Rather signing off
From the "Wolf Blitzer Reports" staff
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Dan Rather announced Tuesday that he'll step down as anchor and managing editor of the "CBS Evening News," 24 years to the day after he assumed the post.
Rather's career at CBS is in its fifth decade -- and some of them have seen more controversy than others. But it all started with the story of a lifetime -- and a national tragedy.
Dan Rather catapulted into the public spotlight on the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
In just his second year as a CBS News correspondent, Rather broke the news that Kennedy had died.
Rather soon became the network's White House correspondent, and his reports on the Watergate scandal made him the target of conservative criticism.
At a contentious 1974 news conference, President Richard Nixon asked Rather if he was running for something.
Rather's reply: No sir. Are you?
Despite his run-ins with Nixon, -- or perhaps because of them -- Rather's star continued to rise, and in 1981, he became anchor of the "CBS Evening News."
Though his predecessor in that job, Walter Cronkite, had been called the most trusted man in America, Rather proved to be a controversial choice.
While his reporting earned multiple Emmys, he also was the target of frequent criticism.
Some fellow journalists winced at Rather's election-night turns of phrase, like "This race is hotter than the devil's amber;" "We're all over these returns like white on rice;" "Bush is sweeping through the South like a big wheel in a cotton field" and "In Missouri -- the Show Me State -- show me insufficient data."
For one week in 1986, Rather puzzled his viewers by signing off his newscast with the ominous-sounding word, "courage."
In a bizarre incident that same year, Rather was roughed up on a Manhattan sidewalk by a man asking the question, "Kenneth, what is the frequency?"
When Rather covered the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, his decision to wear a traditional Afghan headdress had pundits calling him "Gunga Dan."
Then there was the day when converge of a tennis tournament delayed the start of the "CBS Evening News" and Rather walked off the set, leaving network affiliates with a blank screen.
During a 1988 interview, when Rather pressed then-Vice President George Bush about the Iran-Contra scandal, Bush threw that incident back in Rather's face.
Rather: "I don't want to be argumentative, Mr. Vice President."
Bush: "You do, Dan."
Rather: "No -- no, sir, I don't."
Bush: "This is not a great night, because I want to talk about why I want to be president -- why those 41 percent of the people are supporting me -- and I don't think it's fair to judge my whole career by a rehash of Iran. How would you like it if I judged your career by those seven minutes when you walked off the set in New York?"
Like his Watergate confrontation with President Nixon, Rather's 1988 argument with Vice President Bush fueled conservative charges Rather was biased.
Those were charges that only grew louder this year, when CBS was forced to retract its story about George W. Bush's National Guard record.
"I made a mistake," Rather said. "I didn't dig hard enough, long enough, didn't ask enough of the right questions."
