Whatever Happened To 60 Minutes Journalist Dan Rather?

Throughout the second half of the 20th century, there were many giants in broadcast journalism across the "Big Three" television networks. Names like Walter Cronkite, Tom Brokaw, Barbara Walters, Peter Jennings, and Dan Rather particularly stand out thanks to their influence. 

Rather, like many of his colleagues, was a newscaster that also put his journalistic skills to work with more in-depth reporting on additional news programs. He was a long-running correspondent for CBS's "60 Minutes," in addition to hosting "CBS Evening News" from 1981 until 2005. The news anchor's tenure on the program was nearly as long as his anchoring duties for "CBS Evening News," but would eventually end in his firing from CBS thanks to a troubling and controversial episode about then-President George W. Bush (via People).

Rather became only the third correspondent to join "60 Minutes" in 1975 (via Briscoe Center), and he sporadically contributed news stories and conducted interviews until he left the program in 2006. For anyone who came of age from the 1960s until the first decade of the 21st century, Rather is likely a familiar face or voice. But with his departure from CBS in the mid-2000s, many viewers may have found themselves wondering whatever happened to the former correspondent.

According to The Daily Beast, starting in the late 2000s, former CBS newscaster and "60 Minutes" correspondent Dan Rather began to embark on ventures he always wanted to start. One of these backburner projects was the writing of his autobiography, which he titled "Rather Outspoken: My Life in the News." Rather published his autobiography in 2013 (via Grand Central Publishing). Additionally, he hosted "Dan Rather Reports" for AXS TV for seven years, which was a mixture of newscasting plus investigative reporting in a similar fashion to his work on "60 Minutes." At one point, Logan Lerman was in talks to play Rather in "Newsflash," which would have covered the journalist's reporting of the JFK assassination, but the film stalled in negotiations. 

As for his decades spent at CBS, where he became a nightly fixture in the homes of millions of Americans, Dan Rather's eventual fall from the network was portrayed in the 2015 movie "Truth." In the film, Rather was portrayed by Robert Redford. During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that same year, the author spoke about his time at CBS and his respect for the network. "I loved CBS and still do. It's a great national institution. Would I have had it end differently for me? Of course. But until the movie started being made, it was well behind me." He then described his post-network reporting as "among the most satisfying years I've had."