On September 2, 1985, a Monday, Dan Rather surprised everyone at CBS by ending the news with, "Courage." The next day, Tuesday, he said it again. Executive Producer Tom Bettag asked him about it and told Rather to consult him if he wanted to change the daily sign-off. On Wednesday, Rather said it again. TV columnists began to call into CBS to inquire about this unusual closing. The senior staff of the broadcast met with him to try to talk him out of it. On Thursday, Rather didn't use "Courage." Instead, he said, "Coraje" (cor-a-heh). Inquirers jammed the CBS phone lines. One bureau chief said, "What the hell did he say?" to a New York producer. "I don't know, he either said the Spanish word for 'courage' or an Asian form of the martial arts." CBS's Bill Moyers had just done a story on the Mexican-American border and it must have given Rather Latin fever. On Friday, it was back to "courage."

In the meantime, other journalists began ridiculing Rather's fascination. Bryant Gumble of NBC's Today show poked fun with his own signoffs, "Valor," "Hot dogs," "Mazel tov." The next week, on Monday, Rather didn't say it at all. Some of the people in the Broadcast Center broke into applause.

Watch Dan Rather's famous "courage" sign-offs from September of 1986. Choose either RealVideo (dialup, broadband) or Windows Media (dialup, broadband).

Rather frequently talks of courage and what it takes to be a hard-working journalist at his level.

"What separated Ed Murrow from the rest of the pack was courage. I know what you're thinking. I've gotten in trouble before for using the word. Probably deserved it. Maybe I used it inappropriately. Maybe I'm a poor person to talk about it because I have little myself. But I want to hear the word. I want to hear it praised, and the men and women who have courage elevated."
--Dan Rather speaking at the forty-eighth annual conference of the Radio- Television News Directors Association, September 29, 1993.

In the 80s, some inside CBS News wondered if Rather got sick under pressure whenever a big event came up, such as the 1984 elections, where he got a sore throat. Rather responded:
"It pisses me off a little, yeah." "God damn it, I work, I don't malinger, I may work too much. I work hurt; I work ill. If I can work, I work. I've never been any tender little flower. You tell me how you're going to survive Afghanistan, Vietnam dueling with presidents if you're some fragile hothouse flower. My view was, 'fuck you, Jack, I've been in all kind of places. When I say I've got a sore throat, I've got a sore throat.' Ed [Joyce, CBS News president] had this sort of thing that maybe it's the pressure, even when there wasn't any pressure. Pressure? I mean, hell, with your job on the line with Richard Nixon and a bunch of thieves and Knaves, that's pressure."
--Dan Rather, cited in New York Times media critic Peter J. Boyer's book, Who Killed CBS?, 1988.

"He was never a favorite inside 60 Minutes, which he left to become anchor. Morley Safer [correspondent for the show] once wrote of a time he met Rather at a Saigon bar during the Vietnam War. Rather had a .38-cal. pistol strapped to his side and kept repeating in Latin, 'Don't let the bastards get you down.' (Rather later denied the account.) His detractors inside CBS once said that he was 'playing Dan Rather in the Dan Rather movie,' meaning that he was a self-created figure rather than a genuine one. To be blunt: a phony.

"Marty Koughan, a top Evening News producer during the '80s who is now retired, calls the rap unfair. 'More than anything else, the guy's got guts, the bottom line on Dan is that he's a really decent guy,' he says. But Koughan, like others, admits that Rather struggled to remake himself. After a 1982 Evening News story about Mexican immigrants, Rather signed off saying 'courage' in Spanish. The next night the program ended with a story about a plane crash in Pakistan, 'and we were all in the control room stricken - "Oh God, don't let him say courage in Pakistani."'

"Nevertheless, Koughan says ratings popped after these 'Ratherisms' - as the oddities came to be called - 'which we attributed to the rubbernecker factor. It was kind of perverse, but people had to watch.'"
--Vern Gay, writing in Newsday, March 6, 2005.

"The average journalist, including myself, is a whiskey-breathed, nicotine-stained, stubble-bearded guy...."
--Dan Rather, cited by Timothy Crouse in The Boys on the Bus, 1974.

Asked about what he thought of access restrictions placed on journalists during the military campaign against Osama bin Laden, Rather responded:
"I think in this instance it's unrealistic for us as journalists to be taken along on commando raids. Although let me say, I'm ready to go. I'm ready to jump."
--Dan Rather, quoted in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 28, 2001.

After President John Kennedy was shot in Dallas in November of 1963, news organizations scrambled to get any kind of visual record of the event. Eventually, they found a man named Abraham Zapruder who had captured the event on film. A frantic betting for the film ensued between CBS and Life magazine. Before that, though, Dan Rather agreed to a suggestion from 60 Minutes executive producer Don Hewitt on an unusual way to acquire Zapruder's film:
"Dan Rather, new to CBS and our correspondent on the scene, phoned me from Dallas and told me that a guy named Zapruder was supposed to have film of the assassination and was going to put it up for sale. In fact, he eventually did, sold it to Life magazine for a reputed $600,000. In my desire to get a hold of what was probably the most dramatic piece of news footage ever shot, I told Rather to go to Zapruder's house, sock him in the jaw, take his film to our affiliate in Dallas, copy it onto videotape, and let the CBS lawyers decide whether it could be sold or whether it was in the public domain. And then take the film back to Zapruder's house and give it back to him. That way, the only thing they could get him for was assault because he would have returned Zapruder's property. Rather said, 'Great idea. I'll do it.' I hadn't hung up the phone maybe ten seconds when it hit me: What in the hell did you just do? Are you out of your mind? So I called Rather back. Luckily, he was still there, and I said to him, 'For Christ's sake, don't do what I just told you to. I think this day has gotten to me and thank God I caught you before you left.' Knowing Dan to be as competitive as I am, I had the feeling that he wished he'd left before the second phone call."
--Don Hewitt in his 2001 book, Tell Me a Story.

"When it gets down to the choice of action or reflection, I'll probably take the action. I am from a school, professionally, that says, 'Damn it, grab a pencil and get out of the office'...journalism is not a haven for philosophers, intellectuals, academics."
--Dan Rather in Playboy, January 1985.

"I have had a lifetime fascination with hurricanes. And whenever the wind blows -- particularly when the wind blows strong -- I want to go."
--Dan Rather on Larry King Live, January 10, 2001.

"And I say to you: want to be where the big story is. And you bet, Larry, I would be shot from a cannon or swim the Atlantic, if I was capable of doing it, of getting to that kind of story."
--Dan Rather on Larry King Live, January 10, 2001.

"Where are the publishers, editors, and reporters of grit, gumption, and guts? Where are the ones who will follow their conscience or even their 'nose for news' instead of the public opinion polls?"
--Dan Rather in The Humanist, November/December 1990.

"Do powder puff, not probing interviews. Stay away from controversial subjects. Kiss ass, move with the mass, and for heaven and ratings' sake, don't make anybody mad -- certainly not anybody you're covering, and especially not the Mayor, the Governor, the Senator, the Vice President, or the President, or anybody in a position of power. Make nice, not news."
--Dan Rather complaining to the Radio and Television News Directors Association, September 1993.

A writer asked Rather, "What is the quality you like most in a man?":
"Courage."
-Dan Rather in Vanity Fair, September 1996.

"With news, my motto is, 'Wherever it breaks, whatever it takes.'"
--Dan Rather, as reported in a June 16, 1997 Knight-Ridder story.

"[I]f you ever see a reporter and his heels are not worn down, you know he is spending too much time in the office with his feet propped up on the desk."
--Dan Rather in The Camera Never Blinks, 1977.

"I dream of being a great reporter. I haven't achieved it yet."
--Dan Rather on Larry King Live, celebrating fifteen years as anchor of the CBS Evening News, March 1996.

"The White House correspondent I wanted to emulate was Dan Rather, crisp and tough. I wanted to stand up to bullying and ferret out dishonesty."
--Lesley Stahl in her 1999 book, Reporting Live.

"...the integrity that Murrow had, the bravery, the courage he had to take on the tough ones, the McCarthy era being one. "
--Dan Rather to Brian Lamb on C-SPAN's Booknotes, January 25, 1999.

At the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Dan Rather was knocked to the ground by a security guard. CBS anchor Walter Chronkite asked him if he needed medical attention:
"Don't worry about it, Walter, I'll answer the bell."

"CBS Evening News is, well, it's the rock, it's hard news. NBC is something else, it's a blend of softer stuff..."
--Dan Rather in an interview for Brill's Content, October 1998.

"When I am gone, the best someone could say about me to my children would be: 'He did not buckle. Not before President Johnson, not before President Nixon. He stood his ground.'"
--Dan Rather, quoted in Washington Post Magazine, March 15, 1981.

"The greatest shortage on every beat, in every newsroom in America, is courage."
--Dan Rather speaking at the forty-eighth annual conference of the Radio-Television News Directors Association, September 29, 1993. print_file('footer'); ?>