"Rather was confronted about 11 p.m. while walking on Park Avenue. When he tried to walk away, he was punched from behind and knocked to the ground. The attacker then chased Rather into a building and kicked him several times in the back.
" ... Dan Rather has identified the man he says beat him up on the street in 1986 while demanding to know 'Kenneth, what is the frequency?' The CBS anchorman said his assailant was William Tager, now in prison for killing an NBC stagehand outside the Today show in 1994. Tager was convinced the media had him under surveillance and were beaming hostile messages to him, and he demanded that Rather tell him the frequency being used, according to a forensic psychiatrist who examined Tager after the NBC shooting. Rather was told by the psychiatrist, Dr. Park Dietz, that Tager was almost certainly his attacker. The anchorman identified Tager from pictures supplied by the New York Daily News. 'There's no doubt in my mind that this is the person,' Rather said."
[January 1997, Associated Press]
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THE ANCHOR
ratherbiased.com
"I had someone at the Houston police station shoot me with heroin so I could do a story about it. The experience was a special kind of hell. I came out understanding full well how one could be addicted to 'smack,' and quickly."
[Dan Rather in Ladies' Home Journal, July 1980 edition]
"I've tried everything. I can say to you with confidence, I know a fair amount about LSD. I've never been a social user of any of these things, but my curiosity has carried me into a lot of interesting areas."
[Dan Rather in Ladies' Home Journal, July 1980 edition]
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Syndicated radio talk show host Don Imus was the featured speaker at the Radio Television Correspondents Association Annual Dinner:
" ... Dan has these utterly incomprehensible bucolic expressions he punctuates the conversation with. Several times after talking with him, he would say to me 'Tamp 'em up solid.' Having something to do, I later learned, with fortifying underground tunnels his father dug, for reasons that remain unclear. Now I'm hearing impaired a little bit from wearing headphones for a long time. I thought he was saying 'tampons up solid' and I'm, 'Why would he say that?' I mean, I know he's nuts, but what does that mean? Anyway, I'd laugh and I'd say uh huh, and I would hang up. And he's a great reporter, but he does not have all of his bait in the water. And he's a little tense. Watchin' Dan Rather do the news, he looks like he's making a hostage tape. [laughter] They should have guys in ski masks and AK47's just standing off to the side."
[Don Imus at the Radio Television Correspondents Association Annual Dinner, March 21, 1996]
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1968 Democratic Convention
ratherbiased.com
Everything seems to happen to Dan Rather. In his career he's been punched, mugged, threatened with a shotgun, tear gassed, even accused (by a communist newspaper in Afghanistan) of stoning people. In the above picture, Rather is being surrounded by security guards at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Right after the picture was taken, Rather was punched in the stomach and shoved to the ground. He was told to "get the hell out."
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Rather, disguised as an Afghani
ratherbiased.com
In 1980, The Soviet Union was trying to maintain a puppet regime in Afghanistan--not much was known about the struggle in the U.S. so Rather decided to visit the mountainous central Asian country, in the middle of a war zone.
Rather thought some Soviet soldiers were chasing after him, and took off running:
"We were slipping and sliding, falling and crawling between dashes. We finally began to get the hang of it and were beginning to catch up a little when, wham, I slipped at top speed and hit my groin hard against the dike. I doubled over in pain and thought I might faint. Mirwaz half picked me up, half made me get up. 'Must keep running,' he said with heavy breath. 'Must keep running.'
[Dan Rather in The Camera Never Blinks Twice, 1994]
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"The White House correspondent I wanted to emulate was Dan Rather, crisp and tough. I wanted to stand up to bullying and ferret out dishonesty."
[Lesley Stahl in her 1999 book, Reporting Live]
Lesley Stahl appeared on the Dildo Reilly Show on FAUX News:
LESLEY STAHL: [W]omen began to be hired, and everybody said, "Well, they're only hiring good-looking women." Now you look at the men, and they're better looking than the women.
O'REILLY: Dan?
STAHL: Dan is a handsome, handsome man.
"Courage!"
"With news, my motto is, 'Wherever it breaks, whatever it takes.'"
[Dan Rather, as reported in a June 16, 1997 Knight-Ridder story]
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SLATE
Da Rev has always admired Dan Rather for his dogged pursuit of the story and his bulldog tenacity. I never tire of seeing those confrontations between the then -White House correspondent and Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan.
Good fortune . . .
