Dan Rather's Biography

Dan Rather joined CBS News in 1962 as chief of its Southwest bureau and then Southern bureau. He reported on the campaigns of Martin Luther King Jr., as well as the death of President Kennedy.

In 1981, Dan Rather replaced Walter Cronkite as anchor of the CBS Evening News.

Since then he has conducted many significant interviews, including:

• in 1988, an interview pressing then Vice President Bush about his involvement in the Iran-Contra affair;
• in 1999, an exclusive first sit-down interview with President Clinton following the Lewinsky scandal and his impeachment;
• in 1990, he was the first American journalist to interview Saddam Hussein after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait; in 2003 Rather also secured an exclusive interview with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad.

On November 24, 2004, Dan Rather announced his retirement, which he did on 9 March 2005. The decision followed criticism of a report which he anchored, questioning President George W Bush's military service, based on evidence which turned out to be forged.

Apologising for the error, Rather told TV viewers: "I want to say personally and directly I'm sorry. This was an error made in good faith."