in terms of its content?

Yes, yes. It is. It's very strong.

[Brinkley]
Everything started coming unglued

with the rise of Ronald Reagan.

Reagan is all about deregulating,

and cable turns out to be
the friend of the right

because they're able to create
constituency television.

The only way to really stop what we see as
a slide towards liberalism in this country

is to bring an end to the bias,

the liberal bias
that exists in the major media.

Today, Helms spoke of journalists
who he said have

"forgotten the God
that the rest of us believed blessed us."

And "if they do not hate America,
have smug contempt for American ideals."

End of quote.

This one is Dan Rather.

[crowd laughing]

If it looked like
the right wing was out to get Dan Rather,

you were right, they were.

And they still are.

[reporter] Republican Senator Jesse Helms
wants to take over CBS.

He says if one million Conservatives

each buys 20 shares
in the broadcast network,

they can take it over
and "become Dan Rather's boss."

It seems Jesse Helms feels
CBS is the most anti-Reagan network,

and by taking it over

Conservatives can end
what they feel is biased reporting.

The fact that Dan Rather
is located by some people

as a uniquely malevolent figure

is merely evidence
that he has done his job.

[Dan] 0%.

0% said they thought
that you cared a great deal

about the needs and problems of the poor.

Now, let's set aside
what you've done or have not done.

Do you think that you need to do something

that Blacks will perceive
as being positive for them?

[sighs] I don't know
whether they would hear about it.

I think we have been doing things
that are positive for them.

[Samantha Bee] A good journalist to me

is willing to be very unliked
and unpopular in the moment

and willing to be hated.

If you're gonna be in journalism

and you wanna be loved,
you better get a dog.

"Kenneth, what's the frequency?"

Those strange, unexplained words
may hold the clue

to the identities of two well-dressed men
who attacked CBS newscaster Dan Rather.

As Rather began walking south
down Park Avenue,

he said two well-dressed men in dark suits
and white shirts approached him.

According to police, one of the men said,
"Kenneth, what is the frequency?"

When Rather replied,
"You have the wrong guy,"

Rather said one of the men
punched him in the head,

knocked him to the ground
and kicked him repeatedly.

[Stringer] Everybody who disliked Dan
for whatever reason,

particularly politicians,
didn't believe the story.

[Magee Hickey]
The motive remains a mystery.

It doesn't appear to have been
a robbery attempt,

and police say it may have been
just a case of mistaken identity.

Meanwhile, they're still searching
for Dan Rather's attackers.

People thought that
he faked his own assault?

Dan Rather?

Straight-arrow Dan Rather?

[Cohen] The What's-the-Frequency guy
got caught.

He was a real person,
and he was a real dangerous person.

He killed someone at the Today show.

[reporter] Tager is charged with pumping
the bullets into Theron's body

outside of the Today show studios
Wednesday…

People thought it was funny.

It wasn't funny. He… he nearly died.

He has injuries to this day
from that assault.

My dad could have easily lost his life
and got beaten within an inch of it.

But a couple years later,
R.E.M. made a really great song out of it.

[rock music playing]

One, two, three, four.

♪ What's the frequency, Kenneth? ♪

[Robin] And my dad can't dance or sing
worth a flip

but somehow he went and sang with R.E.M.

And it's one of the geekiest,
most embarrassing clips

my dad has ever done, but he's hilarious.

He's a really fun dad.

A leading psychologist says
that Dan Rather is troubled,

but David Turkat
of the media psychology newsletter

says that exactly what is troubling him,
only he knows.

There was a school of people
who thought Dan was a little nuts,

that he was gonna crack on the air.

He was considered to be intense,

maybe divisive,

and maybe frankly a little off.

-♪ Uh-huh ♪
-[Dan mouthing along]

Whoo!

[Stringer] When you're anchorman,
you have to be thoughtful

and careful about what you say

because you represent the institution,
CBS News,

and you're talking to the nation.

So, in some ways he was a chained tiger

and occasionally
he'd get into trouble for it.

There was a sports overrun in Miami
that would push the Evening News

maybe even off the air in the East Coast.

[reporter] Rather was told
the Steffi Graf-Lori McNeil tennis match

would run late,
delaying the start of his newscast.

Rather reported to be angry
about the late start, called New York,

and when the tennis match finally ended,

instead of Rather news,
affiliates received nothing.

Black.

Dan was not in the chair.

And that was the wrong thing to do.

Some network affiliate executives say

that Rather was trying to make a point
that the news should have gone on on time,

and that he was acting like a prima donna.

I think he was angry.

[reporter] Do you see this
as a general drift

of entertainment versus the news?

Of course I do,
because that's where the money is.

You can have a stellar career,
but there can be mistakes.

Okay. I do.

We need to raise the audio,
just a little low.

[man] 10 seconds. Open up, Dan, full 9.

Eight, seven, six, five…

The climax of this convention
comes tomorrow night.

George Bush will deliver
his acceptance speech

to delegates here
and to a national TV audience.

His political career on the line.

Early on, one of the senior producers

had written a letter
asking for a general interview

that we asked all of the candidates to do.

Many felt, rightly or wrongly,
that Vice President Bush

is hiding information
that the public ought to know.

[Bettag] The Iran-Contra scandal
was very much in the air.

We really like what we've got.

Saying arms have been traded for hostages.

-To the mad Iranians.
-To the Iranians.

And the White House saying,
"Absolutely no way."

[Bettag] The question was,
what was Bush's role in this?

Which at that point he was saying,
"I didn't have anything to do with it."

The question about arms for hostages
has been answered over and over again.

[Bettag] Roger Ailes,
who was an advisor to Bush,

agreed to a live interview.

And the problem in a live interview
is that the clock is running out on you.

Mr. Vice President,
thank you for being with us.

Donald Gregg still serves
as your trusted advisor.

He was deeply involved
in running arms for the Contras

and he didn't inform you.

Why is Mr. Gregg still in the White House
and still a trusted advisor?

Because I have confidence in him,

and because this matter, Dan,
as you well know, and your editors know,

has been looked at
by the $10-million study

by the Senate and the House.

[Bettag] And Roger Ailes,
then advising Bush,

saw an opening in which
Bush could be the tough guy by saying,

"You asked me for a general interview."

Now if this is a political profile
for an election,

I have a very different opinion
as to what one should be.

You said that if you had known
this was an arms-for-hostages swap,

that you would've opposed it.

-Exactly.
-You also said that you did not know--

-May I answer that?
-It wasn't a question. It was a statement.

A statement, and I'll answer it.

[Nelson] What nobody saw at home was that

Roger Ailes was holding up cue cards
for George Bush

and giving him the answers.

Roger Ailes was a master at manipulation
and creating scenes.

Did Dan fall into the trap? Yeah.

[Dan] You set the rules
for this talk here.

I didn't mean to step on your line,
but you insisted that this be live,

and you know we have
a limited amount of time.

[Bettag] I am in the control room.

When it gets that intense,
Dan can't listen to me.

So all I'm doing is saying,
"Three minutes."

May I explain out of the loop?

No operational role. Go ahead.

You said if you knew
it was an arms-for-hostages swap,

you'd oppose it.
You said the first you knew…

Four minutes within a broadcast
that has only 22 minutes of air time.

We can't go any further than six minutes.

…what they were doing.

How can you reconcile you were there
on three separate occasions…

[Stringer] I wasn't in the studio that day

and I came back
and I knew the impact it was gonna have.

-I expressed my concerns and reservations.
-That you can't remember it.

-Others say he was apoplectic.
-Maybe I wasn't there at that point.

[Zirinsky] Lesley Stahl and I
are in Iowa for the primary.

We're in the back room
and we're sitting there watching it,

and we're holding onto each other
like we were watching a horror film

'cause we thought it was really bad.

It's not fair to judge my whole career
by a rehash on Iran.

How would you like it
if I judged your career

by those seven minutes
when you walked off the set in New York?

Mr. Vice President--

I respect you
but not for what you're doing tonight.

Six minutes, I'm saying, "Cut."

Iran was officially a terrorist state.

"You've gotta stop. You've gotta stop."

[Dan] Are you willing to go to
a news conference before Iowa caucuses,

-answer questions from all--
-Been to 86 news conferences since March.

-86 since March.
-I gather that the answer is "no."

Thank you very much for being with us,
Mr. Vice President.

We'll be back with more news in a moment.

Good morning. Good morning.

We don't misrepresent.
We come straight at people.

That's my record and my history,

and that's CBS News's record
and its history.

Clearly understand…

[Stringer] That's Dan unchained,

and I knew
Dan was going to get in trouble for it.

As a flaming executive,

I knew I was gonna have to deal
with the consequences.

It was an important… very important issue

which Dan Rather pursued
characteristically with energy.

That's what Dan does for a living,

that's what a great reporter does
for a living.

[Zirinsky] I called a couple people
in New York

and they were thrilled with it,
and I was horrified.

We promoted all weekend long on our air,

an interview with the Vice President
on the Iran-Contra Affair.

It was in the morning papers

and why the Vice President
didn't understand that, we don't know.

The headlines the next day were exactly
what Roger Ailes and Bush wanted,

that "Rather bushwhacks
the Vice President."

[reporter] The Bush people say
he was bushwhacked.

Well, maybe they were interested
in the alliteration more than the reality.

[Bettag] It made Dan Rather
a central character in that election.

Good evening. A heated exchange
between Vice President George Bush

and CBS anchor Dan Rather
about the Vice President's…

[man 1] Morning. Rather's a jerk.

[Bond] This lady thinks
Rather's ears should be pinned back,

and if the Vice President
can stand up to him, he can to anybody.

[man 2] I think George Bush has decided
that press bashing is a blood sport.

He picked out Dan Rather last night
and had a shot at him.

[Dan] My job is to ask honest questions
and try to get honest answers,

and I'm comfortable with that.

It's not always comfortable
for everybody involved,

but I'm comfortable being a reporter.

I'm lucky to have this job.
I like it a lot.

-I wanna get to it. Thanks.
-[reporters clamoring]

-Thanks a lot.
-If you'll let us get to work.

[Stringer] People'd say,
"Why is he always in the news?"

That's the dangerous thing
about publicity.

The spotlight burns
as much as it illuminates.

When you're in the spotlight all the time,
you'll get into trouble

because there are people
looking to get you.

Elephants never forget.
Republicans never forget.

They're shrewd tacticians,

but more importantly,
they're long-term strategists.

[announcer] Fox News Channel.
Fair and balanced.

Where news is going where news should be.

What I recognized was, the American people

[on tape]
didn't wanna be told what to think

about the information they were receiving.

So we came up with,

"We report, you decide.
Fair and balanced."

[laughing]

There is a master propagandist at work.

If you look at the three networks,
ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN,

but take the three commercial,
not cable networks,

any difference in those newscasts?

I think by and large,
ABC and NBC come at it pretty straight.

-Do you really?
-Yeah.

And it's only CBS
that you think is biased--

Well, I think it's Dan Rather
who hates George Bush,

wants to nail him every night.

Dan Rather is upset because
George Bush knocked him on his fanny

in 1988 in that debate.

I don't think that Dan was trying
to make something happen politically.

-You don't think he's out to ding…
-Oh, abso… What?

[both laughing]

Let's not kid ourselves. Of course he is.

[Sullivan] But it was useful for Ailes

to act like
this is a representative of the Democrats,

this is a lefty,
and we need to take him down.

It's useful to have a demon to vilify.

It's one of the ways
that this effort works.

[Zirinsky] When Ailes came in, he said,

"I have a vision
to serve part of the country

"that I don't think
has been served in the news

"in a more conservative approach."

How did you do it?
I mean, tell me what the formula is.

-Whatever the ratings comparison is…
-Right.

…has led Fox News channel
to be considered.

Here to stay.

I think it all comes down to people
and a vision and--

So what's the vision?

Roger Ailes is a man
with a very strongly held set of views

about how he wants the world
to work. Okay?

And what he did was
he took all of his brain power and energy

and Rupert Murdoch's money

to establish a system,
an information processing system,

that delivers to an audience
Roger Ailes's worldview.

The culture of cable news partisanship
is not limited to Fox.

I think that it's a pitfall
on both sides of the aisle.

But Fox has been uniquely significant
in pioneering a model

that entwines showmanship
and partisan rancor.

But the philosophy is that in primetime
you have to create personalities.

-Is that the idea?
-Yeah. You have to create ratings.

In the end, it's about ratings.

[Farrow] Roger Ailes really was a canny
and talented inventor of that model,

certainly a popularizer of it.

Not only do today's liberals,
many of them,

hate our American traditions…

Nothing will get better in this country
until the culture changes.

Right now
it's really easy to monetize crap.

[Nelson] As we've learned of late,
you can make up your own truth

and enough people will believe it.

We have to tell the truth to our viewers,
that's a minimum.

We can all be confused from time to time
based on circumstances.

But the sky is blue, and the water is wet.

And anybody who begins with something
other than those kinds of truth

doesn't deserve our time.

And you watch Dan Rather for a while
and you know who he is.

He's a truth teller. He's a truth seeker.

Dan doesn't take sides.

He pulls every lever he can
to get every ounce of truth

out of every person he interviews.

Could you describe to me what you believe
to be the responsibilities of a husband

of a United States Senator?

[laughing]

I don't know,
but I'm willing to fulfill them.

[Smith] It didn't matter
if he was at the White House

or at a flood or at a hurricane.

The wind doesn't get much worse
than it is right here.

[Smith] When you want to know
what it feels like,

Dan Rather brings you there.

[Dan on TV] Showdown with Saddam.

The deadline for war.

Commando missions set up inside Iraq

as huge force prepares to invade
on a moment's notice.

[explosions]

[Dan] At the height of the Iraq War,
I was a frequent flyer to Baghdad.

Are you afraid
of being killed or captured?

[Roberson] I get a phone call,
and it was the press person, and he said,

"Boy, do I have
the mother of all stories for you."

And I said, "What?" and he goes,

"There are pictures of American soldiers

"treating prisoners disrespectfully,

"borderline torturing them,

"and no one's talking about it."

So we started tracking
and hunting that story.

[soldier over phone]

[Dan] You'll see some of the pictures
that led to the Army investigation.

We want to warn you,
the pictures are difficult to look at.

Americans did this to an Iraqi prisoner.

According to the US Army,

the man was told to stand on a box
with his head covered,

with wires attached to his hands.

He was told that if he fell off the box,
he would be electrocuted.

[Roberson] When it comes to people,

American soldiers
risking their lives for our country

versus a few bad eggs,
I guess you could say,

and how much weight you give that story,

it doesn't feel good to do that,
but it's still an important story.

There are bodies
that were eaten by dogs, tortured,

you know, electrodes coming out of walls,
scratches on the walls…

It was an awful place.

We went into Iraq
to stop things like this from happening.

And indeed, here they are happening
under our tutelage.

[Dan] When we got the story,
strange things began to happen.

"We're not gonna put it on the air
this week.

"We want another week to work on it.
We think you can improve it."

I said, "Wait a minute.
We've got the story."

So one week led to two weeks,
led to three weeks.

They held it off the air
until we came to them and said,

"Some of the sources on this story
who have helped us do it,

"have become convinced
you're not going to run it,

"and they're talking to Sy Hersh."

One of the great investigative reporters
of our time.

That got their attention,
because now they're in a box.

Very big business
is in bed with very big government.

They don't want reporters digging around
on stories that can embarrass them.

Two weeks ago, we received an appeal
to delay this broadcast,

given the danger and tension
on the ground in Iraq.

This week, with the photos
beginning to circulate elsewhere,

and with other journalists about to
publish their versions of the story,

the Defense Department agreed
to cooperate in our report.

[Nelson] 60 Minutes II was on a roll.

They had just reported
the Abu Ghraib story.

I mean, they were rocking.

Accepting the Peabody Award, Dan Rather,
correspondent for 60 Minutes.

[Dan] When it comes striving to meet
the responsibilities of the public trust,

that is the practice of journalism
in this country…

[Roberson] Everyone was flying high.

We've done an award-winning story
that everyone's talking about.

US officials are making changes
at Abu Ghraib prison.

[reporter] Today, the US military set free
more than 300 inmates.

What took place in that prison
does not represent America that I know.

There's a little bit of a Teflon
that goes up, you know,

"Okay, don't mess with them.
They are on a roll. Let them keep going."

The outcome of this election will set
the direction of the war against terror.

[cheers and applause]

[Dan] The prospect of doing a piece

on George W. Bush's
highly irregular military career

was something that producer Mary Mapes
had first mentioned to me in 2000.

385, 386.

[Dan] If you have a commander-in-chief
who is commanding two overseas wars,

what he did and didn't do
when it was his time to serve,

that's a story.

And if it turns out
that he avoided going to a combat area

through the influence of his father,

and then disappeared while he was
supposed to be on duty, for a year,

whether he was a Democrat or Republican,
that's a story.

Sometimes you can be blinded by a story

that you think points out an inequity
and a special treatment.

The bottom line is
you gotta have the goods.

Did then-Lieutenant Bush
fulfill all of his military commitments?

[reporter] CBS showed what it said
are exclusively obtained memos,

supposedly proving that three decades ago,
Bush did not follow orders.

The memos have come under
withering criticism

with several experts saying they're fake.

[Dan] We had a document which I believed
was what it purported to be.

[Zirinsky] Was the information
coming from a flawed source?

That was really the crux of the problem.

[Dan] The story was true.

Because it was true,
those who wanted to discredit the story

had to attack the process
by which we got to the truth.

The Republican party had become very adept

at going on the offensive
by coming up with schemes.

And Rather
was the bane of the Bush family.

They despised him.

Was it planned?

We'll never know.

Did the phone start ringing off the hook
30 seconds after it aired?

Yes.

Coincidence?

I don't know. Not likely.

Rather now became the story.

It was that
Rather had bought a bad bill of goods.

[reporter] A couple quick questions
about these memos?

-We're late here.
-No. Thank you.

Thank you, Jim.

Even my dog knew
these documents were forged.

Dan Rather's still telling
the Chicago Tribune they're not forged.

CBS News said today
it was misled about documents

that questioned
the President's National Guard service

and it was a mistake
to broadcast their contents.

CBS has taken steps
to hold people accountable,

and we appreciate those steps.

We also hope that CBS will take steps

to prevent something like this
from happening again.

[Zirinsky] That piece should never
have gone on the air,

and it cost a lot of people their careers.

He suffered.

So did CBS.

There was a substantial lawsuit
against them.

[Dan] I never thought it would happen.

I had convinced myself
that somehow, some way,

I would stay on at CBS.

It was my wife Jean who provided
the perspective that I needed to hear.

She said, "You got into a fight
with the President of the United States

"during a re-election campaign.

"What did you think was going to happen?"

[Dan on TV] It was a mistake.
CBS News deeply regrets it.

Also, I want to say
personally and directly, I'm sorry.

[Murphy] The saddest thing about the story
is that it's true.

George Bush had a checkered record
with some real problems in it,

all of which was covered in that report.

[Zirinsky] Dan is a really good human.

He appreciated the loyalty in people.

He appreciated the work.

I think the mistake was that
he so trusted the people around him

that they had done the deeper dive,

but that's Dan's responsibility also.

[Robin] When CBS said,
"Well, we'll let you keep your job,

"if you make it very clear that
it's Mary's fault that Memogate happened,"

he wasn't having that.

He said, "Absolutely not."

And some people have said,
"Wow, what a dumb thing to do.

"You had the greatest job in the world.

"All you had to do
was throw Mary under the bus."

And that's just not him.

[Roberson] When it was announced
Dan was leaving, I was really heartbroken.

He had this long, esteemed career.

It was a dream job.

To have that rug pulled out from under you
in the way that it was

was hard for him.
It was hard for all of us.

We've shared a lot in the 24 years
we've been meeting here each evening.

And before I say good night this night,
I need to say thank you.

Thank you to the thousands
of wonderful professionals at CBS News,

past and present,

with whom it's been my honor to work
over these years.

[Dan] The final sign off
of my time at the CBS Evening News

was going to be an emotional time
for me and for my family.

And my daughter, Robin,

who is almost mystically in tune
with my moods,

she knew I was having trouble.

That was a very emotional time for him.

He was going out
not the way he wanted to go out,

but because he really had to.

And he wanted to go out with strength
and he wanted to go out his way.

Not long after I first came
to the anchor chair,

I briefly signed off
using the word "courage."

I want to return to it now
in a different way.

To my fellow journalists in places where
reporting the truth means risking all,

and to each of you,

courage.

For the CBS Evening News,
Dan Rather reporting.

Good night.

[Brinkley] The truth is,
if you're on the air that much

doing cutting-edge journalism,

then you're going to have moments
that don't work.

And Rather fell into a sand trap

with this showdown
over the Texas Air Guard.

And so, from that point on,

when Dan Rather leaves CBS
in a fit of anger

and lawsuits that don't work,

it really is the start
of a different kind of journalistic world.

[Martin] I think a lot of people
in his position would have

just sort of packed it in at that point
and would've said, "I had a great career.

"I'm gonna rest on my laurels,"
in some ways.

I think he could have become

one of the world's great
octogenarian fly fishermen.

I really do.

But I just think
that's so antithetical to who he is.

Anybody who knows me knows that,
you know, I wanna work.

I'd much rather wear out than rust out.

♪ This little light of mine
I'm gonna let it shine… ♪

[Mark Cuban] America loves a second act.

I don't take any credit
because he's Dan Rather,

he would've come back one way or the other
just through the quality of his work.

Haiti is and will remain
a disaster seemingly without end.

Is it like this every day?

Yeah, every day that we have
this food give-out, it's always like this.

[Martin] The most devastating impact
to my grandfather

surrounding the Bush story

was that people thought
that he was retired.

People thought that he was done.

Bonjour, madame.

Salut.

[Cuban, in English] I looked at it as,
"Dan, what's interesting to you?

"What do you see is happening in the world
that you want to convey?"

And that's exactly what he did.

How does anybody living like this
have even a shred of dignity?

[Robin] Dad literally called Wayne

and said, "Let's put together
a crack production team and go get it."

[Nelson]
Probably the hardest time of my life.

It is unbelievable to put together

an hour of investigative journalism
every week.

And we were doing 40 episodes a year.

The floodwaters have long ago receded,
and so has the nation's attention.

But for the people down here,
time stands still.

For the first time in a long time,
he really enjoyed himself.

I mean, he was really sort of free
to do what he wants to do,

and that was report.

For HDNet, from New York,
Dan Rather reporting.

Good night.

I do sincerely believe that a career
in breaking tough investigative stories

and doing it thoroughly and meticulously
and in an impartial way

is a public service.

I think it constrains powerful interests
who might otherwise abuse that power.

[Cuban] When Dan started,

the level of power that journalists had
was insane.

You were one effectively of three networks
and what you reported had an impact.

The audience was in the tens of millions.

But as the media landscape changed,
the audience got smaller.

Because there were more options.

But Dan never changed.

Dan took the same responsibility,
to get it right.

[Dan] Life's filled with surprises.

I was slow to come to social media.

Frankly, I felt I was too old
to learn the new tricks.

But I finally agreed to try it.

And lo and behold,

I've reached an audience that has no idea
that I once anchored the CBS Evening News,

or care, for that matter.

[Robin] My dad really, really believes
in democracy.

And so he was watching Trump, worried sick

that the very fundamental institutions
that form our democracy

were intentionally being betrayed.

The political press is among the most
dishonest people that I've ever met.

I'll continue to attack the press.

These people are the worst.

Thank you all very much.

And his response to that
was to go to social media

and very calmly say, "That's not right."

[Sullivan] Dan has been a very important
voice of reason in the Trump era.

And the Trump era
has been a chaotic, crazy time

in which norms were being busted
right and left,

and the idea
that someone has a handle on it.

He's got a lot to say,

and he says it in a way that brings
history and immediate perspective

to each one of these news developments.

I think that's part of the appeal.

We're witnessing an incredible
second or third or fourth

or whatever you want to call this act
of Dan's right now on social media.

[Doyle] How could Dan Rather,
a 90-year-old gentleman,

be so highly regarded by people
like the millennials in my family?

You know why?

Because everything he does
is based on real knowledge and fact.

I'm thrilled that the young people
are impressed with Dan now

but they're seeing him at the present
and they're seeing what he stands for.

[O'Brien] My teenagers know him.

They have no idea

that he anchored the evening news
at CBS News for a long time.

I don't think
they even watch evening news at all.

But they know Dan Rather.

[Bee] It seems like
he's having fun on social media.

He has really introduced himself
to a whole new audience

of sassy young people who are like,
"Yeah, man, tell it like it is."

If anybody that sees this is on Twitter,
and you do not follow Dan Rather,

you need to right away.

[laughs] It is comedy.

I just wanted to point out
that Dan Rather is a national treasure.

The level of shade on this man… Whew!

[Martin] I've had
so many people who are my age

come up to me and say,

"I have no idea who your grandfather is.

"I've seen him on Twitter,
I've seen him on Facebook.

"I love what he's doing there."

Dan Rather gives no more fucks. Okay?

He's given enough.

He's having fun, and I love it.

[Martin] I think the media landscape
has changed around him,

but his brand of giving important,
essential, truthful information

has been true from the days
that he was a college reporter

to now, you know, having viral tweets.

And I think that's why
folks have trusted him

and will continue to do so.

[Dan] You know, it's not uncommon.

It's a function of age for people to say,

"Well, what have you learned?
What does it all mean?"

What old man do you know

that doesn't want to tell you
what he's learned out of life?

Working in television, social media…

Things like,
"Did he cover Tiananmen Square?

"Did he cover the Vietnam War?

"Did he cover Watergate?

"Did he cover the Kennedy assassination?"

As time goes along,
that's not gonna amount to very much.

In the end,
whatever remains of one's life,

family, friends,

those are gonna be the things
for which you're remembered.

[Robin] Dad and I have a sign-off,
which is LNF.

[Dan] LNF is "Love Never Fails."

[Robin] As a journalist,
he's all about courage.

As a father,
he's all about the love, all the time.

The absolute unconditional love.

I want my grandfather to be remembered

as someone who did his absolute best

to represent the ideals of this country.

There's just something sweet
about this cowboy

who is still at the rodeo.

Horse isn't riding as fast,

he's not at the top, but he's still there.

He's still exactly who he is.

And there's something poetic about that.

[Brinkley] Journalism is a higher calling.

It's not a career.

And when you're looking at
who were successful journalists

over the last 50 years,

Dan Rather would be
at the very top of that list.

This is Dan Rather.

-CBS News…
-…live…

From Afghanistan.

-Dan Rather reporting.
-Dan Rather reporting.

We've been through
very difficult times before.

We've been through
times of great division.

It's a time, I think,
to take a deep breath,

whisper to ourselves,

"Steady."

["Sangria Wine"
by Jerry Jeff Walker playing]

Stop it, stop it.

I can be dumb as a brick wall
about a lot of things.

Okay, let's redo it.

Sorry, my fault.

Start it over.

Part of my job
is to separate bullshine from brass tacks.

I can't carry a tune
in a bucket with a lid on it.

If bullshine were music,
he'd be a full symphony orchestra.

If you ain't got the yolk,
you can't emulsify the hollandaise.

[audience laughing]

Steve Bannon said
the press needs to shut up.

Well our answer to that has to be,
"With respect sir, no."

[audience cheering]

♪ My friends come for Saturday night ♪

♪ Man, it's nice to make up
Some sangria wine ♪

♪ It's organic
And it comes from the vine ♪

♪ It's also legal
And it gets you so high ♪

♪ Yeah, and I love that sangria wine ♪

♪ Love to drink it
With old friends of mine ♪

♪ Yeah, I love to get drunk
With friends of mine ♪

♪ When we're drinking
That old sangria wine ♪

♪ Whoa, I love sangria wine ♪

♪ Whoa, I love sangria wine ♪

♪ Start with some wine ♪

♪ Add some apples and brandy
And some sugar, some spice ♪

♪ Old friends always show up on time ♪

♪ That's why you add
Sparkling burgundy wine ♪

♪ And I love old sangria wine ♪

♪ When I drink it
With old friends of mine ♪

♪ Yeah, I love to drink
With old friends of mine ♪

♪ When we get drunk on that sangria wine ♪

♪ Whoa, I love sangria wine ♪

♪ Whoa, I love sangria wine ♪

♪ Whoa, I love sangria wine ♪

♪ Yeah, whoa, I love sangria wine ♪

♪ Whoa, I love sangria wine ♪

♪ Whoa, I love sangria wine ♪

[song fades out]