Fine. I'll go along with that. But then how did the story get around that he made his bones on the Kennedy assassination, that he was a nobody until that event? It seems to me the story came from Dan Rather himself. I remember him discussing it on a panel show with Robert McNeil, who also began his rise to prominence on November 22, 1963 on the streets of Dallas.
I don't remember Rather discussing any earlier glorious coverage of Hurricane Carla which brought him to the attention of the New York brass, nor any mention of the fact that he had already worked with the top on-air guy at the network and a former president of the United States months before Kennedy was killed.
I'm not saying Rather hasn't included an accurate career chronology in his books and in other written records. Frankly I don't know one way or another about that, since it would be a cold day in hell before I'd ever read his books. I'm just saying that the legend of Dan Rather making his name during coverage of the Kennedy assassination is too well known to be accidental, and Rather is the prime suspect for its promulgation over the years.
Well, I only know that Rather caught the network's eye with Hurricane Carla in '61 and was hired by CBS in '62, well before JFK was shot. I'm sure Dan does think he made his bones in Dallas, since he was still low in the pecking order of network correspondents. And in media circles, no news event is as sexy as any Kennedy event, so Dan's using that day in Dallas as his starting point makes sense for him. He also uses his Texas roots when it's to his advantage, and, as so many here suspect, uses emotions when they suit the occasion. It's all relative.