Dan Rather Reports Season 6, Episode 34: Angel in the Desert

Addicted to Antibiotics

Dan Rather Reports examines the alarming consequences of the overuse of antibiotics. Every year, more than 90,000 Americans die from superbugs that antibiotics cannot treat; these antibiotic-resistant infections, caused directly by the overuse of antibiotics, cost us more than $35 billion a year. We'll also investigate the role that doctors, patients, and American culture itself play in precipitating this crisis. But while resistance continues to threaten American lives, one country has managed to remain a safe haven from superbugs. We visit Norway, a global leader in prudent antibiotic use, and the nation with the lowest rate of antibiotic-resistant infections in the world. Dan Rather investigates how Norway has achieved what for so many others, would be nothing more than a pipe dream.

60 min

A National Disgrace

This Emmy-nominated report attempts to explain a chaotic year and a half for the Detroit Public Schools, looking at how the situation was ever allowed to become so dire and exposing the incredible obstacles facing the students who never quit fighting to succeed there. "A National Disgrace" is an eye-opening amalgam of historical documentary, investigative journalism, unflinching exposé and personal spotlight, detailing the apathy, corruption, and ultimate collapse of the tumultuous 2009-10 academic term when the state of Michigan took the drastic step to impose new leadership on the district. The result is a searing, tragic portrait that forces us to ask ourselves: does the situation in Detroit reflect our estimation of public education? Rather it seems the true "national disgrace" is instead our own willingness to accept that the places we send our children could ever get this way in the first place.

What Really Happened at Bari Alai

Training Afghans to protect their country has become a multi-billion dollar mission of the United States military. But will the Afghans fight? An investigation into what happened to a group of Afghan and NATO soldiers when they came under enemy fire at a remote outpost. Plus, a conversation with the American general in charge of training Afghan troops.

Take A Lesson From Singapore

The first in our series of reports on education systems around the world. Why has the United States fallen so far behind? A look at Singapore and their school system that has produced some of the smartest students in the world.

Dan Rather Remembers Pearl Harbor

In Hawaii, Rather explores the bombing of Pearl Harbor seventy years later.