Dan Rather, born in 1931, American television reporter and news anchor, author, and five-time Emmy Award winner, known for his investigative reporting and confrontational style in news interviews.

Born in Wharton, Texas, Rather was educated at Sam Houston State Teachers College (present-day Sam Houston State University) in Huntsville, Texas. After graduating he briefly taught journalism at Sam Houston State. He began his career as a reporter in 1950 with the Associated Press (AP) in Huntsville, joining United Press International (UPI) in 1952 and the Houston Chronicle in Houston, Texas, in 1954. In 1956 Rather became news director of a Houston television station and later worked as a TV news reporter with a CBS television affiliate. His coverage of Hurricane Carla in 1961 brought him to the attention of CBS News executives, and he joined CBS News in 1962 as chief of its Southwest bureau based in Dallas, Texas. As bureau chief he covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas in 1963.

In 1964 Rather became White House correspondent for CBS. He then served as chief of the CBS London bureau from 1965 to 1966, also spending time as a reporter in Vietnam. After returning to Washington, D.C., in 1966, Rather anchored dozens of CBS News special programs. He also accompanied President Richard Nixon on his historic trips to the Middle East, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), and China, although Rather's outspoken questions often angered Nixon and his advisers. During this period a confrontational exchange between Nixon and Rather at a news conference angered many conservative Americans and helped establish a reputation for Rather as a liberal.

Rather left the White House assignment in 1974 to become reporter and anchor of “CBS Reports.” In 1975 he began coanchoring the news magazine “60 Minutes.” In 1981 he became anchor and managing editor of “CBS Evening News with Dan Rather.” In 1988 Rather again had a confrontation with a leading political figure, this time with then Vice President George H. W. Bush. Rather’s questioning of Bush during a live interview concerning the Iran-Contra Affair led to a shouting match between the two men.

Rather’s career has been marked by a number of exclusive interviews and investigative reports. He returned to investigative journalism in the 1990s as a full-time correspondent with “60 Minutes II,” a weekday version of the popular Sunday program, while remaining anchor of “CBS Evening News with Dan Rather.” In 1999 he obtained an exclusive interview with President Bill Clinton, the first interview Clinton had given following his impeachment for the Monica Lewinsky affair. In 2003 he interviewed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein just prior to the U.S.-British invasion of that country. In April 2004 Rather broke the story of U.S. military personnel torturing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. See also U.S.-Iraq War.

An apparently exclusive report on President George W. Bush’s National Guard service during the Vietnam War era, however, backfired on Rather and CBS News in September 2004. Rather was forced to apologize for the report, which appeared on “60 Minutes II,” when CBS acknowledged that it could not prove the authenticity of certain documents used in the investigation. The documents purported to show that Bush’s commanding officer in the Texas Air National Guard had been pressured to give Bush a good rating and that Bush had lost his authority to pilot aircraft due to his failure to take a physical examination. Many observers viewed the apology and retraction as a major blemish on Rather’s career.

Rather was forced to resign as anchor of the CBS Evening News in March 2005, and he left the network in 2006. In September 2007 Rather filed a $70-million lawsuit against CBS, its parent company Viacom, and three top executives, including the former president of CBS News. The lawsuit charged breach of contract and fraud in the way CBS conducted an investigation into the National Guard report. The lawsuit maintained that a CBS executive told Rather in November 2004 that he was losing some of his responsibilities because of pressure from right-wing supporters of President Bush.

Rather has won numerous Emmy Awards and is the author or coauthor of many books, including The Palace Guard (1975), The Camera Never Blinks (1977), The Camera Never Blinks Twice (1994), Deadlines and Datelines (1999), and The American Dream (2001).