Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather wished his successor luck Monday, but said Katie Couric will need to be a leader and demonstrate a passion for news to succeed in the anchor chair.
“No doubt the CBS Evening News will be different,” Rather said, referring to changes planned for the broadcast beyond the new anchor.
“Katie is a superb person and she’s a great pro. I’ll be rooting for her and I wish her well.”
Rather, former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw and the late Peter Jennings, who anchored ABC’s nightly news, were honored Monday at the annual National Association of Broadcasters show.
Rather said the role of a news anchor is overestimated and is not as hard as the job of the journalist in the field.
“The role is basically a leadership role and the organization begins to take on the personality and the character of the anchor,” Rather said. “If Katie Couric comes to CBS News and demonstrates she’s a leader and loves the news, she’ll be fine.”
Brokaw also wished his former colleague well.
“I’m confident that at the end of her first year in that chair, she’ll be the anchor of the second most-popular evening news broadcast around,” he joked.