Former ‘CBS News’ Anchor Dan Rather Returning to Network 18 Years After Exit

CBS cut ties with the news anchor in 2006 following his controversial 2004 ‘60 Minutes II’ segment.

Dan Rather attends the 92nd Street Y Presents Dan Rather Discussing His New Book "What Unites Us" at 92nd Street Y in New York City on Jan. 23, 2018. Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

Former news anchor Dan Rather, who helmed the “CBS Evening News” desk for over two decades, is set to return to the network for an upcoming “CBS News Sunday Morning” segment following his controversial departure in 2006.

According to a press release from CBS’s parent company, Paramount, the 92-year-old will discuss his “work at CBS and his life in news” with national correspondent Lee Cowan in an interview set to air on April 28.

The veteran journalist launched his career at CBS in 1962, serving as a correspondent for “60 Minutes” and a presenter for various programs, including “CBS’s Sunday,” before becoming an anchor for the leading evening broadcast in 1981.

Mr. Rather later became a correspondent on the “60 Minutes II” spin-off. However, in the mid-aughts, the political commentator found himself mired in controversy following the release of a 2004 “60 Minutes II” news report, which the anchorman narrated.

During the broadcast—aired two months before the 2004 presidential election, which saw President George W. Bush wage a reelection bid—Mr. Rather presented documents that featured explosive allegations about the then-sitting president, namely that President Bush failed to fulfill his duties while serving in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War.

In response to intense criticism surrounding the report’s accuracy, CBS failed to authenticate the documents, leading Mr. Rather to resign from his anchoring position in 2005. The following year, he left the network altogether after CBS reportedly declined to renew his contract.

In September 2007, Mr. Rather filed a $70 million breach of contract lawsuit against his former employer, alleging CBS made him the “scapegoat” following backlash over the 2004 segment. Two years later, a New York appeals court dismissed the complaint.

“Rather claims that, in effect, CBS ‘warehoused’ him, and that, when he was finally terminated and paid in June 2006, CBS did not compensate him for the 15 months ‘when he could have worked elsewhere,’” the ruling stated.

The opinion of the court continued: “This claim attempts to gloss over the fact that Rather continued to be compensated at his normal CBS salary of approximately $6 million a year until June 2006 when the compensation was accelerated upon termination, consistent with his contract.”

‘Truth’

The controversy surrounding the 2004 broadcast, referred to as “Memogate” or “Rathergate,” was the focus of the 2015 film “Truth,” which starred Robert Redford as Mr. Rather and Cate Blanchett as Mary Mapes, a “CBS News” producer who was also terminated in the wake of the report.

“I had 44 great years at CBS trying to find my way in the digital age,” Mr. Rather told The Hollywood Reporter a few months after the film’s debut at the Toronto Film Festival.

“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. I went on and worked full-time doing investigative reporting—in some ways, among the most satisfying years I’ve had,” he said.

“So I had it in my rearview mirror,” he continued. “But that was all behind me until they started to write the movie. I never thought the movie would get made. After it got made, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. But it brought it back to the fore.”

“It’s a terrific story, I think,” Mr. Rather added, “a narrative of how it happened that a group of very experienced reporters reported a true story and they all lost their jobs as a result. But, at a deeper level, what the film is about is what’s happened to the news, why it’s happened, how it’s happened and why you should care about it. It raises the question, ‘What kind of news do we want going forward?’”

‘Rather’

Mr. Rather’s career in journalism was also the subject of the feature-length documentary “Rather.” The film, which premiered at the Tribeca Festival last summer, was directed by Frank Marshall, who served as a producer on the “Indiana Jones” franchise, among other films.

“We had some big topics there—journalism, society, Dan’s career, technology, corporations,” Mr. Marshall told Variety in a 2023 interview.

“My vision was to try and have Dan take us through these major milestones in American history, and tell the story through his eyes, weaving in and out of the social and historical events that were happening,” he continued. “He was, as he says, in the right place at the right time when those events were happening.”

Mr. Rather told the publication that he felt lucky and “tremendously blessed” to have his decades-long career play out on the big screen.

“This film is a reminder that I got to live my dream,” he said. “Looking at the film as a whole—including times when I wish I had done a better job—I can say to myself, ‘I gave it everything I had.’”