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Rather Outspoken

My Life in the News

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Contributors

By Dan Rather

With Digby Diehl

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On Sale
May 1, 2012
Page Count
320 pages
Publisher
Grand Central Publishing
ISBN-13
9781455502417

An in-depth memoir from famed newsman Dan Rather, who looks back over his storied and sometimes controversial career and reveals his personal thoughts and reflections.

This memoir by Dan Rather is told in a straightforward and conversational voice, and covers all the important moments of his journalistic career, including a frank accounting of his dismissal from CBS, the Abu Ghraib story, the George W. Bush Air National Guard controversy, new insights on the JFK assassination, the origin of “Hurricane Dan” as well as inside stories about all the U.S. Presidents he covered and all the top personalities Dan has either interviewed or worked with over his distinguished career.

The book will also include Dan’s thoughts on the state of journalism today and what he sees for its future, as well as never-before-revealed personal observations and commentary.

Genre:

  • A renowned journalist settles scores in this investigation of how the news media has become dangerously intertwined with politics and corporate interests.

    With the assistance of Diehl, Rather (The American Dream: Stories from the Heart of Our Nation, 2002 etc.) comes out swinging as he delves into the circumstances behind his firing from CBS News, where he had worked as a reporter since 1962, covering everything from Vietnam to Watergate to the conditions at Abu Ghraib. Unfortunately for Rather, his determination to air a potentially damning story about then-president George W. Bush's spotty military record irked the higher-ups at CBS's parent company, Viacom, leaving the feisty anchor unemployed at 75. Never one to shirk controversy, he sued CBS for breach of contract; although the suit was dismissed before it could come to trial, he has no regrets and no qualms about naming names. Indeed, this memoir reads as a muckraker's delight, with Rather lambasting CBS management as "spineless" and "risk-averse." He painstakingly details the cloak-and-dagger operations that Bush proponents resorted to in an attempt to hide the truth and discredit Rather's source materials. Invoking Edward R. Murrow, Rather rails against those who would distort the news for their own gain and intentionally mislead the public. In between, he provides fair-minded portraits of the presidents he has interviewed, traces his passion for the news to his upbringing in a news-savvy family and expresses concern for the future of independent media in an industry that is increasingly kowtowing to the almighty bottom line. While Rather occasionally lapses into platitudes-a chapter on 9/11 offers little beyond well-worn observations about courage and patriotism-he always gives credit where credit is due, and his sincerity is never in doubt.

    An engaging grab-bag: part folksy homage to roots, part exposé of institutional wrongdoing and part manifesto for a truly free press.
    -- Kirkus Reviews
  • Anchor of the CBS Evening News for 24 years, much-honored newsman Rather has been working as a reporter for 64 years. He began his series of memoirs with The Camera Never Blinks (1977), a bestseller spanning his life from journalism study at Sam Houston State Teachers College to Watergate. He followed with I Remember (1991), recalling his Texas childhood, and The Camera Never Blinks Twice (1994) about TV journalism on location from Afghanistan to Vietnam. In this latest update to the series, his straight arrow honesty is punctuated with occasional humor: "It was long said of me that I had the CBS Eye tattooed somewhere on my ass." For a blistering opening chapter, he details the "absence of executive backbone" during CBS News' investigation of Abu Gharib: "The possibility that the financial and political interests of CBS corporate almost buried a story as compelling as Abu Gharib is most unsettling." He's equally outspoken on the "journalistic meltdown" when CBS News was ordered to drop its investigation into Bush's experience with the Texas Air National Guard. Throughout the book he delivers strong punches at those who stood in his way, but he also has much praise for the co-workers who joined him in his quest for the truth. With his usual conversational writing style, he maintains a personal connection with his readers in this riveting and revelatory autobiography that can also serve as a valuable textbook for anyone studying journalism.
    --Publisher's Weekly

Formats and Prices

Price

$27.99

Price

$29.99 CAD

Format

Format:

  1. Hardcover $27.99 $29.99 CAD
  2. ebook $11.99 $15.99 CAD
  3. Hardcover (Large Print) $29.99 $32.99 CAD
  4. Audiobook Download (Unabridged)
  5. Trade Paperback $21.99 $28.99 CAD
  6. Audiobook CD (Unabridged) $34.98 $38.98 CAD

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Dan Rather

About the Author

With a storied career that has spanned more than six decades, Dan Rather has earned his place as one of the world’s best-known journalists. He has interviewed every president since Eisenhower and, over that time, personally covered almost every important dateline in the United States and around the world. Rather joined CBS News in 1962. He quickly rose through the ranks, and in 1981 he assumed the position of Anchor and Managing Editor of the CBS Evening News–a post he held for twenty-four years. His reporting across the network helped turn 60 Minutes into an institution, launched 48 Hours as an innovative news magazine program, and shaped countless specials and documentaries. Upon leaving CBS, Rather returned to the in-depth reporting he always loved, creating the Emmy Award winning Dan Rather Reports on HDNet. Now, building upon that foundation, he is president and CEO of News and Guts, an independent production company he founded that specializes in high-quality nonfiction content across a range of traditional and digital distribution channels.

W. KAMAU BELL is a dad, husband, and comedian. He directed and executive-produced the four-part Showtime documentary We Need To Talk About Cosby, which premiered at Sundance. He famously met with the KKK on his Emmy-Award-winning CNN docu-series United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell, where he serves as host and executive producer. He has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Conan, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, CBS Mornings, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Comedy Central, HBO, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, WTF with Marc Maron, The Breakfast Club, and This American Life. He has two stand-up comedy specials, Private School Negro (Netflix) and Semi-Prominent Negro (Showtime). Kamau’s writing has been featured in Time, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, The Hollywood Reporter, CNN.com, Salon, and The LA Review of Books. Kamau’s first book has an easy-to-remember title, The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell: Tales of a 6′ 4″, African American, Heterosexual, Cisgender, Left-Leaning, Asthmatic, Black and Proud Blerd, Mama’s Boy, Dad, and Stand-Up Comedian. He is the ACLU Artist Ambassador for Racial Justice and serves on the board of directors of Donors Choose and the advisory board of Hollaback!

KATE SCHATZ is the New York Times bestselling author of Rad American Women A-Z, Rad Women Worldwide, Rad Girls Can, Rad American History A-Z, and the illustrated journal My Rad Life. She’s a writer, public speaker, educator, and left-handed vegetarian Bay Area-born-and-bred queer feminist activist mama. Kate is also a political organizer and frequent public speaker. She’s the co-founder of Solidarity Sundays, a nationwide network of over 200 feminist activist groups. She founded the organization in January 2016 with a friend and began by holding a series of monthly “activist house parties” aimed at showing women how to take meaningful, coordinated political action. After the 2016 election, the group grew from one chapter with 50 members to more than 200 chapters with 20,000+ members. As an educator, Kate has worked with a wide range of age groups for over 15 years. She taught Women’s Studies, Literature, and Creative Writing at UC Santa Cruz, San Jose State, Rhode Island College, and Brown University. And she is the former Chair of the School of Literary Arts at Oakland School for the Arts, where she taught fiction, poetry, and journalism to 9th-12th graders for many years. Kate received her MFA in Fiction from Brown University, and a double BA in Women’s Studies/Creative Writing from UC Santa Cruz. She lives with her family on the island of Alameda.

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