NEW YORK, April 10, 2008
Setback For Dan Rather Lawsuit Against CBS
Judge Dismisses Portions Of Ex-News Anchor's Suit But Rather's Attorney Says Central Claims Remain Intact
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Former CBS News anchor Dan Rather and CBS President Leslie Moonves. (CBS/AP)
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Interactive Dan Rather A look at the career of the legendary newsman and his work on some of the world's biggest stories.
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Judicial Hearing Officer Ira Gammerman on Thursday allowed the lawsuit to go forward, but struck down the parts of the suit that name Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone, CBS President Leslie Moonves and former CBS News President Andrew Heyward.
A lawyer for the defendants, lead outside counsel James Quinn, said the judge's ruling eliminated Rather's core complaints of fraud and breach of good faith and fair dealing.
The lawyer said it was hard to see how the ex-anchor's assertion of a conspiracy between CBS and the Bush administration "will have any traction going forward."
Dan Rather's lawyer, Martin Gold, forcefully disagreed with the defense's characterization of today's motion.
"It's not a setback at all," Gold told CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen. "The biggest shock that I had was when I read Jim Quinn's statement…in which he said that it was a great victory for them and all that's left is a garden variety contract dispute, those were his words, and that's just nonsense."
Gold told Cohen that he still planned on deposing all three of the individuals whose names were eliminated from the complaint: Redstone, Moonves and Heyward.
"They were the people who acted on behalf of the company," Gold said, "Corporations act by human beings. Those are some of the major people who functioned on behalf of the company and they have to be deposed."
Listen to CBS' interview with Dan Rather's attorney, Martin Gold.
CBS said in a statement: "We are gratified that the court has dismissed the majority of Mr. Rather’s claims, including the spurious claims against Mr. Redstone, Mr. Moonves and Mr. Heyward. With respect to the few remaining claims, relevant to his contract, there are no facts to support them and we expect them to be dismissed when the discovery process is complete.”
Rather's last months at CBS News were clouded by a disputed story on President Bush's Vietnam-era military service. Rather says his employers made him a "scapegoat" to placate the White House after questions arose about the story.
Quinn told CBS News' legal analyst Andrew Cohen that the contract issue left relates to "whether or not we 'benched' him and whether he had sufficient time on 60 Minutes and 60 Minutes II after he stepped down as the anchorperson."
"We obviously say we gave him all the time in the world," says Quinn.
Rather narrated the September 2004 report that claimed President Bush skirted some of his duties during his National Guard service and that a commander felt pressured to sugarcoat Bush's record. He maintains the story was true.
But an independent review for the network determined the story was neither fair nor accurate. CBS fired a producer for airing it, and three news executives resigned.
Viacom Inc. is CBS's former parent company.
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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face it buddy, dan rather got caught up with all this liberal ''bush bashing''. He made himself a hug mound of liberal Sh*t that simply just dried up..and guess what..the liberal media and the liberal elite ARE NOWHERE TO BE FOUND TO SAVE HIS LIBERAL ARSE..
Got Bush''s Back???, then you can collect a fortune in cash prizes!!!
Simply show ANY proof that the Little Drunken Crackhead was at his assigned duty station from May, 1972, to May of 1973, and you win the money!!!
What???,.....Nobody''s ever come forward with any documentation???......in all those years???,......
I guess Dan Rather told the truth,.....
Shrub IS an AWOL/Deserter and Coward.......
Posted by libsrweak at 11:22 PM
Do you ever post anything interesting or
actually factual?
You are soooo predictable.
Wish you could act like an AMERICAN for once
and just defend other Americans instead of
defending the elite ALL THE TIME.
Same ol'' same ol'' from you.
same old whine from your goat cheese breath.
_______________
Obviously not the same place as the Bush family. Texas I think.
The idiot son was too coked out or drunk to take his physical, and in fact was awol from duty. Actually, his whole national guard enlistment was a faked out excuse! The trained him on a plane that was already decomissioned and would never see combat.
His Daddy and Mommy bought him out of every one of his failures. Too bad nobody researched Bush before they sold him to the public. The really bad thing is the public bought this krap twice! Talk about the dumbing down of America!
Life must be a B|tch for your family.
No, this had nothing to do with showing every journalist and media source out there that if you prove something against the Bush Administration, even Dan Rather (a leading journalist since the Vietnam War and major news anchor), YOU WILL GO DOWN IN OUR NEW BUSH/CHENEY AMERICA!!!
There is a great temptation to beleive that Former AG Gonzalez was stacking the courts with favored partisan judges to stave off or weaken the strongest legal fights that were being launched against the Bush administration.
The core of Dan Rather''s claim was that President Bush decided not to show up one day for his Reserve or National Guard duty and opted to participate in a political campaign, instead. But, the only person who could really answer the question, had just recently died. Some evidence suggested that Dan Rather''s claim was not true, but essential documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, were censored and couldn''t be proven either way. Later, some more evidence came forth to help Dan Rather''s claims against the President, but his witness turned out to be a faithless witness, and led to Dan Rather''s dismissal by his employer.
The Dirty Scumbags....."
Posted by veteran72
Now that''s some funny stuff...I love these Liberal whackos
Oh wait; I guess he''s tried that before, and as we all know, he failed miserably.
They support the troops in name only, even though they''re not being taken care of for their sacrifices. Rumsfeld sends them to war without the proper equipment but they don''t question this failng or even equate support with giving them the tools to protect themselves.
"Support the troops" is so empty a phrase now that everytime you hear them spew it, you can hear their mouths get drier by the day. It means virtually nothing nowadays and has merely become filler in the vacuous reasoning and spin from the Cheney White House, the AEI, Flush Limbaugh and the Heritage Foundation. And those Jack*sses at the New York Times are just as duplicitous as any Evangelical, RNCer, or constutional Textualist/Originalist. you guys are as honest as a Missippian Indiviualist who denies it citizen state protection and care through resonable taxes, but holds out their hand for the federal dole. (Just like Libertarians'' silence during the current crisis and their failure to criticize the handout of public money to private investment banks from the very government they want destroyed).
Your principles are fleeting and insincere.
Now he''s just a mumbling bumbling old *** trying to rebuild his rep that he destroyed with his own malignant arrogance.
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