Dan Rather: Hall of Famer?

Zellweger's roosterism > Rather's roosterism

 

At least Rather never fucked up his nose.

Edge: Rather

 

Or Texas talk.

 

Only if he's come up with the answers to two questions: 1. Who's Kenneth, and 2. What was the frequency?

 

Damnit. Beat me to it by 20 minutes.

 

Just read a couple of posts on page one referring to post-Evening News anchoring. I had no idea. Can you be specific?

Over the years, mostly all I'd seen him doing was interviews with celebrities (usually musicians) on AXS. One exception was a terrific feature on Gay Talese.

+1 PC's take. Pretty much sums it up for me.

 

Rather took over for Uncle Walter and the top news broadcast for decades and they haven't been back to the top since the late '80s. Worse than being wrong on the Bush National Guard story, I think most people thought Rather was kind of flaky and weird. The "What is the Frequency Kenneth?" thing, the vests, the "courage." Like I said earlier, a little too much "look at me" stuff.

 

I agree with much of what you say here, Dan. However, you are over-estimating the "CBS Evening News" dominance a bit.

Gary Paul Gates' book "Air Time" is a history of CBS News up to (IIRC) with the selection of Rather over Mudd but prior to Rather assuming the chair. Its one of my favorite television history books, although one must consider Gates and Rather were tight. They had previously collaborated on "The Palace Guard."

CBS overtook NBC in the evening news race about 1967 and didn't really look back until Rather started having his problems in the anchor chair.

I can still remember a summer visit to my maternal grandmother's house and was there watching Cronkite the day Elvis died. Presley's death certainly got my attention, even as a child, however it didn't lead the newscast. My, how things changed and, possibly, started with Van Gordon Sauter's influence on Rather's nightly newscast.

 

The Palace Guard was a very good book.