"Alan Weisman has come as close as anyone to unraveling one of the big mysteries of the television age: who is the real Dan Rather? Weisman has devoted much time, energy, and talent to that question, and this book is a fascinating read."
--Robert Pierpoint, former CBS News correspondent
"There is no career in modern television journalism that is more fascinating, complicated, controversial, or accomplished than that of Dan Rather, and there is no one who has focused the attention of colleagues, TV writers, competitors, and, of course, critics to a similar degree over the last twenty-five years. Alan Weisman's lively account of this remarkable life explains why the quest to understand Rather has remained so vital and important."
--Verne Gay, television critic, Newsday
"This book is an attempt to take a few steps back from Memogate and examine the whole picture -- the scope and breadth of Dan Rather's life, career, and times. If he mattered enough to be watched by untold millions of people for fifty years on television, then his story matters enough to be told as fully as possible."
--From Lone Star: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Dan Rather
Dan Rather has been watched on television by millions for half a century; his remarkable career has covered and, in many ways, mirrored the turbulence of the last four decades. His reporting helped shape the world’s perceptions of major events such as the assassination of President Kennedy, the civil rights struggle, the Vietnam War, Watergate, 9/11, and the war in Iraq. To his fans and supporters, he is praised for his dedication to quality journalism and he is seen as the worthy heir to Edward R. Murrow. To his critics, he has pushed a liberal political agenda and his real life has belied his carefully crafted wholesome image. The question has puzzled millions for decades: who is the real Dan Rather?
Lone Star is the first biography to bring Dan
Rather to life while examining the full scope
and breadth of his impact on the world. In
this book, longtime CBS News writer and
producer Alan Weisman presents a fresh,
balanced look at the controversial newsman
who defeated overwhelming odds when he
succeeded Walter Cronkite as CBS News
anchorman and whose newscast was #1 for
almost a decade but whose fall from grace
was the swiftest and steepest in the history
of television.