‘I’ve missed it since the day I left’: Dan Rather on life after CBS News

Dan Rather said his dismissal from CBS News nearly two decades earlier “of course … was the lowest point” of his legendary journalism career as he returned to his former employer’s airwaves for the first time Sunday.

“I gave CBS News everything I had,” the 92-year-old newsman said. “They had smarter, better, more talented people, but they didn’t have anybody who worked harder than I did.”

Rather’s remarks came during a contemplative interview on CBS Sunday Morning in advance of the release of a Netflix documentary about his life and work.

He spent 44 years at CBS – including 24 as anchor of its evening news program – but lost his place there after a doomed 2004 investigation into the military record of George W Bush, who was in the middle of successfully running for a second term as president.

Rather avoided official blame for the report that questioned Bush’s service in the national guard during the time of the Vietnam war. But he introduced the piece in his role as anchor and was inextricably linked to it.

CBS later said it could not vouch for the authenticity of some of the records on which the investigation depended, though many who worked on the story maintain it was true.

Nonetheless, Rather signed off on CBS’s airwaves as anchor for the last time on 9 March 2005. And he ultimately left the network after his contract expired a little more than a year later.

According to the Associated Press, in the Netflix documentary debuting Wednesday, Rather believed he would survive the botched investigation into Bush’s military service and was shocked over his downfall at CBS.

But in the film he says that he sobered up to reality when his wife, Jean, told him, “You got into a fight with the president of the United States during his