In television news, there are two roles in front of the camera: reporter and anchor.

During four decades at CBS, Dan Rather played both roles. On March 9, 1981, he took over the position of nightly news anchor from Walter Cronkite, one of the most influential faces in network television. Although Rather held that job for 24 years, first and foremost he embraced being a reporter.

Today, as his 95th birthday birthday approaches on Oct. 31, Rather remains engaged with news as a social media commentator, with plenty to say about the Trump administration and the state of journalism.

Rather began as a regional reporter in Texas and became chief of the network’s Southern bureau in 1963. In the first of many high-profile career moments, he organized the network’s local coverage of President John F. Kennedy’s Nov. 22, 1963, visit to Dallas, where Kennedy was assassinated.

After covering the Nixon White House, the Vietnam War and other domestic and international stories, Rather became one of television’s “Big Three” nightly news anchors in 1981. For the next two decades, Rather on CBS, Peter Jennings on ABC and Tom Brokaw on NBC, were prominent faces of the last era in which legacy media companies truly set the news agenda.

In his reporting tenure, Dan Rather repeatedly tangled with U.S. presidents. He brought that reporter’s attitude to the anchor role. Rather didn’t just preside over news stories – he was immersed in their preparation and aware of their potential impact.

I teach communication and have written about the history of television and the intersection of media and politics. In my view, the most-cited moments in Rather’s long career reflect the on-edge, on-the-scene, news-gathering spirit of legendary CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow, rather than the avuncular style of a corporate American media host.

Confronting the powerful

Murrow first became known for reporting directly from the London Blitz bombings via radio in 1940 and 1941. At home through the 1950s and 1960s, Murrow delivered unflinching TV documentary reports on subjects that included Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s pursuit of alleged communists in the federal........

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