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Have You Ever Had Any Anger About President Bush - Who Spent His Time During The Vietnam War In The National Guard - Running, In Effect, A Campaign That Does Its Best To Diminish Your Service In Vietnam? You Have To Be At Least Irritated By That, Or Have You Been?

-Dan Rather

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Have You Ever Had

Dan Rather

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Have You Ever Had Any Anger About President Bush - Who Spent His Time During The Vietnam War In The National Guard - Running, In Effect, A Campaign That Does Its Best To Diminish Your Service In Vietnam? You Have To Be At Least Irritated By That, Or Have You Been?

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They Say California's The Big Burrito; Texas Is A Big Taco Right Now. We Want To Follow That Through. Florida Is A Big Tamale.

Music Is Important. It Says Things You Heart Can't Say Any Other Way, And In A Language Everyone Speaks. Music Crosses Borders, Turns Smiles Into Frowns, And Vice Versa. These Observations Are Shared With A Hope: That, When Schools Cut Back On Music Classes, They Really Think About What They're Doing - And Don't Take Music For Granted.

I'm Of The Belief That You Can Have Only One Commander-in-chief At A Time, Only One President At A Time. President Bush Is Our President. Whatever He Decides Vis-a-vis War Or Peace In Iraq Is What We Will Do As A Country. And I For One Will Swing In Behind Him As A Citizen ... And Support Whatever His Decision Is.

When The Going Gets Weird, Anchormen Punt.

This Much We Know: Journalism Is Not A Precise Science. It's, On Its Best Day, Is A Crude Art. We Make Mistakes; I Make Mistakes. With More Than 50 Years As A Journalist, I Have At Least Had The Opportunity To Blow More Stories, Make More Mistakes Than Maybe Anybody In Television.

It's A Legitimate Point To Debate. But It's Part Of The Reality. It's Happening, But It's Also True They (looters) Are In The Distinct Minority. I Think There's A Hero On Every Street Corner In New Orleans, And I Think The Reporting Has Shown That. I Think The Balance Has Been There.

Journalism Is Not A Precise Science, It's A Crude Art

One Finds Oneself Saying: 'i Know The Right Question, But ... This Is Not Exactly The Right Time To Ask It.'

I'm All News, All The Time. Full Power, Tall Tower. I Want To Break In When News Breaks Out. That's My Agenda. Now, Respectfully, When You Start Talking About A Liberal Agenda And All The, Quote, 'liberal Bias' In The Media, I Quite Frankly, And I Say This Respectfully But Candidly To You, I Don't Know What You're Talking About.

Americans Are Once Again Looking Outward

These Guys [the Catholic Church] Make Enron Look Like Altar Boys.

The Reelection Of Bill Clinton Is As Secure As A Double-knot Tied In Wet Rawhide.

From The Streets Of Cairo And The Arab Spring, To Occupy Wall Street, From The Busy Political Calendar To The Aftermath Of The Tsunami In Japan, Social Media Was Not Only Sharing The News But Driving It.

They May Have Turned This Up, Whether You Had The Paula Jones Case Or Not. But Again Maybe Not, But Again That's Like If A Frog Had Side Pockets He'd Probably Wear A Handgun.

(obama's) A Nice Person, He's Very Articulate This Is What's Been Used Against Him, But He Couldn't Sell Watermelons If It, You Gave Him The State Troopers To Flag Down The Traffic.

On Capitol Hill, The Republican-controlled House Voted Mostly Along Party Lines Tonight To Pass President Bush's Federal Budget Blueprint. This Includes His Big Tax Cut Plan, Partly Bankrolled, Critics Say, Through Cuts In Many Federal Aid Programs For Children And Education.

President Bush Insisted Today That He Was Not Caving In To Big-money Contributors, Big-time Lobbyists, And Overall Industry Pressure When He Broke A Campaign Promise To Regulate Carbon Dioxide Emissions From Power Plants. But The Air Was Thick Today With Accusations From People Who Believe That's Exactly What Happened.

Covering The Civil-rights Movement Was A Mind- And Eye-opener For Me. Houston Was A Segregated Society, As Was Texas As A Whole - Some Of It By Law, A Lot Of It By Fear And Tradition. But There Was No Violence Where I Lived, And If There Was Hate, It Was Either Concealed From Me Or I Just Didn't Recognize It.

The Republican Convention Opens In New York To Re-nominate George W. Bush And Showcase The Party's, Quote, 'moderate Side.' Will Voters Buy It?

And Now The Sequence Of Events In No Particular Order.

My Cousin Just Died. He Was Only 19. He Got Stung By A Bee - The Natural Enemy Of A Tightrope Walker.

It's The Ratings, Stupid, Don't You Know? They've Got Us Putting More Fuzz And Wuzz On The Air, Cop-show Stuff.

Journalism Is Less Addictive Than Communism.

Turn The Lights Down, The Party Just Got Wilder.

There Are More Muslims In North America Then Jews Now.

I Got Addicted. News, Particularly Daily News, Is More Addictive Than Crack Cocaine, More Addictive Than Heroin, More Addictive Than Cigarettes.

Journalists Should Denounce Government By Public Opinion Polls.

Now, I Know You Expected Me To Say That, Well, I Just Kick Back In The Rocking Chair, Fished A Little Bit, Listened To Willie Nelson Tapes And Watched Old Baseball Games On The Classic Sports Network. And, Tell You The Truth, I Have Done That For Maybe About Five Total Minutes.

I Don't Pretend To Be A Digital Savant Or Even A Digital Apprentice.

I Read The Book [my Life By Bill Clinton] Completely. And I Think It Compares Very Favorably With Ulysses S. Grant's Gold Standard Of Presidential Autobiographies.

Courage Is Being Afraid But Going On Anyhow.

You'd Better Do What You Feel Good About Doing. If We [try] To Figure Out What It Is The Audience Wants And Then Try To Deliver It To Them, We're Lost Souls On The Ghost Ship Forever.

I'm Part Of Nobody's World Except Brezhnev's.

Fear Rules Almost Every Newsroom In The Country.

If I Didn't Have A Front-row Seat On History, It Was At Least A Seat On The Aisle.

The American Dream Is One Of The Greatest Ideas In The History Of Human Achievement . . . It Thrives Today In An Age When Its Core Components Of Freedom And Opportunity Are Open To More Americans Than Ever Before. It Holds A Real, Identifiable Place In The American Heart And Mind, And It Informs The Aspirations Of Everyone From Farmers To Software Developers, From Detectives To Bankers, From Soldiers To Social Workers . . . It Defines Us As A People, Even As We Add To Its Meaning With Each New Chapter In Our National Experience And Our Individual Actions.

By More Than Two To One Americans Do Not Consider What Kevorkian Did, Injecting A Terminally Ill Patient With Legal Drugs At The Patient's Request, To Be The Same As Murder. You May Want To Note That Laws Are Not Supposed To Be Enforced On The Basis Of Public Opinion Polls.

Only Votes Talk, Everything Else Walks.

Are The Democrats Going To Dance The Mandate Macarena?

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We May See Michael Jackson's Baby Before We Know The Final Outcome Of This Race For The House Of Representatives Tonight.

This Race Is Hotter Than A Times Square Rolex.

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I'm Proud To Say I've Never Been Anybody's Lapdog.

A Lot Of Tight Senate Races Out There. Let's Hit Those Chips With Another Dash Of Salsa, Ed Bradley.

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Catholic Dioceses Typically Spent Hundreds Of Thousands Of Dollars Recklessly, Then Filed For Bankruptcy. The Goal Was To Avoid The Money Going To The Hands Of Victims Of Predator Priests.

I Had Someone At The Houston Police Station Shoot Me With Heroin So I Could Do A Story About It. The Experience Was A Special Kind Of Hell. I Came Out Understanding Full Well How One Could Be Addicted To 'smack,' And Quickly.

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Those Market Researchers... Are Playing Games With You And Me And With This Entire Country. Their So-called Samples Of Opinion Are No More Accurate Or Reliable Than My Grandmother's Big Toe Was When It Came To Predicting The Weather.

It's The American Way: If You Don't Vote, You Don't Get To Whine.

Tonight, Savagery In The Streets Of Iraq. Ten Americans Die In A Single Day, Four Of Them Civilians Murdered, Mutilated And Dragged Through The Streets....what Drives American Civilians To Risk Death In Iraq? In This Economy It May Be, For Some, The Only Job They Can Find.

He [mikhail Gorbachev] Has, As Many Great Leaders Have, Impressive Eyes....there's A Kind Of Laser-beam Stare, A Forced Quality, You Get From Gorbachev That Does Not Come Across As Something Peaceful Within Himself. It's The Look Of A Kind Of Human Volcano, Or He'd Probably Like To Describe It As A Human Nuclear Energy Plant.

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If Frogs Had Side Pockets, They'd Carry Hand Guns.

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To The Pilot Of A Deep Sea Submersible, Upon Finding Out What Would Happen If The Craft Sprung A Leak While Submerged. I'll Trust You To Make Sure That Doesn't Happen.

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Those Of You Watching And Listening, Get A Cup Of Coffee Or A Spot Of Tea And Join Us Back Here In Just A Few Moments.

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I Had Just Turned 10-years-old When The Japanese Attacked Pearl Harbor And Plunged America Into World War Ii.

There Is No Doubt That The Way Journalism Worked When I Was Growing Up And Getting Started Has Changed Forever.

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Tough Questions

It's The Old Shell Game.

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Have You Ever Had Any Anger About President Bush - Who Spent His Time During The Vietnam War In The National Guard - Running, In Effect, A Campaign That Does Its Best To Diminish Your Service In Vietnam? You Have To Be At Least Irritated By That, Or Have You Been?

I Don't Back Down. I Don't Cave When The Pressure Gets Too Great From These Partisan Political Ideological Forces.

I Think It's Important For The Public To Know, Great Reporting Starts With A Publisher Who Has Guts And An Editor Who Has Guts.

If You're In Journalism And You're Looking For Friends, You Should Get A Dog.

I Think You Can Be An Honest Person And Lie About Any Number Of Things.

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What Separated Ed Murrow From The Rest Of The Pack Was Courage.

I Know That This Story Is True.

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I Quote The Late Ed Murow. ... He Said: 'look, People Listen To Me When They Want An Eyewitness Account. 'they Think I'm A Pretty Good Reporter. But When It Comes To My Opinions, Mine Are Not Worth Anymore Than The Guy At The End Of The Bar.' And I Believe That About Myself.

I'm A Believer In What Your Record Is. I Am What My Record Is - Some Of It Good, Some Of It Bad, Some Of It Hard To Tell.

Anyone Who Says Network News Cannot Be Profitable Doesn't Know What He Is Talking About. But Anyone Who Says It Must "always," Make Money Is Misguided And Irresponsible.

A Free And Truly Independent Press - Fiercely Independent When Necessary - Is The Red Beating Heart Of Freedom And Democracy.

Don't Taunt The Alligator Until After You've Crossed The Creek.

I've Always Tried To Be Fair, Even-handed, Not An Advocate For Any Group.

[my Job Is] A Very High Trapeze Act, Frequently With No Net.

Trapeze Artists

Writing Is The Rock On Which Everything Is Built.

Despite What Many Americans Think, Most Soviets Do Not Yearn For Capitalism Or Western-style Democracy.

I'd Much Rather Wear Out Than Rust Out.

I Respect And Empathize With Reporters And Editors Who Must Compete In Today's Environment. And I Know Full Well That When I've Been Covering Campaigns, Which I Still Do, I've Made My Mistakes And Have Been Far From Perfect.

As Long As I Have My Health, I Want To Be Reporting Somewhere.

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