Dan Rather

There is no doubt that the way journalism worked when I was growing up and getting started has changed forever. ”

But we cannot rely on memorials and museums alone. We can tell ourselves we will never forget and we likely won't. But we need to make sure that we teach history to those who never had the opportunity to remember in the first place. ”

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. ”

I don't back down. I don't cave when the pressure gets too great from these partisan political ideological forces. ”

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. ”

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

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. ”

As someone who's been covering presidential campaigns since the 1950s, I have no delusions about political reporting. Candidates bargaining access to get the kind of news coverage they want is nothing new. ”

Despite what many Americans think, most Soviets do not yearn for capitalism or Western-style democracy. ”

Journalists should denounce government by public opinion polls. ”