Posted on 09/19/2007 12:30:52 PM PDT by abb
Dan Rather, whose career at CBS News ground to an inglorious end 15 months ago over his role in an unsubstantiated report questioning President Bush’s Vietnam-era National Guard service, filed a $70 million lawsuit this afternoon against the network, its corporate parent and three of his former superiors.
Mr. Rather, 75, asserts that the network violated his contract by giving him insufficient airtime on “60 Minutes” after forcing him to step down as anchor of the “CBS Evening News” in March 2005. He also contends that the network committed fraud by commissioning a “biased” and incomplete investigation of the flawed Guard broadcast and, in the process, “seriously damaged his reputation.” As plaintiffs, the suit names CBS and its chief executive, Leslie Moonves; Viacom and its chief executive, Sumner Redstone; and Andrew Heyward, the former president of CBS News.
In the suit, filed this afternoon in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, Mr. Rather charges that CBS and its executives made him “a scapegoat” in an attempt “to pacify the White House,” though the formal complaint presents virtually no direct evidence to that effect. To buttress this claim, Mr. Rather quotes the executive who oversaw his regular segment on CBS Radio, telling Mr. Rather in November 2004 that he was losing that slot, effective immediately, because of “pressure from ‘the right wing.’ ”
He also continues to take vehement issue with the appointment by CBS of Richard Thornburgh, an attorney general in the administration of the elder President Bush, as one of the two outside panelists given the job of reviewing how the disputed broadcast had been prepared.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Actually, this part [by commissioning a “biased” and incomplete investigation] is right.
The Thornburg Report was biased and incomplete. It was biased for CBS and failed to present all the information that had been presented to it that would definitively prove the memos were fake. Had to keep the CBS folks out of jail and out of the courtroom.
CBS spokesman Dana McClintock said: “These complaints are old news, and this lawsuit is without merit.”
In otherwords, it’s as dead as a flattened possum on a Texas highway.
Are you always a wet blanket? I wanna see a good fight! Come on...can we, can we please?
Press release from Rather’s lawyers
September 19, 2007 04:29 PM Eastern Daylight Time
Rather Files Suit Against Former Employer CBS and Viacom
NEW YORK—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Earlier today, longtime CBS Anchor and 44-year veteran journalist of CBS News Dan Rather filed a lawsuit against CBS Corporation, CBS’ former parent company Viacom, Inc., and top executives Leslie Moonves, Sumner Redstone and Andrew Heyward seeking damages for breach of contract, reputational harm, and fraud related to their unwarranted treatment of Mr. Rather. In this action, Mr. Rather seeks substantial damages, both compensatory and punitive, for the defendants’ wrongful acts. If Mr. Rather realizes a significant recovery from this lawsuit, he intends to donate most of it to causes that will further journalistic independence.
In the complaint, filed today by his attorneys, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP, in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Dan Rather outlines how the defendants openly violated Mr. Rather’s trust in CBS, intentionally marginalized him within the CBS organization, and violated the terms of his contract with CBS in the process. Mr. Rather believes these actions were driven by the defendants’ political agenda to make Mr. Rather a scapegoat and intentionally tarnish his reputation.
For more than twenty years, Dan Rather served as the face of CBS News, and dedicated more than forty years of his career to the CBS newsroom. In putting political considerations above employer integrity, CBS, Viacom, and the individual defendants not only willfully violated their legal, contractual, and fiduciary obligations to Dan Rather and severely tarnished his reputation, but also undermined the basic principles of independent journalism.
The complaint describes how CBS and Viacom, in seeking to curry favor with government leaders, used Dan Rather as a scapegoat for their own actions related to a 60 Minutes II broadcast in September 2004 about President Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard, even as the two companies publicly asserted their intentions to impartially review matters related to this broadcast.
Once Dan Rather had been removed as anchor at CBS News, the defendants, in violation of their contract with Mr. Rather and the duties stemming from their relationship with him, effectively removed Mr. Rather from any public reporting for almost two years.
Throughout this period, Mr. Rather relied on promises by CBS and its executives that they would defend his reputation, promises that CBS had no intention of fulfilling. CBS, Viacom, and their executives created an atmosphere of distrust and uncertainty, and affirmatively failed to live up to their obligations.
Mr. Rather first joined CBS News in 1962, and over the course of his career has received every major honor in his field, including dozens of Emmy Awards, numerous Peabody Awards, and an array of other honors and citations. Over the more than four decades he spent at CBS, he reported on a host of major news stories, including the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the wars in Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and both wars in Iraq, the fall of the Soviet empire, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and marathon reporting on 9/11/01 and the days that followed. Throughout his career, Mr. Rather has earned and enjoyed a reputation for journalistic excellence and independence, and is the author of seven books covering diverse aspects of his work.
“Are you always a wet blanket? I wanna see a good fight! Come on...can we, can we please?”
Sorry, how ‘bout these charges are hotter than Georgia asphalt.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=3625465&page=1
Dan Rather Sues CBS for $70 Million
The Former News Anchorman Claims CBS Made Him “a Scapegoat”
By SCOTT MAYEROWITZ
ABC NEWS Business Unit
Sept. 19, 2007—
Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather sued his former employer today for $70 million, claiming that the company failed to properly investigate the handling of a discredited story on President Bush’s National Guard service and did not give Rather enough airtime — in violation of his contract.
Rather claims that CBS marginalized within the network and because of its own political agenda intentionally sought to tarnish his reputation.
The suit was filed against the network, its corporate parent Viacom Inc., and three of his former bosses.
The suit, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, claims that CBS and its executives made Rather “a scapegoat” in an attempt “to pacify the White House.”
CBS said in response that “These complaints are old news and this lawsuit is without merit.”
Rather declined, through his law firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP, to comment on the case.
The suit is the latest jab in a feud between Rather and CBS Chief Executive Leslie Moonves. In June, Rather attacked Moonves, saying he “doesn’t know about news.”
Moonves had said earlier Rather’s remarks that CBS was “tarting up” its newscast with Katie Couric, Rather’s successor, were “sexist.”
The network has lagged behind ABC and NBC since Couric took the anchor chair on the nightly newscast, one of the most prominent jobs in journalism.
Rather has attacked CBS, accusing Moonves of mishandling the newscast by trying to “dumb it down, tart it up in hopes of attracting a younger audience.” Moonves has called those comments sexist.
Since leaving CBS, Rather has languished in obscurity at HDNet, a national cable and satellite channel that has movies, news, and sports programming.
Rather was forced to step down as anchor in March of 2005 after an investigation found errors in the CBS report on Bush’s National Guard service. Rather claims in his suit that he was not given enough airtime on 60 Minutes after the incident, in violation of his contract.
The lawsuit also names Moonves, Viacom Inc. Chairman Sumner Redstone, and former CBS News President Andrew Heyward.
LOL!
I’m thinking CBS will settle just to keep secret the details of how Rather got a forged document in his newscast.
I’m bookmarkin’ this thread faster than a barefoot kid runnin’ through the sand at the oceanside on a hot summer day!
“Tonight, savagery in the streets of Iraq. Ten Americans die in a single day, four of them civilians murdered, mutilated and dragged through the streets....What drives American civilians to risk death in Iraq? In this economy it may be, for some, the only job they can find.”
— Leading off the March 31, 2004 CBS Evening News.
And their secret collusion with the DNC "Fortunate Son" campaign, and with Joe Lockhart of the Kerry campaign?
-PJ
How about...these charges are so lukewarm even Al Gore denies them.
“Good evening. Texas Governor George Bush tonight will assume the mantle and the honor of President-elect. This comes twenty-four hours after a sharply split and, some say, politically and ideologically-motivated U.S. Supreme Court ended Vice President Gore’s contest of the Florida election and, in effect, handed the Presidency to Bush.”
December 13, 2000
CBS Evening News
“”Please Lord, may this go to trial during the election season.””
Wow!!! That would be sweet.
No need to choose a side - whoever wins, someone we dislike is gonna lose.
.
LOL!
All my Rather stuff is in Photobucket I think
At least Katie Couric had the guts to go outside the Green Zone in Iraq and she never sought out terrorists for photo-ops
CBS should sue Rather for fraud for inventing a phony news story and blaming CBS for it falling apart in flames
Nobody misses Bagdad Dan
But he resigned. Nobody fired him. And he continued to believe in the story after it was discredited. I guess you can sue for anything.
Cuuuute, Tina!
There are certainly better examples of “ratherisms” than mine was, but that is a great picture!
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