For more than 40 years, former “CBS News” anchor and “60 Minutes” correspondent Dan Rather has been the embodiment of the intrepid broadcast journalist. From the Kennedy assassination — when he was the first to break the news that the president had been killed — to the Indian Ocean tsunami, he has covered every major story of our time.

Rather’s reporting skills have taken him to locations as far ranging as Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, China, Russia and Cuba. He served as a correspondent during the Vietnam War, the mujahadeen uprising against the Soviets in Afghanistan, and the first and second Iraq wars. He was among the first western journalists to report on the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. He interviewed Mikhail Gorbachev in Red Square, and Fidel Castro in Havana.

On the domestic front, Rather has covered every presidential campaign since 1952. He was White House correspondent for “CBS News” during the administrations of Presidents Johnson and Nixon, and was a leading force in broadcast news investigation of the Watergate scandal. During the 1960s, Rather reported from the flashpoints of the Civil Rights struggle in the South. In the days and weeks that followed the deadly attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, he became the first journalist to report from underneath “The Pile” at Ground Zero.

The first American network anchor to report from Iraq after the fall of Baghdad, Rather broke the story of the Abu Ghraib prison abuses in 2004 — for which he was recognized in 2005 with prestigious Peabody and Sigma Delta Chi Awards. In 2011, he received the CPJ Burton Benjamin Memorial Award for his work as an original supporter in defending independent reporting.

Rather’s latest journalistic venture is the hard-edged news show “Dan Rather Reports,” broadcasted on AXSTV. He has written eight books, five of which are on the New York Times best-sellers list. “Rather Outspoken” is currently in stores.