NPC Virtual Newsmaker: Dan Rather

On Wednesday, Aug. 12, at 3 pm ET, legendary newsman Dan Rather will join National Press Club President and former CBS News colleague Michael Freedman for a live-streamed Headliner conversation about the press and the presidency, the role of journalism in protecting our democracy, and the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Rather’s CBS career is truly ‘the stuff of legends.' He broke the news of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, covered the civil rights movement in the south, served as a war correspondent in Vietnam, was physically removed on live television from the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, challenged President Richard Nixon as a White House correspondent, and in 1981, succeeded the legendary Walter Cronkite as anchor of the CBS Evening News, a position he held for the next 24 years.

In 1999, Rather and Freedman collaborated on the three hour “CBS News 20th Century Roundup” for radio, which included the final reunion of the surviving members of Edward R. Murrow’s original broadcast team from World War II. As we approach the 75th anniversary of the end of the war, Rather will reflect on the lessons learned from the Murrow Boys and the Greatest Generation and how we can apply them to the challenges facing journalism and America today.