link by Frank James Some stories, like comets, have really long tails, and keep returning from oblivion. The misbegotten 2004 CBS News story about President Bush's National Guard experience is one of them. Today, three years after that story resulted, eventually, in the unseating of Dan Rather from his long-time job in the anchor's chair of the CBS Evening News, the former network star has filed a $70 million lawsuit against Viacom Inc and several of his one-time bosses there. Rather essentially says Viacom and CBS News ruined his career after the problemmatic story ran in September 2004. The story reported that George W. Bush allegedly received preferential treatment when he was admitted into the Texas National Guard in 1968, an assignment that kept him from combat in Vietnam, and then never showed up for duty in Arkansas in 1972. CBS News's "story" was based on documents that the network news journalists purported to be authentic but whose genuineness was questioned by bloggers who noticed that they appeared to be in a font style more consistent with Microsoft Word than typewriters from the 1970s. Rather was forced to apologize on air for the story and, suffice it to say, his career went downhill from there, much to the delight of many conservatives who detested the colorful anchor with a vengeance usually reserved for the Clintons. He fared better however than Mary Mapes, the network news producer who was fired. In the lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court, Rather claims CBS made him the "scapegoat" for the story, the controversy over which conservative activists used to intimidate CBS News from further negative reporting on Bush and the administration in the runup to the 2004 election. Rather basically accuses Sumner Redstone, Viacom's chief executive officer; Leslie Moonves, chief executive of Viacom's CBS unit, and Andrew Heyward, formerly president of CBS News, of conspiring against him. Oh, and they violated his contract, too, the suit alleges. There's been no love lost between Rather and CBS since he left the anchor chair in March of 2005 and the network not long after. As CBS News has struggled in the ratings with its current Evening News anchor, Katie Couric, Rather hasn't refrained from taking potshots at his old employer, accusing it of simultaneously "tarting up" and "duimbing down" the news program, allegations which his old employer has labeled "sexist." For its part, CBS issued a statement in which it said: "These complaints are old news and this lawsuit is without merit." This should be an entertaining intramural journalism fight. Stay tuned. For a synopsis of the lawsuit, here's the press release issued by the public-relations folks for Rather's law firm of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal. September 19, 2007 2:30 PM Eastern For Immediate Release Rather Files Suit for Damages Against Former Employers and Executives New York, New York 2:30 PM Eastern. 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. The lawsuit seeks substantial damages, both compensatory and punitive, for the defendants’ breach of contract, harm to Mr. Rather’s reputation, and fraud related to their unwarranted termination of Mr. Rather from CBS. In the complaint, filed today in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, Dan Rather outlines the many unjustifiable actions taken by CBS, Viacom, and their senior executives against Mr. Rather. The defendants openly violated Mr. Rather’s trust in CBS, intentionally sought to marginalize him within the CBS organization, and clearly violated the terms of his contract with CBS in the process. These actions were directly driven by political motives on the part of CBS, Viacom, and their most senior executives, and ultimately tarnished Mr. Rather’s reputation and restricted his ability to seek new opportunities as a journalist. 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 bowing to political pressure, CBS, Viacom and the individual defendants not only willfully violated their legal and fiduciary obligations to Dan Rather and severely tarnished his reputation, but also undermined the very principals of independent investigative journalism. The complaint details how CBS and Viacom, in seeking to avoid political criticism, used Dan Rather as a scapegoat for their own actions, even as the two companies publicly asserted their intentions to impartially review matters related to Bush National Guard documents controversy. After improperly removing Dan Rather as anchor of the CBS Evening News, the defendants, in direct violation of his contract and their obligations to Dan as a veteran journalist, effectively removed him from any public reporting for more than a year before eventually terminating him. 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 completely failed to live up to their obligations to Mr. Rather. The impact of these unwarranted actions was felt not only by Mr. Rather, but were a direct attack on the principles of unbiased reporting, fundamental fairness and truth in the news. 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, both wars in Iraq, the fall of the Soviet empire, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and September 11, 2001 and its aftermath. For twenty-four years, Mr. Rather served as the Anchor and Managing Editor of the CBS Evening News. Throughout his career, Mr. Rather has earned and enjoyed a reputation for journalistic excellence and independence. He is the author of seven books covering diverse aspects of his work.
I hope he Rather wins. Whether it is from the right during the National Guard story or from the left during Imus's **** up, CBS is always buckling under the pressure of some interest group.
