Dan Rather

Journalism is not a precise science, it's a crude art

Only votes talk, everything else walks.

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.

A college degree is the key to realizing the American dream, well worth the financial sacrifice because it is supposed to open the door to a world of opportunity.

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.

Courage is being afraid but going on anyhow.

If you're in Journalism and you're looking for friends, you should get a dog.

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.

Very big business is in bed with very big government in Washington, and has more to do with what the average person sees, hears and reads than most people know.

One of the most important roles of our journalists is to be watchdogs.

A free and truly independent press - fiercely independent when necessary - is the red beating heart of freedom and democracy.

The dream begins, most of the time, with a teacher who believes in you.

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.