Don Dahler
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Don Dahler (born 1960) is an American
journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...
and
author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...
. Dahler held various
correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...
and anchor positions at three major networks:
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...
,
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
, and
FOX Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...
. Dahler is the author of four books.


Career

According to his biography, Dahler's first reporting position was at
WGHP-TV WGHP (channel 8) is a television station licensed to High Point, North Carolina, United States, serving the Piedmont Triad region as an affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox network. The station is owned by Nexstar Media Group, and main ...
in
High Point, North Carolina High Point is a city in the Piedmont Triad region of the U.S. state of North Carolina. Most of the city is in Guilford County, with parts extending into Randolph, Davidson, and Forsyth counties. High Point is North Carolina's only city that ...
in 1982. He reported there for three years. He began as an unpaid intern for KENS-TV in San Antonio. In 1997, Dahler was a correspondent for
CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk sho ...
based out of
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
. There, he filed reports on the sports and entertainment industries. Before CNBC and a brief stint at Fox News Channel as an investigative correspondent, Dahler was a producer for CBS news' '' 48 Hours''. Prior to that, he made documentaries and wildlife films in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. During the 2001–02 television season, he was seen hosting ''Justice Files'' on the Discovery Channel. Dahler joined CBS2 News on September 4, 2007 as weekend evening anchor. On May 27, 2008, the '' Daily News'' reported that the station had decided to give Don the co-anchorage for the 12 noon and 6:00 p.m. newscasts, which paried him with veteran
Dana Tyler Dana Tyler (born November 24, 1958) is a news anchor and reporter at WCBS-TV in New York City, where she anchors the station's 6 PM newscast. In addition, Tyler hosts ''Eye on New York'', a half-hour weekly community affairs program for WCBS, a ...
; all of this just five days after two-time alum
Jim Rosenfield Jim Rosenfield is an American local television news anchor currently working for WCAU-TV, the NBC-owned television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Career Rosenfield started his television news career in 1981, after graduating from Duk ...
was let go for the sake of budget cuts.
Steve Bartelstein Steve Bartelstein is an American former television journalist. He was previously a news anchor in New York City, first at WABC-TV (1999–2007), a flagship station of the ABC television network, WCBS-TV (2007–2009), a flagship station ...
, whom Dahler auditioned to replace at
WABC-TV WABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios in the Lincoln Square neig ...
after Bartelstein was fired, replaced Dahler as
Mary Calvi Mary Calvi (born June 11, 1969) is an American television journalist and author of ''If a Poem Could Live and Breathe: A Novel of Teddy Roosevelt's First Love, ''publishing Valentine's Day 2023, which is based on love letters from Gilded Age to ...
's weekend evening co-anchor. On September 8, 2011, it was announced that Dahler would move to weekends, as
Chris Wragge Christian P. Wragge ( ; born June 19, 1970) is an American news anchor. He is the co-anchor for New York's CBS2's ''News This Morning'' and CBS2's ''News at Noon'', alongside Mary Calvi. He was previously on WCBS's 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. ...
was returning to the local station from a 9-month stint as co-host of CBS' The Early Show. Dahler joined
ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
in September 1999 as a National Correspondent for '' Good Morning America''. Since then, he has filed reports for all programs at ABC, including '' Nightline'', '' Primetime'', '' 20/20 Downtown'', ''Good Morning America'' and '' World News Tonight''. He has travelled to
Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
for war coverage and to
Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
and Iraq for the same reason. He was embedded with the
101st Airborne The 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) ("Screaming Eagles") is a light infantry division of the United States Army that specializes in air assault operations. It can plan, coordinate, and execute multiple battalion-size air assault operati ...
during the initial invasion, and has returned for three other embeds with U.S. troops. In 2013, Dahler joined CBS News as a correspondent and left CBS in May 2020 to pursue writing full-time.


Major news story coverage

Dahler reported on many high-profile news stories within the U.S. and abroad such as the Columbine shootings in his native
Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
. On
September 11, 2001 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...
, Dahler was the first network correspondent on the scene of the attack on the
World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...
in
New York city New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
reporting live via telephone from his apartment -- which was just blocks away from ground zero -- a few moments after the first plane hit the towers. As he was one of the only reporters at ground zero when the planes hit, Dahler filed the first report of the south tower's collapse mere seconds after it occurred. Two weeks later, he was one of the first American journalists travelling to Afghanistan before the U.S. began its bombing campaign against the
Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalist, militant Islamist, jihadist, and Pasht ...
. In 2002, prior to the Iraq War, Dahler and a team from '' Nightline'', became the first journalists from the United States to successfully cross the Syrian border into northern Iraq prior to the
Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror , image ...
in more than a decade.


Personal life

Dahler was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado to an
Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...
family and grew up all over the United States. He attended MacArthur High School and
San Antonio College San Antonio College (SAC) is a public community college in San Antonio, Texas. It is part of the Alamo Colleges District and the oldest public two-year college in Texas. The college has an average semester enrollment of 22,028 credit students an ...
. He graduated summa cum laude from the
University of North Carolina at Charlotte The University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte or simply Charlotte) is a public research university in Charlotte, North Carolina. UNC Charlotte offers 24 doctoral, 66 master's, and 79 bachelor's degree programs through nine colle ...
. Formerly married to ''NBC News''' Sara James, Dahler currently resides in New Jersey with his wife Katie and their two children. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including two
EMMYs The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
, a Peabody, a Dupont, and two CINEs. Dahler is the author of four books: * * * Daher's most recent book titled ''Fearless'', which is a biography of pioneer aviator Harriet Quimby, is to be released June 2022.


References


External links


TVSpy , Jobs in Local Television

ABC's Don Dahler Bio

Ch. 2 seeks top Dahler for anchor

Dahler's appearance on The Daily Show

Dahler reporting on 9/11
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dahler, Don American television journalists Living people Television anchors from New York City Writers from Colorado Springs, Colorado University of North Carolina at Charlotte alumni ABC News personalities CNBC people American male journalists CBS News people 1960 births