Dan Rather Quotes

It's the old shell game. ~ Dan Rather

It's the ratings, stupid, don't you know? They've got us putting more fuzz and wuzz on the air, cop-show stuff. ~ Dan Rather

The part of your mind that believes intuitive knowing to be impossible is that part of your mind for which it is impossible. ~ Laurie Nadel

I don't back down. I don't cave when the pressure gets too great from these partisan political ideological forces. ~ Dan Rather

I still love following and thinking about politics. I enjoy recommending important journalism I read or see from other sources. ~ Dan Rather

Are the Democrats going to dance the mandate Macarena? ~ Dan Rather

I would rather wear out than rust out. ~ Dan Rather

My cousin just died. He was only 19. He got stung by a bee - the natural enemy of a tightrope walker. ~ Dan Rather

In dealing with the press, do yourself a favor, stick with one of three responses: (a) I know and I can tell you; (b) I know and I can't tell you; (c) I don't know. ~ Dan Rather

Swirling around my ears, the wind and I whooping at the sea, picking up speed, breathing it all in. An act of loving life. ~ Laurie Nadel

If you didn't fall down, you would never have learned how to pick yourself up. ~ Laurie Nadel

An intuitive insight or concept can often turn out to be an unexpected success. ~ Laurie Nadel

We are the "can do" country. We adjust to situations better than any people in the history of the world ... We adjust to change. ~ Dan Rather

I think Dan [Rather] is transparently liberal. Now he may not like to hear me say that. I always agree with him, too. But I think he should be more careful. ~ Andy Rooney

We often hear about how we need to be more tolerant: to make room for people, ideas, and actions with which we may not agree. This is a prerequisite for a functional democracy. But tolerance alone is not sufficient; it allows us to accept others without engaging with them, to feel smug and self-satisfied without challenging the boundaries within which too many of us live. ~ Dan Rather

(Obama's) a nice person, he's very articulate this is what's been used against him, but he couldn't sell watermelons if it, you gave him the state troopers to flag down the traffic. ~ Dan Rather

Out here on the water, it's a fine line between feeling in control and losing it altogether. ~ Laurie Nadel

Intuition is a gift, an inner power that you can turn to whenever you need it. ~ Laurie Nadel

CBS news anchor Dan Rather has interviewed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. When asked what it was like to talk to a crazy man, Saddam said, 'It's not so bad.' ~ Conan O'Brien

If there's a takeaway from working here, it's an understand that, as bioorganisms, we are a walking time bomb programed for cellular self-destruction. Not if, when. ~ Laurie Nadel

A group called the Food Research and Action Center wants the government to spend more on food programs. Sure enough, their study found that astonishing numbers of children were 'hungry': 'One in four American children under age 12 is hungry or at risk of hunger in America.'
The report got lots of press. Some reporters spun the report so it sounded worse than it was. Dan Rather somehow changed kids who were 'sometimes hungry' into 'children in danger of starving.'
Starving? The Food Research and Action Center never counted calories. They didn't even ask people what they ate. Instead, they asked: 'Do you ever cut the size of meals?' 'Do you ever eat less than you feel you should?' Naturally, some people said yes to those questions. It didn't mean America is 'hungry', let alone 'starving.' In fact, in America, one of the poor's biggest problems is obesity. ~ John Stossel

I grew up in the era when Dan Rather hated Richard Nixon. He was a newsman, but you knew what his opinion was. ~ Roger Ailes

I had someone at the Houston police station shoot me with heroin so I could do a story about it. The experience was a special kind of hell. I came out understanding full well how one could be addicted to 'smack,' and quickly. ~ Dan Rather

We may see Michael Jackson's baby before we know the final outcome of this race for the House of Representatives tonight. ~ Dan Rather

If you're in Journalism and you're looking for friends, you should get a dog. ~ Dan Rather

Ratings don't last. Good journalism does. ~ Dan Rather

A lot of tight Senate races out there. Let's hit those chips with another dash of salsa, Ed Bradley. ~ Dan Rather

He [Mikhail Gorbachev] has, as many great leaders have, impressive eyes ... There's a kind of laser-beam stare, a forced quality, you get from Gorbachev that does not come across as something peaceful within himself. It's the look of a kind of human volcano, or he'd probably like to describe it as a human nuclear energy plant. ~ Dan Rather

CBS fought very hard on this because it believed and believes that there's a principle at stake here. The principle is that Dan Rather doesn't work for the police, and that people that speak to Dan Rather understand that he's a journalist and not a police agent. ~ Floyd Abrams

The dream begins, most of the time,with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you on to the next plateau sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called truth ~ Dan Rather

It's a legitimate point to debate. But it's part of the reality. It's happening, but it's also true they (looters) are in the distinct minority. I think there's a hero on every street corner in New Orleans, and I think the reporting has shown that. I think the balance has been there. ~ Dan Rather

Here we have a situation where a defendant in a case agrees to an interview with Dan Rather. It happened to be not confidential. But it was an interview with Dan Rather. ~ Floyd Abrams

I'm a believer in what your record is. I am what my record is - some of it good, some of it bad, some of it hard to tell. ~ Dan Rather

What I think is highly inappropriate is what's going on across the Internet, a kind of political jihad against Dan Rather and CBS News that's quite outrageous. ~ Tom Brokaw

Walter [Cronkite] sang me a little sea chantey. The verse ended, 'Just watch your back with Dan [Rather], dear, just watch your back with Dan.'. ~ Connie Chung

Where are you?'
'I am between the light and the waves. ~ Laurie Nadel

I think it's important for the public to know, great reporting starts with a publisher who has guts and an editor who has guts. ~ Dan Rather

Fear rules almost every newsroom in the country. ~ Dan Rather

Despite what many Americans think, most Soviets do not yearn for capitalism or Western-style democracy. ~ Dan Rather

Performing doesn't turn me on. It's an egomaniac business, filled with prima donnas - including this one. ~ Dan Rather

I've worked with Ed Bradley, Dan Rather and lots of different local news anchors. ~ Mika Brzezinski

Old ladies photographed by CBS who announced that they would die of malnutrition if Reagan's bill were passed could probably have saved themselves their impending penury by the simple device of applying to the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists for scale every time they were featured by Dan Rather or whoever. ~ William F. Buckley, Jr.

If all difficulties were known at the outset of a long journey, most of us would never start out at all. ~ Dan Rather

A tough lesson in life that one has to learn is that not everybody wishes you well. ~ Dan Rather

Do not let the truth get in the way of a good story. ~ Dan Rather

Windsurfing, the sound of the word contains all the mystery of a solitary buoy in the fog, echoing across the water at the end of the day. ~ Laurie Nadel

I respect and empathize with reporters and editors who must compete in today's environment. And I know full well that when I've been covering campaigns, which I still do, I've made my mistakes and have been far from perfect. ~ Dan Rather

Were this not Texas, were there not a state where there were no protections at all and where the law was clear on that, I think CBS and Mary Mapes and Dan Rather and all of us had a very good chance of winning. So this is an ongoing battle about an issue of principle. ~ Floyd Abrams

Inside, my spirit is sparkling like foam on the crest of a wave at high tide under a full moon. ~ Laurie Nadel

CBS is planning a tribute to Dan Rather ... the memo went out a month ago but everyone assumed it was a fake. ~ Ann Coulter

One of the most important roles of our journalists is to be watchdogs. ~ Dan Rather

Whether you job involves chasing criminals, crouching numbers, or wrestling with paperwork, learning how to recognize and rely on those hunches and gut feelings can dramatically improve your job performance. ~ Laurie Nadel

The press is a watchdog. Not an attack dog. Not a lapdog. A watchdog. Now, a watchdog can't be right all the time. He doesn't bark only when he sees or smells something that's dangerous. A good watchdog barks at things that are suspicious. ~ Dan Rather

Intuitive knowing can be described as an openness to flashes of insight ~ Laurie Nadel

They say California's the big burrito; Texas is a big taco right now. We want to follow that through. Florida is a big tamale. ~ Dan Rather

I read the book [My Life by Bill Clinton] completely. And I think it compares very favorably with Ulysses S. Grant's gold standard of presidential autobiographies. ~ Dan Rather

This much we know: Journalism is not a precise science. It's, on its best day, is a crude art. We make mistakes; I make mistakes. With more than 50 years as a journalist, I have at least had the opportunity to blow more stories, make more mistakes than maybe anybody in television. ~ Dan Rather

Covering the civil-rights movement was a mind- and eye-opener for me. Houston was a segregated society, as was Texas as a whole - some of it by law, a lot of it by fear and tradition. But there was no violence where I lived, and if there was hate, it was either concealed from me or I just didn't recognize it. ~ Dan Rather

I quote the late Ed Murow ... He said: 'Look, people listen to me when they want an eyewitness account. 'They think I'm a pretty good reporter. But when it comes to my opinions, mine are not worth anymore than the guy at the end of the bar.' And I believe that about myself. ~ Dan Rather

A wide-angle view of sails sparkling white against a cobalt sky as light dances, silver on the water. Like art, it soothes the edge, allowing you to see something simple from a different perspective. ~ Laurie Nadel

The television anchorman Dan Rather turns up in rag-top native drag in Afghanistan, the surrogate of our culture with his camera crew, intrepid as Sir Richard Burton sneaking into Mecca. ~ Lance Morrow

What sticks with me more than even that act of kindness was how my mother talked to me about it... So I asked my mother why we gave those families gifts at Christmas when we ourselves didn't have much. I remember then answering for myself: "It was because we felt sorry for them, right?"

"We do not feel sorry for them," my mother said sternly, "We understand how they feel. ~ Dan Rather

Turn the lights down, the party just got wilder. ~ Dan Rather

Those who seek to suppress voting today are either ignorant of the history or are, as I suspect is more often the case, malevolently choosing to ignore it...

To suppress the vote is to make a mockery of democracy. And those who do so are essentially acknowledging that their policies are unpopular. If you can't convince a majority of voters that your ideas are worthy, you try to limit the pool of voters. This reveals a certain irony: Many who are most vocal in championing a free, open, and dynamic economy are the same political factions that suppress these principles when it comes to the currency of ideas. ~ Dan Rather

I can say with confidence I know a fair bit about LSD. ~ Dan Rather

Anyone who says network news cannot be profitable doesn't know what he is talking about. But anyone who says it must "always," make money is misguided and irresponsible. ~ Dan Rather

The only sharks I'm afraid of are the ones that wear three-piece suits and write memos. ~ Laurie Nadel

President Bush insisted today that he was not caving in to big money contributors, big-time lobbyists, and overall industry pressure when he broke a campaign promise to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. But the air was thick today with accusations from people who believe that's exactly what happened. ~ Dan Rather

They may have turned this up, whether you had the Paula Jones case or not. But again maybe not, but again that's like if a frog had side pockets he'd probably wear a handgun. ~ Dan Rather

Catholic dioceses typically spent hundreds of thousands of dollars recklessly, then filed for bankruptcy. The goal was to avoid the money going to the hands of victims of predator priests. ~ Dan Rather

Never eat spinach just before going on the air. ~ Dan Rather

I'm part of nobody's world except Brezhnev's. ~ Dan Rather

There is no doubt that the way journalism worked when I was growing up and getting started has changed forever. ~ Dan Rather

On Capitol Hill, the Republican-controlled House voted mostly along party lines tonight to pass President Bush's federal budget blueprint. This includes his big tax cut plan, partly bankrolled, critics say, through cuts in many federal aid programs for children and education. ~ Dan Rather

When the time comes, & I hope it comes soon, to bury this era of moral rot & the defiling of our communal, social, & democratic norms, the perfect epitaph for the gravestone of this age of unreason should be Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley's already infamous quote:
"I think not having the estate tax recognizes the people that are investing... as opposed to those that are just spending every darn penny they have, whether it's on booze or women or movies."
Grassley's vision of America, quite frankly, is one I do not recognize. I thought the heart of this great nation was not limited to the ranks of the plutocrats who are whisked through life in chauffeured cars & private jets, whose often inherited riches are passed along to children, many of whom no sacrifice or service is asked. I do not begrudge wealth, but it must come with a humility that money never is completely free of luck. And more importantly, wealth can never be a measure of worth.
I have seen the waitress working the overnight shift at a diner to give her children a better life, & yes maybe even take them to a movie once in awhile - and in her, I see America.
I have seen the public school teachers spending extra time with students who need help & who get no extra pay for their efforts, & in them I see America.
I have seen parents sitting around kitchen tables with stacks of pressing bills & wondering if they can afford a Christmas gift for their children, & i ~ Dan Rather

Once the herd starts moving in one direction, it's very hard to turn it, even slightly. ~ Dan Rather

Though part of me had always wanted to be a comedian, another part of me had always wanted to be Bryant Gumbel or Dan Rather. ~ Chris Rock

From the streets of Cairo and the Arab Spring, to Occupy Wall Street, from the busy political calendar to the aftermath of the tsunami in Japan, social media was not only sharing the news but driving it. ~ Dan Rather

One of the nicest things about NBC is that Tom Brokaw is not Dan Rather. ~ Michael Gartner

When your intuition is right, thank the part of you that knows how to do that truly remarkable job. ~ Laurie Nadel

Music is important. It says things you heart can't say any other way, and in a language everyone speaks. Music crosses borders, turns smiles into frowns, and vice versa. These observations are shared with a hope: that, when schools cut back on music classes, they really think about what they're doing - and don't take music for granted. ~ Dan Rather

As someone who's been covering presidential campaigns since the 1950s, I have no delusions about political reporting. Candidates bargaining access to get the kind of news coverage they want is nothing new. ~ Dan Rather

This race is hotter than a Times Square Rolex. ~ Dan Rather

It's the American way: if you don't vote, you don't get to whine. ~ Dan Rather

Republicans are now saying that Dan Rather should lose his job because he misled the country with bogus information. Which is odd because the Democrats are saying the exact same thing about President Bush. ~ Jay Leno

We are a nation not only of dreamers, but also of fixers. We have looked at our land and people, and said, time and time again, "This is not good enough; we can be better. ~ Dan Rather

Very big business is in bed with very big government in Washington, and has more to do with what the average person sees, hears and reads than most people know. ~ Dan Rather

These guys [the Catholic church] make Enron look like altar boys. ~ Dan Rather

I know that this story is true. ~ Dan Rather

Well, first of all, I don't want to debate the word conservative, but by my definition, a conservative is someone who wants to conserve the Constitution of the United States and the American tradition and law that no one is above the law. ~ Dan Rather

Flip a coin. Life or death. Heads or tails. You never know. ~ Laurie Nadel

Dan Rather and I just aren't especially chummy. ~ Walter Cronkite

By more than two to one Americans do not consider what Kevorkian did, injecting a terminally ill patient with legal drugs at the patient's request, to be the same as murder. You may want to note that laws are not supposed to be enforced on the basis of public opinion polls. ~ Dan Rather

College is like a woman: you work so hard to get in, and nine months later you wish you'd never come.
We used to say if a frog had side pockets, he'd carry a handgun. ~ Dan Rather

Comedians, such as yourself, Jon Stewart and others, are a valuable supplement, and here's why: Good journalism at its best frequently speaks truth to power. What's happened with journalists - again, I don't except myself from this criticism - in some ways we've lost our guts. We need a spine transplant. What's happened is comedians, in their own way, speak truth to power and fill that vacuum that we in journalism have too often left, particularly post 9/11. ~ Dan Rather

I have tried to remain a working, cutting-edge journalist and I don't do it the way everybody else does it. And I think that's the difference. ~ Dan Rather

My former identity was lying around, somewhere, fragmented and buried, like shards from an earlier civilization. ~ Laurie Nadel

Texas: 32 electoral votes, another of the so-called big enchiladas or if not an enchilada at least a huge taco. ~ Dan Rather

The Republican convention opens in New York to re-nominate George W. Bush and showcase the party's, quote, 'moderate side.' Will voters buy it? ~ Dan Rather

Journalism is less addictive than communism. ~ Dan Rather