I wonder if Dan Rather plans to ask Bernie Goldberg how it feels to get screwed by CBS.
Seriously, this is an asinine act on the part of Dan Rather. Dan Rather does not need the money. CBS will never admit wrongdoing, even if they did something wrong. They have attorneys and public relations departments to make themselves look blameless. The best he could hope for is a settlement and an agreement to keep silent on the issue, something CBS was doing, anyway.
That’s assuming that CBS decides to settle. They may not want to settle. They may prefer to drag Dan Rather through the mud for a while. They employed him for over forty years. I’m sure they know a few things about Dan Rather that would make him look worse. They could well make him look stupid for a while, then offer a settlement as if to say, “Had enough yet?” That might make Mark Cuban reconsider Dan Rather’s continued employment.
The possibility of countersuit is unlikely, but then again, CBS News’ reputation in in the toilet and it will take years to resurrect it. It’s easy to blame the whole thing on Dan Rather. Bernie Goldberg’s book, Bias, blamed much of the left wing bias at CBS directly on Dan Rather. Published accounts of malfeasance go a long way with juries.
Dan Rather’s contract no doubt had some flowery prose about due diligence and highest ethics of journalism in it. It’s easy to argue that he violated such terms, and his actions damaged the reputation of CBS News. Although we at Free Republic have noted the bias at CBS for years, the National Guard memos made the bias undeniable to the whole nation. CBS News is still reeling.
And if Dan Rather thinks he will somehow invoke feelings of loyalty at CBS News, or maybe intimidation, he should remember that when he got them in trouble, they threw him under the bus.
Get the popcorn. We’re going to need a lot of it.
Good analysis.