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 ...
Dan, you were suppose to save and invest your money!
CBS and Dan Rather, They deserve each other.
Evil fighting evil.
CBS should certainly pay a high price for keeping Rather on as many years as they did. The defrauded public, not Rather, should be the ones compensated.
It must have been really bad being proved a phony and losing his job......but to be replaced by Katie Couric, that’s gotta’ really sting!
Figures if Imus can get 20 million for being fired he should get 70.
Oh, if he gets that money he’ll run away with it like a hobo with a sweet potato pie. I mean, his case is as thin as turnip soup. And his reputation for truthfulness and reliability would give an aspirin a headache. But I’d still like to beat Dan Rather like a rented mule for trying to destroy a sitting President of the United States with forged documents.
Oh, and his hokey sayings were not clever or good.
Thornburgh was kind (which was a huge disappointment).
Truly, the guy has lost touch with all sense of reality.
I hope the court carefully checks any memos that he submits.
“Tighter than rusted lug nuts on a ‘55 Ford.”
IIRC, it was the "talent" and staff of "60 Minutes" that didn't want Cap'n Dan's Kinko's rep to be duplicated on their show.
I'm sure he got paid for not "helping" CBS recover from his Stalinesque smear attempt.
"Kenneth" knows the frequency of all Dan Rather lawsuits.
LOL
Maybe he could team up with O.J. and be searching for his credibility while O.J. looks for Nicole’s phantom murderer.
If they’re looking for cash, maybe they should start with William Jefferson’s freezer!
Yeah, but yours are a hoot! Bet he feels beat down like a football at batting practice.
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