Q&A; WITH DAN RATHER : ‘I Believe That My Best Work Is Ahead of Me’

In his 31-year career with CBS News, Dan Rather has covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Watergate, the civil-rights movement and the Vietnam War. Named to succeed Walter Cronkite as anchor of the “CBS Evening News” in 1981, he is credited with leading the CBS newscast to a long winning streak before being overtaken by ABC’s “World News Tonight.”

Last June, Connie Chung joined Rather as co-anchor of the evening newscast, a move that has yet to bolster its ratings, which have been trailing both ABC and NBC in recent weeks. More recently, Rather, 62, whose CBS contract extends to the year 2000, made news himself with a speech to the annual convention of the Radio-Television News Directors Assn. decrying tabloid and entertainment pressures on news today. “We all should be ashamed of what we have and have not done, measured against what we could do,” he told the industry.

Returning from a trip to cover the fires in Los Angeles, Rather discussed that speech, co-anchoring and his views on TV news.

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Question: What prompted you to make the speech?

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Answer: Nearly a year ago, I was asked to make a speech at this event, a ceremony commemorating the issuance of a postage stamp honoring Edward R. Murrow. I didn’t want to go before that group on that occasion and tell Texas stories or just toss something off. There are things that I’ve been thinking about and things that are deeply embedded in my professional consciousness.

Q: You spoke of the need for courage. Do you personally feel under pressure to put on crime and “MTV-style” news and the things you were decrying? You seemed to be saying that.

A: I didn’t seem to be saying that. I said that. In every newsroom in this country, everybody who deals in daily journalism is subject to pressure. I believe that print journalism today also is subject to (this kind of) pressure.

Q: What did you mean by “the Hollywoodization of news”?

A: Listen, Hollywood is important to the culture. Entertainment is important to the culture. But entertainment has a different set of values than journalism. There has been a long struggle not to have the values of entertainment overwhelm the values of news. It’s gotten progressively worse, to the point where in so many places, the pressure is, “Listen, it’s simple. Entertainment is news, and news is entertainment--that’s all you have to know.’ ”

Q: Who’s saying that?

A: There are people saying that in every newsroom in the country. . . . The news director at some local station is metaphorically slammed up against the wall with a straight-razor to his throat, because every week or every month, someone is saying, “Why aren’t the ratings better?”--even if the ratings are good--or “Why aren’t we doing more of what Station X is doing? After all, they’re running a lot of sex, diet and murder over there.” I think (TV critics and the audience) need to understand what he’s up against and not make ratings the sole criterion by which a person’s work is judged. . . .

What I was trying to say to my colleagues and to those with whom I share my craft was that we need to have a little more integrity, a little more courage, or we will be overwhelmed by the Hollywoodization of news. Almost all of us in journalism got into this business partly out of idealism, and I wanted to speak to that.

Q: The response to your speech from editorial writers was overwhelmingly positive, praising you for making it.

A: There were some people who, I thought, chose to be cynical and mean-spirited about the speech.

Q: Who?

A: Well, I thought the New York Times (in an opinion piece by TV critic Walter Goodman) was pretty mean-spirited about it. Goodman’s premise seemed to be that what Dan Rather doesn’t understand is that the audience is composed of mostly idiots, and therefore they not only deserve idiotic fare but should get it. I couldn’t disagree more.

Q: I have talked to a number of people in TV news about the speech, and the overwhelming majority of them said it was a great speech. Several people at CBS News said you were a hero. But a few noted that you are the managing editor of the “CBS Evening News” and asked, “Does he feel he lacks courage--what is he doing on his own show?”

A: Who are these people? I don’t answer shadowy questions from some anonymous person. I specifically did not exclude myself. I was reprimanded about it because I mentioned things that our own network had done (including a highly criticized “infotainment” program about the “discovery” of Noah’s Ark) and didn’t lean as hard on other networks as one could have or maybe should have, because I think it’s important to direct the criticism. I put my name on that speech, and there is a price to be paid for that.

Q: What specifically was the response of CBS management?

A: I’m not going to talk about that.

Q: Do you feel that you can say at the “CBS Evening News,” “We’re going to do tough stuff all the time’?”

A: No, and neither could the managing editor of the Los Angeles Times or the New York Times. I’m the managing editor of the “CBS Evening News,” but I’m not the Caesar of what goes on this broadcast, nor should I be. It’s a collegial process, and I work for people.

Q: How would you appraise the “CBS Evening News” today?

A: I think we’ve made an effort at CBS News to resist the kinds of pressures I was speaking about. I think the broadcast has improved recently, and I believe that the “CBS Evening News” is now the hardest-news broadcast among the three broadcast newscasts.

Q: What would you cite as evidence of that?

A: In the past several months, we have had a special unit covering health-care reform in more depth than anybody going. We recently ran investigative pieces on (meat-packing) and other subjects. In terms of my own work, I recently went to cover the floods in St. Louis and to Shanghai to cover the emergence of China as an economic power. I went to Bosnia recently for 10 days, and we did a number of stories--not only by me but by Allen Pizzey and others--concentrating on this very important story.

Q: Do you think the co-anchoring with Connie Chung is working?

A: Yes. It’s something new; it’s a work in progress, and there are adjustments that we’re going to make as we go along. But I’m committed to doing it and making it work. I think it represents change, and change is hard for people to adjust to. But I believe that (co-anchoring) is something that other newscasts will be doing in four or five years.

Q: Why did you agree to do it?

A: It allows me a lot more flexibility. When I want to go to Shanghai or St. Louis, I can do it very quickly, with less time spent on our deliberating over whether I should go. . . . I love to be on line on stories. When I was thinking about what I wanted to do with the rest of my career, (network executives) said, “We want you to be at CBS News,” and when we talked about what I wanted to do, they said, “You’re probably going to have to have a co-anchor (to do that). . . .” I’m proud of the fact that when the idea of co-anchoring (with a woman) was discussed, my attitude was, “It’s about time--in fact, it’s past time (among the three broadcast networks’ nightly newscasts).”

Q: The change has not improved the ratings--in fact, they’re down. Is there concern about the ratings at CBS?

A: There is concern about the ratings in every electronic newsroom in the country. You cannot let yourself be consumed with the ratings--and I said this when CBS News was in first place for 200-odd straight weeks. . . . It’s not my decision to make, but I don’t want a change in the co-anchoring, and I don’t see any indication that there will be any change. I’m committed to making this work.

Q: What keeps you going?

A: I love the news. I think CBS News is a great organization and, on my worst day here, I enjoy what I’m doing. I came into this job wanting to be known as a reporter-anchor, not an anchor-reporter, although I enjoy anchoring and think I’m good at it--and, on my best days--covering the Challenger (space shuttle explosion) or elections--I think maybe (I’m) better than most. I’m passionately involved in the journalistic responsibilities of anchoring, and I believe there’s a real service there. I believe that my best work is ahead of me.