Legendary Reporter Dan Rather Offers Writing Advice

And a chilling Watergate story

The legendary reporter, anchor and fellow Substacker Dan Rather was selected to succeed Walter Cronkhite on the CBS Evening News in 1981. 

Born and bred and rural Texas, he first unexpectedly hit the national stage as a local reporter in 1963 while in Dallas covering JFK's afternoon visit. He soon was covering the White House and national events. 

While covering the Civil Rights movement, he noticed Martin Luther King had an uncanny ability to intuit good potential allies for the movement, even among the most unlikely of "rednecks,"as if MLK could sense what was in their hearts. 

Dan Rather, now 92, was even punched in the stomach on live TV while covering the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, and risked life and limb to volunteer to cover the Vietnam War.

His reporter's intuition served him well. When he sat in the Oval Office interviewing LBJ, the thought suddenly appeared fully formed: he has a tape recorder on, this conversation is being taped. Mr. Rather could scarcely believe it -- it was illegal, unconstitutional, and extremely un-American to do so. But later during Watergate, it was revealed that LBJ had installed the tape recording system in the Oval Office that proved to be Nixon's downfall. 

When his suspicions were raised while covering Watergate, he made sure every knew he and the family would be on vacation in Hawaii. 

The family went to soak up some sun, but he stayed home, waiting up all night with his rifle, and sure enough Watergate burglars broke into Dan Rather's house and headed for his files. Peeking  from behind a wall alongside the staircase, he yelled, "You hear that?" and cocked his rifle. "That's the last sound you're ever gonna hear." They scrammed off quick as a wink.

Dan Rather's writing advice:  

1. "Prep., prep., prep." Prepare by reading everything you can get your hands on about your subject.

2. "Listen."  Listening is a skill in itself. Some people may not what to listen to avoid being influenced, but a reporter is telling someone else's story and therefore must really listen. 

3. "Have a list of questions." For his famous Saddam Hussein interview he prepared 3 separate lists of questions depending on the circumstances. The circumstances were favorable, so he ended up pulling from all 3 lists. 

And most importantly, "It's not the question, but the FOLLOW UP that makes the interview." This is largely a lost art.

What's the best advice Dan Rather ever got? When he was just starting out he by chance ran into Edward R. Murrow and asked what advice he had for a cub reporter. "Do the work," Murrow succinctly replied.

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