Richard S. Salant for nine years and would become the president of the CBS News Division when Stanton appointed him in February of 1961. Salant was president of CBS News from 1961 to 1964 and from 1966 to 1979. The "New York Times" credits him with raising professional standards and expanding news programming at CBS. During his tenure, CBS was the first network to expand its week-night news report to 30 minutes. Under his leadership, CBS also introduced "60 Minutes" and the "CBS Morning News" and "Sunday Morning" programs. Salant's first major decision was to replace Douglas Edwards with Walter Cronkite. At this
CBS Evening News officials complained to CBS founder William S. Paley. The second half of the report was aired the following Monday, but only for eight minutes. Cronkite was replaced as anchor of the program the Monday after his retirement, March 9, 1981, by then 49-year-old Dan Rather, who had been with CBS News as a correspondent since the early 1960s and later became a correspondent for the network's newsmagazine "60 Minutes". Concerns about excessive liberalism in the media were frequently leveled at Rather, the "CBS Evening News", CBS News and CBS in general. Some of these concerns dated from Rather's position as