Dan Rather Bio (Biography)
Real name:
Dan Irvin Rather Jr.
Date of birth:
October 31. 1931
Place of birth:
Wharton, Texas, USA
Astrology Sign:
Scorpio
Height:
5' 11" (1.80 m)
Tags:
Biography
In the world of journalists the name of Daniel Irvin Rather, Jr. is not an unknown name. Born in Wharton, Texas on October 31, 1931 to Daniel Irvin Rather Sr. and Bryl Veda Page. He studied in Love Elementary School, Hamilton Middle School, Reagan High School and graduated from Sam Houston State Teachers College with degree in Journalism and he was also the editor for the school's newspaper The Houstonian. After the degree in journalism he attended the South Texas College of Law where he received an honorary JD.
Dan Rather started his career with Associated Press as a reporter in 1950, Huntsville, Texas. Later shifted to United Press International, many Texas radio stations and the Houston Chronicle as a reporter (1950-1955).With KTRK-TV he ventured into television as a reporter in Houston in 1959. After leaving KTRK-TV he joined KHOU-TV (the CBS affiliate in Houston) and was promoted as the director of news.
Dan Rather was hired as CBS News correspondent in 1962 because of his live reporting in 1961. The reporting was done from Galveston Seawall as the Texan coastline was threatened by Hurricane Carla. This reporting intimated other reporters to do so.
Dan had been in controversy many times during his career. He was the first to report about the killing of U.S. President John F. Kennedy who died in November 22, 1963 in Dallas. And he also reported the subsequent mourning after the President's death and he was awarded for the same in 1964 with the network's White House correspondent position. He also worked as a foreign correspondent. During the presidency of Richard Nixon he was White House correspondent and he was also anchoring the CBS Sunday Night News. His coverage of Watergate investigation resulted into President Nixon's resignation. After that coverage he did CBS News Special Reports chief correspondent and later became correspondent for 60 Minutes a Sunday night show which was a huge hit and this made Dan the anchor and Managing Editor for The CBS Evening News.
Due to the change in the network competition CBS went through crisis and Laurence Tisch bought it. When Dan with CBS News anchor there were only three major players in commercial television network: CBS NBC and ABC but when he retired many new competitors emerged in the market which included FOX PBS MSNBC CNN and many Internet news sources and this competition resulted in declining of the three major networks including CBS. In 1984, Tisch removed many employees which included many top correspondents. The movie Broadcast News has been inspired from these events of CBS and the famous actor Jack Nicholson has played the role of Dan Rather in the movie.
CBS Evening News had plummeted to 3rd place in the viewer ship at the end of Dan's career though it had the backing of 7 million viewers each evening .Dan retired in March 9, 2005 from the anchor of CBS Evening News.
Dan's daughter Robin is working as a community activist and environmentalist in Texas. Dan has donated 2 million dollars to his University (Sam Houston State University) in 2006.
Dan Rather started his career with Associated Press as a reporter in 1950, Huntsville, Texas. Later shifted to United Press International, many Texas radio stations and the Houston Chronicle as a reporter (1950-1955).With KTRK-TV he ventured into television as a reporter in Houston in 1959. After leaving KTRK-TV he joined KHOU-TV (the CBS affiliate in Houston) and was promoted as the director of news.
Dan Rather was hired as CBS News correspondent in 1962 because of his live reporting in 1961. The reporting was done from Galveston Seawall as the Texan coastline was threatened by Hurricane Carla. This reporting intimated other reporters to do so.
Dan had been in controversy many times during his career. He was the first to report about the killing of U.S. President John F. Kennedy who died in November 22, 1963 in Dallas. And he also reported the subsequent mourning after the President's death and he was awarded for the same in 1964 with the network's White House correspondent position. He also worked as a foreign correspondent. During the presidency of Richard Nixon he was White House correspondent and he was also anchoring the CBS Sunday Night News. His coverage of Watergate investigation resulted into President Nixon's resignation. After that coverage he did CBS News Special Reports chief correspondent and later became correspondent for 60 Minutes a Sunday night show which was a huge hit and this made Dan the anchor and Managing Editor for The CBS Evening News.
Due to the change in the network competition CBS went through crisis and Laurence Tisch bought it. When Dan with CBS News anchor there were only three major players in commercial television network: CBS NBC and ABC but when he retired many new competitors emerged in the market which included FOX PBS MSNBC CNN and many Internet news sources and this competition resulted in declining of the three major networks including CBS. In 1984, Tisch removed many employees which included many top correspondents. The movie Broadcast News has been inspired from these events of CBS and the famous actor Jack Nicholson has played the role of Dan Rather in the movie.
CBS Evening News had plummeted to 3rd place in the viewer ship at the end of Dan's career though it had the backing of 7 million viewers each evening .Dan retired in March 9, 2005 from the anchor of CBS Evening News.
Dan's daughter Robin is working as a community activist and environmentalist in Texas. Dan has donated 2 million dollars to his University (Sam Houston State University) in 2006.