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In light of Dan Rather's lawsuit against CBS/Viacom, I'm going to coin a Rather-esque saying: Writing about this story while working for CBS is tougher than playing Operation while traveling down a bumpy Lubbock road.

But here goes anyway.

By now we've all read and/or heard that former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather has filed a $70 million lawsuit against CBS, as revealed in yesterday's New York Times:

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.”

According to the lawsuit, Rather's complaints revolve not only around the investigation but also the fallout surrounding the infamous "60 Minutes" story which looked into President Bush's national guard duty (uncreatively nicknamed "Memogate") – including his not having been assigned to cover Hurricane Katrina despite being "the most experienced reporter in the United States in covering hurricanes" and a disagreement over the definition of "full-time."

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In light of Dan Rather's lawsuit against CBS/Viacom, I'm going to coin a Rather-esque saying: Writing about the story while working for CBS is tougher than playing Operation while traveling down a bumpy Lubbock road.

But here goes anyway.

By now we've all read and/or heard that former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather has filed a $70 million lawsuit against CBS, as revealed in yesterday's New York Times: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.”According to the lawsuit, Rather's complaints revolve not only around the investigation but also the fallout surrounding the infamous "60 Minutes" story which looked into President Bush's national guard duty (uncreatively nicknamed "Memogate") – including his not having been assigned to cover Hurricane Katrina despite being "the most experienced reporter in the United States in covering hurricanes" and a disagreement over the definition of "full-time."

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Since Public Eye wasn’t on the pre-approved list of reviewers for the book written by former CBS News producer Mary Mapes about Memogate, we had to wait until it hit bookstores yesterday to get a copy. I’ll have my review of Mapes’ account when I’ve read the entire book but in the meantime it’s worth pointing out some of the comments and reaction to her PR tour for the book. For the most part, you can take what you want from these tidbits I’ve pulled out. I’ll have my say soon, but you can read my earlier take on Memogate here.


In her first television interview since the National Guard story, Mapes sat with ABC’s Brian Ross to talk about the events surrounding the story and her book. She defended the story and asserted, “I think I’m somebody who got fired for trying to do their job in a difficult atmosphere,” adding, “I don't think I committed bad journalism. I really don't.”


Ross asked Mapes if she still believed the story on President Bush’s National Guard service was true and she answered, “absolutely.” She said of the Killian memos, which were used to validate the story before their authenticity came under intense scrutiny, that they have not proven to be inauthentic, adding, “I’m perfectly willing to believe those documents are forgeries if there’s proof I haven’t seen.” Ross asked Mapes if the standard ought not to have been for her to prove their authenticity, to which she responded, “I don’t think that’s the standard.” (If that’s not a basic standard of journalism and professionalism, I don’t know what is).


Update: American Journalism Review's Rem Rieder weighs in with his take.

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For some, whether or not Public Eye speaks out on Memogate has become a litmus test of our seriousness, guts and honesty. I think that's sort of silly. Our mission at Public Eye is to facilitate discussion, answer questions and open up the process at CBS News, not to offer my opinions in a straight “ombudsman” fashion.



Still, the question comes up over and over and lurks just beneath the surface of almost everything we do. The reality is that this week’s change of leadership at CBS News brings the issue to the forefront once again. A new account of the episode, written by former producer Mary Mapes, is also due to hit bookstores shortly. So I’ll try to address it here, offer some of my personal thoughts and, hopefully, help to answer some of the questions.



Long before PE debuted, the questions I was most often asked were: Would Memogate have happened if Public Eye had been around then? And, what difference would Public Eye have made?



Would the story have gone on the air? Probably, but it’s impossible to be certain. What I can say is it’s very unlikely I or anyone else at PE would have known about the story prior to the time the public in general was alerted to it. Even in the event we would have had any knowledge that “60 Minutes Wednesday” was preparing a story on President Bush’s National Guard service, we certainly would not have been involved in the preparation or vetting of it. Whether the mere presence of PE would have caused those in charge to be more cautious can’t be known but I doubt it.



What difference would PE have made? Well, from the day after the show on, we would have written about it. We would have noted the criticisms made on various blogs starting immediately after the show and would have asked CBS executives in charge about them. I like to think our involvement in that process would have altered the way in which CBS responded, that fuller answers would have been forthcoming in a timelier manner. The truth is, I don’t know.

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