Dan Rather: A Journey Through 70 Years in American Journalism

Photo by Moody College of Communication

Dan Rather has been a fixture in American journalism since the early 1950s.

As a young boy, growing up in Texas Rather became enamored of heroes like Edward r. Murrow, and vowed to become a journalist himself someday.

After establishing himself as a local reporter in the ’50s, Rather joined CBS News in the early 1960s. He was promoted to White House correspondent, and famously had run-ins with President Richard m. Nixon.

In 1981 Dan Rather succeeded Walter Cronkite as anchor of the CBS evening News, a position he held for the next 24 years. His tenure in the anchor chair was not without its controversy and rather occasionally found himself at the center of the news.

In 1976 he wrote a best-selling book about the network news business, called The Camera, Never Blinks. And in 1994 he wrote its sequel, The Camera Never Blinks Twice. And that’s when I had one of my several interviews with him.

So here now, from 1994, Dan Rather.

Dan Rather is 92 now and still covering the news. Since 2021, he has been writing the newsletter “Steady” on the Substack platform.


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Roger Mudd

If you were in network TV news 50 or 60 years ago, the place to be was the CBS News Washington DC bureau.

CBS was long considered the gold standard of television news – after all, Edward R, Murrow helped shape and define it.

Among the roster of journalism heavyweights in the bureau was Roger Mudd. He had a front-row seat to that historic 20-year period from 1960 to 1980, which he wrote about in a 2008 memoir. That’s when I met him.

So here now, from 2008, Rodger Mudd

Roger Mudd died 10 days ago. He was 93.

Charles Osgood

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A few days ago on Now I’ve Heard Everything, I featured an interview that I had done many years ago with one of my broadcasting Heroes, the late Larry King.

Today, another one: longtime CBS radio and TV news personality Charles Osgood.

Osgood grew up in Depression-era, World War ii-era Baltimore. And in 2004, he wrote a memoir recalling those years, called Defending Baltimore Against Enemy Attack.

So here now, from 2004, Charles Osgood:

Charles Osgood celebrating his 88th birthday last month. Today he lives in the New York City area.

Mark McEwen

For 16 years, Mark McEwen was a fixture on CBS’s “Early Show.”

For a time, McEwen was also host of A&E’s “Live by Request.” Later he joined a TV station in Orlando, Florida.

But in 2005, Mark McEwen suffered a stroke. He nearly died.

I met him three years later, when he wrote a book about his experience.

Here now, Mark McEwen, from 2008:

Today Mark McEwen, who is 65, still lives in Florida.