Dan Rather Sues CBS for $70 Million
From The Times' Jacques Steinberg:
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 executive chairman, 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.’ ”
From the suit, filed today in Manhattan Supreme Court:
He was provided with very little staff support, very few of his suggested stories were approved, editing services were denied to him, and the broadcast of the few stories he was permitted to do was delayed and then played on carefully selected evenings, when low viewership was anticipated.
The fact is Dan Rather put in many years of service at getting good stories out whether or not anyone ever paid attention to him (at all). Informed people watched the television when his programs appeared. Informed people will also agree that there is more a problem at CBS about analysing photocopies than there was with Rather reporting on the analysis itself. It is entirely possible the Killian memoranda were forgeries, and the mistake was admitted.
This is not a case of one bad apple, and everyone respects the president's military record (his family has war heroes, that is not the point). What people have to realize is that "News" in many cases is for many members of the public a kind of entertainment anyway - somebody, not Mr. Rather, got caught up in this story and used it as an agenda 1) against the president, and then 2) in order to deflect attention, specifically against Mr. Rather.