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Dan Rather. (Photo
by Lynton Gardiner) |
PULLMAN, Wash. – Veteran journalist Dan Rather has been named distinguished recipient of the 2012 Edward R. Murrow Award for Lifetime Achievement by Washington State University. Rather will accept the honor and deliver a free, public address at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 27, in Beasley Coliseum as part of the 38th Edward R. Murrow Symposium at WSU Pullman.
Rather’s career in news spans 60 years of world history. His earliest beat was the American South, where he reported from the frequently violent front lines of the civil rights movement.
In 1963, he broke the news of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In 2001, he anchored four days of live CBS News coverage of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, helping guide his country through the trauma.
“Dan Rather has literally walked in the footsteps of Edward R. Murrow, in the field and at the anchor desk. He embodies the strength and courage that Murrow represented,” said Lawrence Pintak, founding dean of The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at WSU, who worked for Rather as a CBS News correspondent.
From his start with the Associated Press in Huntsville, Texas, in 1950, Rather became inextricably linked with the “eye” of CBS. He was anchor of “CBS Evening News” from March 1981 to March 2005, the longest such tenure in broadcast history.
He has covered every major U.S. military conflict since the Korean War, every U.S. president since Eisenhower and virtually every other major figure who has appeared on the world stage in the past 30 years.
On leaving CBS, Rather founded the company News and Guts. In 2006, he became anchor and managing editor of HDNet’s “Dan Rather Reports,” which specializes in investigative journalism and international reporting. Last fall the program was awarded an Emmy for investigative business reporting.