Dan Rather v. CBS
Last month, newsman Dan Rather sued his former employers CBS News and Viacom, as well as Leslie Moonves and Sumner Redstone, presidents of those corporations, and Rather's former immediate supervisor Andrew Heyward. Excerpts from his legal complaint appear below and on the following seven pages. (To read the entire complaint, click here.)
PRINT
DISCUSS
E-MAIL
RSS
RECOMMEND...
Facebook
MySpace
Mixx
Digg
Reddit
del.icio.us
Furl
Ma.gnolia
Sphere
StumbleUponRather, the complaint says, was hired by CBS News in 1962 and reported on "the assassination of John F. Kennedy [and] the wars in Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and … Iraq" as well as "the fall of the Soviet empire, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and … 9/11/01" (Page 4). From 1991 until 2005, he was anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News. His career essentially ended as "one of the foremost broadcast journalists of our time" (see below) on Sept. 8, 2004 when Rather appeared in and narrated a news magazine segment on 60 Minutes Wednesday regarding George W. Bush's Vietnam-era enlistment and service in the Texas Air National Guard.
It was hardly news that George H.W. Bush, then a U.S. representative from Houston, had pulled strings to get his son into the National Guard—a route many draft-age young men employed at the time to avoid combat. Nor was it news that Dubya had been absent during much of his time in the Air National Guard and that he probably hadn't deserved his early honorable discharge. For the first time, though, Rather and his producer, Mary Mapes, had gotten a key player—former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes—to fess up on camera. The broadcast's biggest scoop was the existence of certain memos complaining about Dubya's kid-glove treatment, written for the file in 1972 by his commanding officer, Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, now deceased. Soon after the story was broadcast, however, Rather's and Mapes' source for the memos, Bill Burkett, changed his story about how he'd obtained them, raising serious questions about their authenticity. The person Burkett had first claimed to receive the memos from—whom 60 Minutes had tried and failed to contact—had, it turned out, many months before denied the story, raising additional questions about Burkett's credibility. (For a more detailed summary, click here.)
Rather publicly apologized, but on the day after Bush's re-election, he was told he would be terminated as anchor of CBS News. A review panel led by former Attorney General Richard Thornburgh concluded in January 2005 that Rather and Co., in their "myopic zeal" to be first with the memos, had aired an unverified story. On the report's release, four other CBS employees, including Mapes, were fired or asked to resign. Though he remained nominally a correspondent on 60 Minutes, Rather was shooed away from major stories. Particularly galling, the complaint says, was CBS's refusal "to send him to Louisiana to cover Hurricane Katrina" despite his being "the most experienced reporter in the United States covering hurricanes" (Pages 7 and 8). Airtime, the complaint explains, is "the life blood for television news personalities" (Page 6).
During this post-anchor period, CBS continued to assure Rather that it "intended to fully use his talents in the near future … his reputation would be repaired and his contract would be extended" (Page 3). But in June 2006, with only a few months left on his $6-million-per-year "staff correspondent agreement" (Page 5), Rather was shown the door. Rather charges CBS News and Viacom with fraud, and with violating obligations of contract, good faith, and fiduciary duty. He asks for $70 million to offset damages to his "earned and enjoyed" reputation "for journalistic excellence and independence" (Page 5). For its part, CBS has removed archival video and tributes to Rather from its Web site and replaced them with promotional ads and 30-second spots featuring Gwen Stefani.
Got a Hot Document? Send it to . Please indicate whether you wish to remain anonymous.
Is It More Important for Your Turkey To Be Organic or Local?
Why Gift Cards Are a Terrible Gift
Is Sarah Palin's Approval Rating Really as High as Barack Obama's?
Justice Scalia's Most Eccentric Habits
Adam Lambert's Refreshing Non-Apology on the CBS Early Show
Democrats Have a Lot To Be Thankful For
Remarks from the Fray:
Dan Rather reported a story that was true. No one including Bush denies that what was reported was essentially the truth but rather that the documents were forged. Should Rather have checked more closely? Probably but is it reasonable that the anchor of CBS news can check every story he reports? Shouldn't other people do that for him?
Look at the facts: Rather's story told the truth and hurt no one (Bush was re-elected after all.)
Bush, on the other hand, used a forged document that he was told by the CIA was not genuine and that he shouldn't use. Rather thought that the document he was using was genuine while Bush knew the one he was using was not.
Even more importantly Rather's lie was harmless while Bush's lie has led to more then 3,700 dead American soldiers and perhaps a million dead Iraqis not to mention half a trillion dollars...
So please, can somebody tell me why Rather was fired but Bush still has his job?
--progressivebulldog
(To reply, click here.)
Ms. Goldstein appears to be following the script set out by the headline "Documents Fake But Accurate", which made the NYT a laughing-stock. She repeats the canard that GWB used family influence to jump the Queue and get into the Texas ANG. How many applicants were there at the time who could pass the very rigorous standards which the USAF imposed upon applicants for flight training? She doesn't know nor does she care? Combat flying in a super-sonic fighter, such as the F-102 was and is quite dangerous and demanding---not the way a coward would chose to avoid combat. Has she ever looked at the instrument panel of an F-102?
The reason that anyone but a fool knew within hours of the broadcast that the documents upon which it was based were forgeries had nothing to do with Bill Burkett's shady reputation or with his "credibility". It was simply that exact replicas of them could be easily produced by anyone with a computer using microsoft word in its default settings. My son sent me such a replica within days. Apparently, Mr. Rather is so stupid or poorly informed as to not be aware of this, right up to the present day. Ms. Mapes, however, is not stupid, and we must look elsewhere for her motivations. I have always thought that she herself could have been the source of the forgeries and arranged to have them "discovered" by the gullible Burkett, whose animus against the (Army) NG would have been well known to her. This possibility is at least worthy of investigation. His story of how he obtained them is not believable.
Finally, the return of many pilots from Viet Nam during the latter part of GWB's tour created a glut of very qualified pilots with relatively few flying slots to accomodate them. For this reason the ANG allowed him to complete his tour with only nominal duties in Alabama and finally. the Harvard Business School.
With the exception of my conjecture about Mary Mapes, everything I have written here has been well known for years.
--James currin
(To reply, click here.)
The Wall Within was an expose done by Rather supposedly on the plight of Vietnam War vets whose lives were wrecked by the War since they became depressed, homeless, jobless and turned to drugs and alcohol. Rather with his razor sharp research skills interviewed six of these "vets" and told a heart wrenching story of how the war destroyed their lives. Unfortunately (for Rather) it came to light that 5 of these "Vietnam vets" had never been in Vietnam and the sixth who had been in Vietnam was a repairman not a SEAL as he claimed.
So it should be no surprise that Rather was taken in by the Killian memos despite his previous experience. Why?What are the odds that Rather picked 6 people who were not what they claimed they were? What are the odds of #1 and the Killian memos happening to the same reporter? CBS claimed Rather's sources (plural) were unimpeachable, yet despite the prevarication of these anonymous sources, why has neither CBS nor Rather revealed them?
Maybe Rather can write a book and title it: "If I Did Lie!"
--The Ranger
(To reply, click here.)
(10/3)