24-year CBS anchor Rather to depart

Dan Rather, the folksy and controversial CBS newsman whose career has spanned everything from the assassination of John F. Kennedy to the discredited ''60 Minutes" story on George W. Bush's service record, announced yesterday he will leave his anchor post on March 9.

The 73-year-old Rather, whose 24 years as anchor is the longest tenure in the most coveted position in broadcast news, will remain as a correspondent for ''60 Minutes" and will handle other assignments. The network, whose nightly newscast trails NBC and ABC in the ratings, did not announce a successor yesterday. CBS News president Andrew Heyward said the organization ''would look for the best person outside and inside the company."

''Dan is one of the most significant journalists in the history of broadcast news," Heyward said. ''He has been the embodiment of the broadcast and the public face of this news division. His legacy is 'Dan on the spot, the man on the scene.' "

In a statement released yesterday, Rather said: ''I have always said that I'd know when the time was right to step away from the anchor chair. This past summer CBS and I began to discuss this matter in earnest -- and we decided that the close of the election cycle would be an appropriate time."

The announcement came one week before Brian Williams succeeds Tom Brokaw as NBC's anchor, leaving ABC's Peter Jennings as the last major anchor of his generation. During a telephone conference yesterday, Brokaw said: ''I'm pleased for Dan that he's come to a conclusion about his own life. I wish him well."

More significantly, Rather's dramatic move came shortly before the much-anticipated release of the results of an investigation into the Sept. 8 airing of a ''60 Minutes" report that used dubious documentation to raise questions about Bush's National Guard service. After the network initially defended the story, Rather and Heyward apologized for using unauthenticated documents, and CBS asked former US attorney general Dick Thornburgh and retired Associated Press president Louis D. Boccardi to investigate the matter. Their findings are expected before the end of the year.

When asked about the element of surprise in yesterday's move, Heyward said: ''That's because, for once, a story out of CBS didn't leak."

''I think the timing is appropriate because it comes after the election and before the findings of the panel," he continued, adding that the network has ''no inside knowledge" of the investigation.

The timing, particularly in contrast to NBC's long-planned transition, raised some eyebrows.

''This was obviously rushed," said Andrew Tyndall, who publishes a newsletter called The Tyndall Report that monitors network newscasts. ''If they'd planned this they would have had a successor in line. You don't announce Colin Powell's resignation without having Condoleezza Rice lined up."

''We know the investigative report is probably coming out in mid-December," said Ken Auletta, who writes about the media for The New Yorker. ''I assume Dan Rather would say, 'I have this report coming out, I want to leave at some point, but I want to try and control the way I leave.' I'm sure it must drive him crazy, the thought that after a long distinguished career he might go out under a cloud. It's not fair, and this should not be the first line of his obituary."

A Texas native and graduate of Sam Houston State Teachers College, Rather began his journalism career as an Associated Press reporter in 1950. Twelve years later, he joined CBS as chief of its bureau in Dallas, later ran bureaus in London and Saigon, and served as White House correspondent. Since 1981 he has anchored and been managing editor of ''CBS Evening News," and he has been a correspondent for the ''60 Minutes Wednesday" since its 1999 debut.

As an anchor, Rather earned a reputation as a globetrotting journalist who showed up in such hotspots as Bosnia, Afghanistan, Israel, Russia, and Iraq. In 2003 he obtained a one-on-one interview with Saddam Hussein just before the United States and its coalition partners removed his government from power. But Rather's long career was also marked by unusual incidents that generated headlines and raised questions about his temperament and politics.

In 1974 he engaged in a famous exchange with an embattled Richard Nixon at a broadcasters convention in which the president said, ''Are you running for something?" and Rather responded, ''No sir, Mr. President, are you?" In 1987 he walked off the news set -- plunging the network into several minutes of dead air -- to protest a televised tennis match that usurped some of the newscast's time. The next year, he and George H. W. Bush, vice president at the time, faced off in a fiery live exchange about the Iran-contra scandal that generated an outpouring of viewer protest to the network. And in one puzzling but highly publicized 1986 episode, Rather was assaulted on a Manhattan street by someone who he said asked him the question ''Kenneth, what is the frequency?"

In recent years Rather also became known for his corny, homespun expressions, or ''Dan-isms," such as his observation on election night 2000 that the balloting looks ''jar-lid tight." While critics often scoffed, the anchor seemed undeterred and CBS publicists proudly e-mailed his on-air utterings to reporters.

Tim Graham, director of media analysis for the conservative watchdog group Media Research Center, said part of Rather's persona that made him a lightning rod was ''the oddball personality. You watched CBS to see what this guy would do next."

Rather often found himself a target of conservative media critics -- including the Media Research Center and the RatherBiased.com website -- who accused him of liberal bias. Yet at times he could be unabashedly and emotionally patriotic, as was the case when he appeared on David Letterman's first post-9/11 show and choked up on several occasions. Michael Moore's film ''Fahrenheit 9/11" features a clip of Rather hoping for a US victory that is intended to illustrate Moore's concerns about the jingoism of the media in wartime.

During a seminar at Harvard this summer, Rather acknowledged the intense political pressure being brought on news outlets by a polarized electorate. ''Fear has increased in every newsroom in America," he said.

Past speculation about candidates to succeed Rather has focused largely on CBS's chief White House correspondent John Roberts and ''60 Minutes Wednesday"' correspondent Scott Pelley. Heyward declined to discuss possible replacements yesterday. ''This is Dan's day," he said. ''We're not naming anybody today."