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The national evening news anchor chair, a staple of American news media, offers the ultimate broadcasting job for television journalists. For over a decade, NBC’s Tom Brokaw, ABC’s Peter Jennings and CBS’s Dan Rather competed for ratings during a half-hour time slot each night at 6:30, while bringing national and world news to the American people.
This year Brokaw retired from NBC Nightly News and Jennings passed away at age 64 after losing his battle with cancer.
Rather, on the other hand, left his post at CBS amid controversy over a false document concerning President Bush’s National Guard Record. The three have since been replaced.
On Nov. 1, Rather, who was not only the anchor but managing editor of the CBS Evening News from 1981 to 2005, will come to the University of Maine. He is scheduled to give the William S. Cohen Center Lecture at the Maine Center for the Arts.
“Dan Rather is one of the giant figures of modern American journalism, and we are pleased that he will visit UMaine next month,” said UMaine President Robert Kennedy in a press release last week. “Because of the nature of his role during more than four decades in network news, Dan Rather has reported on as many historic and fundamentally significant worldwide events as any journalist ever has.”
Rather has been in television news for over four decades, beginning his career at CBS in 1962. During his more than 40 years in the business, Rather covered the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War and the Richard Nixon Watergate hearings. He made his name known covering events in Vietnam during the war. He also is famous for questioning Nixon during the unraveling of the Watergate scandal, when Rather served CBS news as its White House Correspondent. Nixon fired a question at Rather, asking if he was running for something Rather responded: “No sir. Are you?”
A Texas native, Rather served as CBS Bureau Chief in London in the 1960s before heading to Saigon. He has received numerous awards for broadcast journalism, including a George Foster Peabody Award for broadcasting.
Bill Cohen, a former Maine republican senator who also served as Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Defense from 1997 to 2001, will also be on hand at the event. Cohen donated his congressional papers to UMaine’s Fogler Library in 2001. The William S. Cohen Center was established for International Policy and Commerce, and is a part of the UMaine College of Business. Past Cohen Series speakers include Cohen himself, former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, astronaut John Glenn, and former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.
On the Nov. 1, Rather will join that list, when he takes the MCA stage at 11 a.m. Tickets for the event are still available and are free through the MCA ticket office.
“His insights on world events are both timely and informed,” said Kennedy, “and our students, faculty members, staff members and people from the community will benefit from the opportunity to hear his perspectives.”
Bangor Daily News