{"id":2729,"date":"2018-09-14T15:02:14","date_gmt":"2018-09-14T20:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.home.ona\/newsroom18\/?p=497"},"modified":"2021-06-22T18:26:25","modified_gmt":"2021-06-22T22:26:25","slug":"six-takeaways-evening-dan-rather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/2018\/09\/14\/six-takeaways-evening-dan-rather\/","title":{"rendered":"6 takeaways from &#8216;An evening with Dan Rather&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_507\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-507\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-507\" src=\"https:\/\/newsroom.home.ona\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/09\/Rather-Pic-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-507\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dan Rather speaks at a private event, hosted by SmartNews, after the first day of the ONA 18 conference. Photo by Riddhi Sarkar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Broadcast legend Dan Rather spoke to a room full of journalists and journalism students Thursday night about how important journalism is to a just and fair society. Many attendees left the longtime news anchor\u2019s emotional speech inspired and moved.<\/p>\n<p><b>Getting emotional<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">While talking about dealing with criticism that members of the press often face, Rather reminded attendees to think about why they got into journalism in the first place and how the profession can be a tool to create a better world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cEverybody in this room got in for a mixture of reasons, including one: we wanted to be part of something bigger than ourselves, part of something that matters, something that counts,\u201d Rather said. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Rather Emotion\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/289939163?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><b>New business models<br \/>\n<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rather spoke about the necessity of finding a sustainable model for high quality journalism. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cEveryone who says they care about freedom and democracy has a part to play in finding a new business model,\u201d Rather said. \u201cSome new business model that can sustain high quality journalism. This is my own opinion, but I think Facebook, Apple and Google, that now distribute a vast majority of news &#8212; they have to figure out, and we have to help them figure out how to share some of their stratospheric revenues with the journalistic organizations that are producing the content.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Family stories<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rather shared some personal stories during his talk. He said that w<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">hile stopping at a convenience store right off a Texas highway with family, Rather\u2019s wife ran into her boyfriend from high school. When Rather asked who he was, she told him he was an old boyfriend and said that if she had married him, he would have been the evening news anchor instead of Rather.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Gratitude, Idealism<br \/>\n<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">During a question and answer session after his speech, Rather\u00a0 told journalism students to focus on developing writing skills and to never lose their idealism. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cI wish I had adopted the model of gratitude, humility and modesty much earlier than I did,\u201d Rather said.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Another tip for journalism students from <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DanRather?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@DanRather<\/a>: \u201cDon\u2019t lose your idealism\u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ONAnewsroom?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ONAnewsroom<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ONA18?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ONA18<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/HvGR77fjTX\">pic.twitter.com\/HvGR77fjTX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Riddhi Sarkar (@Riddhi_Sarkar) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Riddhi_Sarkar\/status\/1040475997903237120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 14, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><b>Inspiration<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cI appreciate him coming out here to see us and inspire us,\u201d said Yonette Joseph, a weekend editor working for The New York Times in London.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cI thought it [Rather\u2019s speech] was inspiring,\u201d said Karen <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scherting, a <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">digital director at Lee Enterprises in Montana. \u201cI thought he spoke to why we\u2019re all in this business and why we\u2019re all here and it\u2019s encouraging to hear somebody in this business for so long still be so enthusiastic about the role of the press.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>&#8216;Tellers of truth\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rather said <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">that journalists must support each other and focus on producing accurate reporting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThe country and indeed the world at large, needs you and your work right now,\u201d Rather said. \u201cNow more than ever. The need is for you to to find out and communicate what is going on. What is really going on and tell it. And in that role, a role as establishers of fact and tellers of truth, I suggest that you cannot and must not waver, hesitate or cower.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Rather solidarity\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/289939188?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This event was hosted by SmartNews.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Broadcast legend Dan Rather spoke to a room full of journalists and journalism students Thursday night about how important journalism is to a just and fair society. Many attendees left&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10638,"featured_media":2848,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[480],"tags":[836],"powerkit_post_featured":[],"coauthors":[888],"class_list":{"0":"post-2729","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-conference","8":"tag-ona18"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/09\/Rather-Pic-1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5Q1c-I1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10638"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2729"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4279,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2729\/revisions\/4279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2729"},{"taxonomy":"powerkit_post_featured","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/powerkit_post_featured?post=2729"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journalists-org-develop.go-vip.co\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}