Dan Rather has not moved on; Update: CBS responds, Rather runs to Larry King
Update: Via TVNewser, CBS responds… “These complaints are old news and this lawsuit is without merit.” Rather will dredge up his bygones on the Larry King Live show tomorrow.
Charles at LGF takes you down animated memory lane. Let’s see that on CNN.
***
Yes, my friends, Gunga Dan is suing Viacom and CBS for $70 million over the loss of his network career after the Rathergate debacle:
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 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.’ ”
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.
That’s right. He’s still battling the thorough investigative review by the Thornburgh panel. Hey, thanks for bringing it up again, Dan. It’s well worth re-reading the whole, damning indictment.
Hat tip - Lawhawk , who offers some free professional advice:
Here’s a memo for Dan Rather. When you produce a story based on bogus documents and then use nonexistent sources to verify said bogus documents, don’t expect your employer to give you choice assignments or air time. Indeed, count your blessings that you’ve got a job at all.
You should have been resigned to the ash heap of history for your stunt to manipulate the outcome of the US Presidential elections with just days to go, but instead, you still manage to get air time.
Going back to the Thornburgh report, I remind you of two telling, key phrases: “Myopic zeal.” “Rigid and blind.”
And a refresher on the top 10 news-gathering and news-vetting failures identified by the panel:
1. The failure to obtain clear authentication of any of the Killian documents from any document examiner;
2. The false statement in the September 8 Segment that an expert had authenticated the Killian documents when all he had done was authenticate one signature from one document used in the Segment;
3. The failure of 60 Minutes Wednesday management to scrutinize the publicly available, and at times controversial, background of the source of the documents, retired Texas Army National Guard Lieutenant Colonel Bill Burkett;
4. The failure to find and interview the individual who was understood at the outset to be Lieutenant Colonel Burkett’s source of the Killian documents, and thus to establish the chain of custody;
5. The failure to establish a basis for the statement in the Segment that the documents “were taken from Colonel Killian’s personal files”;
6. The failure to develop adequate corroboration to support the statements in the Killian documents and to carefully compare the Killian documents to official TexANG records, which would have identified, at a minimum, notable inconsistencies in content and format;
7. The failure to interview a range of former National Guardsmen who served with Lieutenant Colonel Killian and who had different perspectives about the documents;
8. The misleading impression conveyed in the Segment that Lieutenant Strong had authenticated the content of the documents when he did not have the personal knowledge to do so;
9. The failure to have a vetting process capable of dealing effectively with the production speed, significance and sensitivity of the Segment; and
10. The telephone call prior to the Segment’s airing by the producer of the Segment to a senior campaign official of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry - a clear conflict of interest - that created the appearance of a political bias.
Myopic zeal. Rigid and blind.
The more things change, the more Dan Rather stays the same.
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Trackbacks
- Stop The ACLU » Blog Archive » Dan Rather Strikes Back
- BelchSpeak » Watch Dan Rather Seethe
- Another Rovian Conspiracy - Brian
- Rathergate 2.0: Sues for $70 Million « What The Crap? - whatthecrap.us
- Wonkette
- Old War Dogs
- The Rather “Fake but accurate” suit | BitsBlog
- BizzyBlog » MSM Meltdown: Rather Sues CBS, Viacom, et al for $70 mil.
- Liberty Pundit
- Overlawyered
- Independent Sources » Blog Archive » Winners and Losers Celebrate and Bemoan Dan Rather Lawsuit Respectfully
- Rumors On The Internets: Fashion Police State | Political Debate Zone
- Rumors On The Internets: Fashion Police State | Political Debate Zone
- d3693d58ec4c7e4280eb
- Michelle Malkin - Should Dan Rather sue CBS/Viacom?
- Dan Rather sues CBS and Viacom
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Categories: Dan Rather, Rathergate, Swift Boat Vets
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Bullseye!
Dan Rather is luck that the Feds didn’t throw him in prison for trying to rig and election!
Will CBS be coutersuing?
Niiiiiiice. Must be a liberal, can’t take the blame for his own stupidity.
Rather was later quoted:
“This lawsuit is a fake but not inaccurate.”
I guess it takes a lot of “courage” to file a lawsuit like this. Perhaps he’s still trying to get the frequency for Kenneth.
“Glory seeking shill” are the best words to Dan Rather’s suit. If it was about the enforcement of his contract then only public statements would be about the contractual issues placed before the Court System. Public railing about “Bush” and “scapegoat” are only childish tie raids.
So in that vain, the response should be:
“I know you are! So what am I?”
Rather and CBS deserve each other. Like a dog chasing his own tale they get dizzy and fall over!
Rather is a disgusting loser who just can’t get enough of himself.
For the first time that I can recall I will be pulling for CBS.
It would be difficult for me to be on the jury should this go to trial. I would want to punish both, dan and cbs.
Ever since watching one Huntly-Brinkley “news” where there was an attempt to get the person being interview to make a damaging statement against Lady Bird and the interviwee did not respond correctly, I have not trusted the TV media for unbiased reporting.
Danny is just pissed he did not get Rosie’s job.
Lets see;
A thorough investigation, lack of evidence, only one signature verified, and the attempt to destroy a sitting President of the United States (the second time if I remember right about rather and Nixon the first time).
Forget the feds going after thunder dan, I would have rather seen Bush II go after him and See-BS for libel. If this lawsuit succeeds, then the one lawsuit from a member of the Rutgers women basketball team should also be successful.
Was dropped..
Bill Clinton … Saddam Hussein … Hellary Rodham … Michael Moore … O.J. Simpson … Terry McAuliffe … Dan Rather.
Malignant narcissists, all — impervious, from birth and by their own nature, to the two-by-four effects of fact.
Unbelievable. The sheer arrogance of this man is astounding. This story about the TANG documents was one of the first stories I followed in real time in the blogosphere. That whole drama, as it unfolded created a daily blog reader out of me, and a Malkin fan online, too. You’ve had me ever since, Michelle. Your reporting absolutely destroyed any hope CBS News had of being perceived as an objective news source by me or my family.
He’s also trying to use a disgruntled fired engineer to return to his destructive glory by trashing Boeing’s new 787 Dreamliner. One source who’s got an axe to grind, and one has been reporter who will smear anyone to further his own image and idealogical agenda. Sounds familiar, no?
Then Ollie North pointed out that Gunga Dan put three guys on the 60min. program in 1988 claiming to have been involved in the mysterious “Tiger Force” missions in Vietnam. Turns out, suprise, they had tales of atrocities, all committed by them and passed off as Vietcong crimes for some U.S. propaganda PR campaign. Suprise again, Ollie did some digging and found out all these guys were total frauds, never even in country at all. Gunga Dan just sat there asking leading questions and nodding his head. Never challenged anything they said.
Oh, he called Florida for Gore in 2000 a little too early, then accused Katherine Harris of deciding all by herself that Bush should have those electoral votes. “AS she sees it, as she decrees it”, remember that?
What a disgrace to journalism, and America.
Then there are those corny, undeciferable country fried sayings that he always foisted upon us. MRC has them collected for posterity, and I’m compelled to share a few of the best ones:
The sooner he goes away the better off we all will be.
He brought this on himself by not backing off when he had a chance.
Isn’t it typical of liberals to blame someone, anyone, else for the consequences of their own actions?
Looks like it took a while for his lawyer to invent— I mean find a way his contract was violated…
oooo..pooow wittiw daniew. boo-hoo.
total panty waste.
$70 million??????
WOW!!
Think how many pair of jammies Danny can buy with that.
Maybe Keith Olberman needs an intern…
Or, Bob Barker’s
It actually fits perfectly. Libs just do not get it.
.
In their wacky minds, the truth really just does NOT matter.
“I did a job, I put in my time, it shouldn’t matter what the real truth is or that a conservative that everyone should hate anyway was hurt… JUST PAY ME… whats the big deal?”
.
The rather-foolish thoughts of Dan.
Between Dan Rather, Mary Mapes and Katie Couric, it is no wonder that CBS News is a beacon of excellence and journalistic integrity that continues to dominate the ratings.
Ok, it seems that Skoal Bandit Chewing Tobacco is not the only thing some guys should remove from a firm implant in the cheek. Apparently my tongue is caught.
At least my tongue does not cause disease, which is more than I can say
for CBS News, metaphorically of course.
http://blacktygrrrr.wordpress.com/2007/06/12/dan-rather-and-katie-couric-partners-in-crime/
Respectfully,
eric
He needs to go suck a hurricane
The Road Less Graveled
(A down home message for Dan Rather in the colorful Texas idiom he so loves)
Y’all know what we all been thinkin’ out here in Texas, Dan, since you started all this foolishness? We think y’all been pissin’ down our necks an’ tellin’ us it’s rain for so long that you boys done got to believin’ it yourselves. Heck, we think maybe you been back East so long you got yourself thinkin’ us folks out here couldn’t hit sand if we fell off our horses; couldn’t hit water if we fell outta the boat. Danged if you ain’t been treatin’ us like you think we got squirrels swimmin’ in our gene pools or sumthin.’ You need to remind yourself that a tree don’t ever get too big for a short dog to lift his leg on, Dan.
Bout them documents bein’ genuine; well, hells-bells, Danny Boy, Grannie’s glasses are so thick, when she looks at a bare wall she see’s folks wavin’ at her, an’ even she can tell them memos are bout as phony as hips on a rattlesnake. We’re startin’ to think your brain done got harder than a woodpecker’s lips if you can’t see that. As far as that story bout George an’ his National Guard duty, looks to us like you’re tryin’ to put wheels on a cow an’ call it a dairy truck. Then you go pokin’ up her butt hopin’ you’re gonna find ice cream. Besides, ever time you durn fools put that picture of young George in his flyboy outfit on the TeeVee, ol’ Jane Fonda loses another herd of her Vagina Voters. Hell, Charlene says that sweet boy’s purtier than my new tangerine metalflake bass boat.
Well, Danny, you still ain’t lost all your redneck habits; you boys took one pickup load to the dump an’ come back with two. Dadgummit, Dan, where you gittin’ all this stuff? You been callin’ some kinda mystery numbers that ol’ boy, whatsisname, Kenneth, is bringin’ you offa bathroom walls at truck stops? Somethin’ you oughta be worryin’ about, Danny Boy: you know how the boys say when you go on a hunt always make sure to save a round for your huntin’ guide? Like if he don’t find nuthin’ else for you to shoot? You suppose any a them rich, fancy-shmancy, New York dudes you work for ever been on a hunt and heard that, Dan, hmmm?
You know how you always been fond a sayin’ you feel like a long tailed cat in a room full a rockin’ chairs? Well, seems to us like you’re startin’ to look more like the ground floor tenant in a two-story outhouse. Yeah, for sure you ain’t lookin’ like the tallest hog at the trough no more. Why, we bet you got yourself wired so tight right now that if we stuck a chunk a coal up your butt it’d come out a diamond in about five minutes. Last time we seen you on TeeVee your smile looked like Charlene’s little ol’ chihuahua dog that time he bit down on one a them ol’ yeller-jacket wasps; you know, kinda like that look a feller gets when he squats with his spurs on.
An’ about your boss, that city slicker fella, Johnnie Klein, the one said somethin’ bout all us sittin’ out here in our long johns? Well we’re gonna give him some advice so good he can take it out back an’ bury it in a Mason jar. You see, the fact is, Danny Boy, now that all us earthworms is gittin’ guns, you big birds is gonna have to be more careful bout where you’re peckin.’ Somebody needs to tell that dude, Klein, that his cage may still be turnin’ but his squirrel’s done died. Course, maybe the boy can’t help hisself; it might run in the family, you know, generic. We heard tell when he was born his ol’ momma carried the little feller around upside down for a whole year wonderin’ why he only had one eye.
Yeah them ol’ boys up there at Power Line done gone an’ slapped you dudes nekkid an’ hid your clothes. Them blogger cats watched you fellers jump in that ol’ litter box an’ they just flat covered you up, quicker ‘n slicker than WD 40 on a doorknob. Yeah you boys done gone skinny dippin’ in a pond full a snappin’ turtles. Looks like them broadcastin’ geniuses at CBS done let them yeller-dog Democrats talk you inta sellin’ your mule so you could buy a plow. When you crawled into the sack with little Miss McCauliffe you done got yourself a real ugly bed partner there, Dan, like a real three-bagger, I mean. You know the drill: one bag over her head, one over yours and one over the dog’s so’s at least he’ll have some respect for you come mornin.’
Before all y’all up there at CBS go tryin’ to saddle up another hog for a quarter horse race, you need to think about this: us ol’ boys out here know a keyboard ain’t where you hang the pickup keys and a byte ain’t what Bubba’s pit bull did to Cousin Billy; we know modem ain’t what we did when the weeds got up to the porch and digital ain’t countin’ on our fingers, least not any more. Yeah, we done got ourselves a dog in this fight, a bloggin’ pit bull, Dan Boy, an’ he’s justa slobberin’ for another big ol’ bite of Liberal blubber butt. Didn’t your ol’ daddy ever tell you that you ain’t never gonna be the brightest bulb on the tree if you go huntin’ bobcats with a BB gun?
But cheer up, Dan, maybe one a these days all you pointy-headed, liberal, media fellers will see the light. Course, seein’s where y’all seem to be keepin’ them pointy heads, it’ll prob’ly be one a them there things the doctors use.
Whatcha call ‘em, proctoscopes?
Russ Vaughn
A Texan
P.S. Charlene says to tell you don’t even think about comin’ back to Texas. Way folks out here feel, you’d have to tie a pork chop around your neck just to get a dog to play with you. Well, and maybe Mollie Ivins.
Courage
First I heard of that line! And I live in Texas!
Well said, bdfaith. ‘Ol Danny boy is all hat and no cattle.
CBS can sure pick’em.
That Russ Vaughn, gotta love his poetry! He really skewered John F’n Kerry too.
Good stuff!
Low as a snake’s belly, and full of crap!
I just managed to stop laffin…..damnation, bdfaith! some funny sh*t!
All a Dan’s marbles done rolled onto their flat sides.
Back around 1973 or 74 National Lampoon referred to Dan Rather as “a bloated, enflamed as*h*le.”
Sounds like a case of the Ratheroids.
OH Danny Boy, what an idoit.
Sounds like he missed the limelight so much he had to find a way to get back in front of the cameras again. What do you all expect for this less than honorable man?
MSM News Anchors and Anchorettes just do not get it that they have not been elected to office and have no right to airtime.
Dan Rather and people like him think because they are paid outrageous salaries by their employers that they have some mandate to shape the news, influence the political agenda and rig elections with their propaganda.
Dan Rather will find out shortly that you cannot get away lying in pre-trial depositions without severe consequences.
My guess is that he will drop his lawsuit as soon as Mary Mapes during interrogatories is revealed to be a liar and a fraud.
lol bd!
Just goes to show what my Dad always told me about advanced old age, it truly is the second childhood.
He got positively drunk with his own perceived power, and thought he would go down in history as the anchorman who brought down a presidency.
Fortunately, honesty prevailed over ego.
70 million?I almost wish Rather would win.Maybe if that happens.the networks will start taking their news departments seriously,and stop paying these addle-brained talking heads millions to read teleprompters,and hire some real reporters.I don’t know but I think that if Dan wasn’t so overpaid throughout his career,he couldn’t come up with a dollar figure any where near 70 mil.These T.V. anchors think they are stars,and as CC said are drunk with power because the networks treat them as such.
The most incompetent news person in the history of CBS, prior the the hiring of the present no body. Who is just as stupid.
Ms. Malkin,
I just checked the site before bed…I have no idea why, but the link I posted went way beyond the physical boundaries of the box. When I previewed it…it was well within the lines.
Does anyone here know how a link that takes up two lines can out of nowhere be stretched out over one line?
I am technologically incompetent, and ignorance is not an excuse.
If it needs to be deleted I understand.
eric aka the Tygrrrr Express
LOL!!! Very entertaining bd! You made me think of one that I heard when I lived in Alabama that seems really appropriate: Just ’cause the cat has kittens in the oven, that don’t mean you call ‘em “biscuits.”
I guess Dan’s too far gone to expect him to grow a pair of Malkins!
Ok, this is ridiculous. I just checked again, and now the url is showing up as 2 lines, well within the box.
I give up. Sheesh.
eric aka the Tygrrrr Express
Let me see if I have this straight. Rather lied on the air. Instead of firing him on the spot, CBS demoted him. Now that he’s gone, he’s sueing them for firing him?
And what started it all? His lies.
This should be fun.
As another old CBS fraud once said (a million times) “And that’s the way it is.”
What I don’t get is why an otherwise respectable firm like Sonnenschein would take such a ridiculous case as this one.