The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
WHY DAN RATHER WANTS TO UNITE
Former CBS anchor to discuss his latest work at MJCCA Book Festival.
On the surface, former “CBS Evening News” anchor Dan Rather is known as that hard-hitting journalist whose primary mission has been to aggressively uncover the truth without fear or favor.
But peek underneath the hood and you’ll find an idealist who grew up during the Depression and World War II, who has seen both the worst and best of America. Rather, who turned 86 this week, still embraces key tenets such as freedom of the press, service, public education, the arts and science. And the current political environment drove him to write his newest book, “What Unites Us: Reflections on Patriotism,” out Tuesday.
“I’m worried about a lot, but I’m an optimist by experience,” Rather said in a recent 40-minute phone interview in advance of his sold-out Nov. 19 appearance at the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta’s annual book festival. AJC political reporter Greg Bluestein will moderate the program. “We’re in a fairly dark valley in our national mood right now, but we’ll get through it and come out on the other side.”
The book is broken down by subjects such as empathy, inclusion, dissent and audacity. He said he wanted to send a message to his kids and grandkids that Americans have more in common than the cable networks and ideologically driven websites want to make you think.
“We’re not a perfect union,” Rather said, “far from a perfect
union. It’s our preamble: ‘We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union.’ We’ve been striving for 240 years. We can’t blind ourselves to our faults. We need to learn from them. That’s part of being a patriot.”
He notes that patriotism is not the same as nationalism, nativism or even tribalism. “The question is, ‘Can we hold ourselves together?’ We’re multiracial, multireligious, multiethnic. But if we end up a loose coalition of tribes, we won’t have the system of government we have. I’m not trying to get too preachy, but we have to agree on some fundamental things.”
And although he references
many issues about our divisions today as Americans, Rather in his book never mentions Donald Trump’s name a single time.
“I didn’t want this book to be about our current president,” Rather said. “I wanted it to be about the country. No president is stronger than the country. I wanted the context and the scope of this book to be something broader and deeper than that. I hope it will be worth reading down the road. It’s not about today’s headlines or even this week’s news. I want to give readers hope and a sense of cultural and historical perspective that is sometimes lost in the havoc of today’s headlines. A lot of people are short on hope these days.”
Rather knows his influence on the American stage is not what it was in the 1980s and 1990s when being a nightly news anchor was still a big, big deal. Jeff Glor taking over on the “CBS Evening News” was barely a blip on the news radar last week. Rather has remained active on Facebook, where he has an impressive 2.7 million followers. And he said the response from his posts led to his book.
“I have no illusions,” he said. “I’m not a political scientist. I’m not a philosopher. I’m a lifetime reporter. I’ve been very lucky to have been in a few places and seen a few things. I’m not a wise person. I don’t even consider myself a particularly smart person. I’ve just been around awhile.”
Asked facetiously what the odds are that either Steve Bannon or President Trump would read his book, Rather offered a classic Rather-like quip: “I would say slim to none. And slim just left town!”
He also addressed some other issues:
Watergate vs. Russiagate: “There are some similarities. … Keep in mind. The 1970s are a long way away. It was a different time, a different president and a different set of circumstances. The similarity is you have the present president fighting very hard to stop an investigation. Number two: Once the investigation got under way, he has tried to discredit the people leading the investigation. The difference now is that there is no conclusive proof that you have a president in a widespread criminal conspiracy. … Plus, Watergate was all domestic. There wasn’t the factor of a foreign power. That’s a big difference. … The Nixon case resulted in a clear constitutional crisis for the country. We are not yet in a constitutional crisis. There’s a possibility we could reach one if it’s proven there was collusion in helping Russia in their efforts to meddle. President Trump has indicated he’d like to get rid of Special Counsel (Robert) Mueller. My opinion is if he tried to fire Mueller as President Nixon did to the prosecutor in his case, that could precipitate a constitutional crisis.”
The recently released FBI files about the JFK assassination (Rather was reporting for CBS in Dallas when the event happened): “I’ll be surprised if there aren’t at least some interesting tidbits in it. Keep in mind, they have not released what I think are the most interesting 300, 400 pages. I don’t believe that there’s going to be anything in there that will dramatically change the conclusions that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. … I just consider it true that Oswald was the lone shooter. But I’m still open-minded … Oswald made a trip to Mexico City before the assassination. He also spent time at the Cuban Embassy and the Soviet Embassy in Mexico. We don’t know much about those. If there’s anything in this new material that sheds new light on that, that may be the most interesting part of it.”
“What’s the Frequency, Kenneth”? “I recently did a program for Mark Cuban’s cable satellite network AXS and I interviewed Michael Stipe and two other members of R.E.M. (It airs Nov. 28.) They recorded that tune, ‘What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?’ During the course of the interview, we discussed that. It happened in the mid1980s (when two unknown assailants attacked Rather asking, ‘Kenneth, what is the frequency?’), and until I did that interview, I hadn’t thought about it in years.”
For more of the interview with Dan Rather, go to the Radio & TV Talk blog on ajc. com.