{"id":31114,"date":"2025-08-14T21:02:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T01:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31114"},"modified":"2025-08-18T23:19:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T03:19:06","slug":"rather-frank-marshalls-homage-to-an-icon-of-journalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31114","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Rather,\u2019 Frank Marshall\u2019s Homage To An Icon of Journalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a9Courtesy of Giant Pictures<\/p>\n

Those who thought that 21<\/span>st<\/sup><\/span> century whistleblowers \u2014 such as Julian Assange, Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning \u2014 have been groundbreaking opposers of fake news, will have to think again. A 20<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span> century journalist shared their line of thought in his approach to reporting: Dan Rather. The documentary that bears his surname, directed by Frank Marshall, was presented at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival and is currently available in home video. Rather<\/i><\/b> revisits more than 60 years of the journalist\u2019s career, featuring interviews with him and his family, as well as with Ronan Farrow, Mark Cuban, Andy Cohen, Samantha Bee, Soledad O’Brien, and Shepard Smith. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sensationalism in the media has a long history, that can be traced back to yellow journalism<\/span><\/a> at the end of the 19<\/span>th<\/sup><\/span> century. It was portrayed also on the silver screen in Orson Welles\u2019 Citizen Kane<\/i><\/b>, who was inspired for his protagonist by the publishing tycoon\u00a0William Randolph Hearst. While this film denounced biased news reporting and emotionally loaded impressions, over a decade later Dan Rather began his career in 1954 with a completely different approach, after growing up in a family that cherished the news.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/ins>\n

In his youth Rather developed rheumatic fever, which left him bed-ridden for several months and he found solace in the medium of radio, listening to broadcaster Edward R. Murrow. Having been born and raised in Texas was pivotal for his professional path, since he happened to be in the place where he could report about the devastating Hurricane Carla in 1961 and John Fitzgerald Kennedy\u2019s assassination in 1963. During the Sixties\u00a0the civil rights movement was beginning to explode, and Dan Rather reported on the rise of Martin Luther King, Jr., the Ku Klux Klan, and the White Citizens Council. He very quickly became a household name at CBS News, as a meticulous war reporter, covering conflicts from Vietnam to Afghanistan,<\/span> the\u00a0Gulf War,\u00a0and the\u00a0Iraq War, besides reporting on the Tiananmen Square protests and\u00a0the fall of the Berlin Wall.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Rather<\/p>\n

\u00a9Courtesy of Giant Pictures<\/p>\n

He traversed several Presidential administrations, such as the ones by Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, and George W. Bush. The latter was the one that put an end to his career at CBS with the Killian documents controversy<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0that allegedly contained false allegations about the President. However, this did not put to rest his journalistic calling, since he joined\u00a0<\/span>Mark Cuban\u2019s cable network\u00a0AXS TV\u00a0to host and produce the weekly one-hour news show\u00a0Dan Rather Reports<\/i>. In recent years he has also experimented with social media, finding a wide and young audience, that considers him an important voice during the Trump era.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rather<\/i><\/b> portrays also a fun side to this dedicated news commentator. For instance, it shows how American alternative rock band R.E.M. wrote a song \u201cWhat\u2019s The Frequency, Kenneth?<\/i>\u201d which was inspired by an incident that occurred to Dan Rather in 1986. Two then-unknown assailants attacked him in New York while repeating \u201cKenneth, what is the frequency?\u201d This attack very much epitomised the risks that Rather was willing to be exposed to, in the name of hunting for the truth. As one of the interviewees very well expressed: \u201cThere\u2019s a dangerous thing about publicity. The spotlight burns as much as it illuminates.<\/i>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Dan Rather has carried out his calling through thick and thin, never being biased by rankings, money or personal beliefs. Despite the media landscape has changed around him, he has kept himself \u201csteady\u201d in delivering non-partisan information. At age 94, Dan Rather is rightly considered America\u2019s national treasure. What is striking is the humbling attitude that has never abandoned him, as he speaks with reverential respect of those who preceded him like American anchorman Walter Cronkite. Furthermore, after having accumulated prestigious accolades in his field, what the Peabody-winning news anchor ultimately cherishes the most are his family and friends.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/ins>\n

Editors Curtis McConnell and Joe Fenstermaker coalesce old footage with talking head interviews in a dynamic and compelling manner. The music by Jeff Beal, enhances Marshall\u2019s vision, that uses the life story of a journalistic icon to show us the right path to follow, during today\u2019s spectacularised media world. In fact, Frank Marshall\u2019s film is very efficacious in showing the hard news journalism adopted by Dan Rather, acting as a counterbalance to propagandist media executives such as Roger Ailes at Fox News. Rather<\/i><\/b> serves as a reminder that journalists have the mission to act as watchdogs over elected officials. In these regards, it\u2019s exceptionally moving to watch the footage of Dan Rather\u2019s final broadcast<\/span><\/a> in which he praises courage.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Rather<\/p>\n

\u00a9Courtesy of Giant Pictures<\/p>\n

Final Grade: A<\/span><\/p>\n

Check out more of Chiara\u2019s articles<\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/ins>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a9Courtesy of Giant Pictures Those who thought that 21st century whistleblowers \u2014 such as Julian Assange, Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning \u2014 have been groundbreaking opposers of fake news, will have to think again. A 20th century journalist shared their line of thought in his approach to reporting: Dan Rather. The documentary that bears his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":31158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[23997,28093,28092,28101,28097,28081,28094,8335,28100,28084,3768,7125,28099,28098,28082,8007,28085,28090,4600,28089,28080,28095,3769,10123,14606,28088,28087,332,28096,28083,28086,28091],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Rather,\u2019 Frank Marshall\u2019s Homage To An Icon of Journalism | Cinema Daily US<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The documentary revisits more than 60 years of the reporter\u2019s career, serving as an important warning for the current state of the media.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cinemadailyus.com\/?p=31114\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" 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