What is Dan Rather's Net Worth?
Dan Rather is a journalist and former national news anchor known for his landmark reporting over the span of five decades. Dan Rather has a net worth of $70 million. After reporting from Dallas on the day of Kennedy's assassination, he was promoted to CBS News and became the White House correspondent. Later, he became an anchor for CBS Evening News, a position he held for 24 years until the Killian documents controversy in 2005.
Early Life and Career Beginnings
Dan Rather was born in Wharton, Texas on Halloween in 1931. His mother was Byrl Veda Page, while his father was ditch digger and pipe layer Daniel Irvin Rather Sr. When Rather was a child, the family moved to Houston; there, he attended Lovett Elementary School, Hamilton Middle School, and John H. Reagan High School. For his higher education, Rather went to Sam Houston State Teachers College in Huntsville, graduating with a BA in journalism. While in college, he called local football games for KSAM-FM radio. Following his graduation, Rather briefly attended South Texas College of Law.
In 1950, Rather began his journalism career as an Associated Press reporter. He went on to report for United Press and the Houston Chronicle, as well as several radio stations in Texas. Toward the end of the 50s, Rather did four seasons as the play-by-play announcer for the University of Houston football team. He subsequently began his television career as a reporter for the ABC Houston affiliate station KTRK-TV, before being promoted to the director of news of the CBS Houston affiliate KHOU-TV.
Hurricane Carla
Rather had his breakthrough as a reporter in September of 1961, when he covered Hurricane Carla for his first national broadcast on KHOU-TV. His reporting, which included television's first radar image of a hurricane, convinced over 350,000 people to evacuate from the area. The biggest known evacuation at that time, it saved thousands of lives, and made Rather a national name.
Start at CBS News
In 1962, Rather moved to New York City for a trial initiation at CBS. Following this, he was appointed chief of CBS's Southwest bureau in Dallas, and later was made chief of the Southern bureau in New Orleans. In November of 1963, Rather was in Dallas when Kennedy was assassinated, and went on to report from the city during the ensuing period of national mourning. Impressed by his work, CBS News management appointed Rather as the network's White House correspondent in 1964. Over the next two years, he served as a foreign correspondent in London and Vietnam, and then returned to the States to cover Nixon's presidency. In the early 70s, he reported on the Watergate scandal, the impeachment proceedings, and the president's eventual resignation.
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Further Career at CBS
Following Nixon's resignation, Rather became chief correspondent for "CBS Reports"; the next year, he was appointed as a correspondent for "60 Minutes." Due to his success, Rather was promoted to managing editor of "CBS Evening News," replacing Walter Cronkite as anchor in March of 1981. During his tenure, ratings for "Evening News" fluctuated significantly as other alternatives to television news were beginning to emerge. After he fell to second place, Rather returned to the top position from 1985 through 1989. During this time, in 1988, Rather became the host of the newly created "48 Hours." From 1993 to 1995, he co-anchored "Evening News" with Connie Chung. Later, in 1999, he joined "60 Minutes II" as a correspondent.
Over the course of his career as a CBS reporter and anchor, Rather covered numerous major stories. Among them were the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, the Soviet-Afghan War, the Iran-Contra affair, and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Just before the latter occurred, Rather conducted an interview with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Killian Documents Scandal and CBS Departure
On "60 Minutes II" in September of 2004, less than two months before the presidential election, Rather presented four documents criticizing George W. Bush's 1972-73 service record in the Texas Air National Guard. Presented as factual memos written in 1973, it was later found that CBS had failed to authenticate the documents; eventually, typography experts concluded that they were forgeries. At first, CBS and Rather defended the story, asserting that the memos had in fact been authenticated. However, shortly after, CBS retracted the story. An investigation was subsequently commissioned, leading to the firing of story producer Mary Mapes.
Salary and Contracts
At the end of his career Dan Rather was earning an annual salary of $6 million from CBS.
In 2005, Rather retired as anchorman and managing editor of "CBS Evening News," but remained with the network. However, one year later, the network reported that it would not renew Rather's contract, and promptly fired him. Rather went on to file a $70 million lawsuit against CBS in 2007, accusing the network and its ownership of making him a scapegoat in the Killian scandal. In 2009, a New York state appeals court dismissed Rather's lawsuit.
Post-CBS
After leaving CBS, Rather joined Mark Cuban's cable network AXS TV, where he hosted and produced a weekly show called "Dan Rather Reports" for seven years through 2013. Following this, he began hosting and producing "The Big Interview with Dan Rather," on which he conducts in-depth interviews with various figures in the entertainment industry. Additionally, Rather has a 30-minute newscast on the YouTube news show "The Young Turks," and makes frequent appearances on such programs as "The Rachel Maddow Show" and "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell."
Personal Life and Accolades
In 1957, Rather wed Jean Goebel, with whom he has two children: daughter Robin, an environmentalist and activist in Austin, Texas, and son Dan, an assistant district attorney in Manhattan.
Among his accolades, Rather has won numerous Peabody Awards, as well as a lifetime achievement award at the Emmys. In 2007, he received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Siena College in New York.
