How could you not see this coming?
Former CBS anchor Dan Rather filed a $70 million lawsuit against CBS Corp. and CBS’ parent company today. In the court papers, the newsman claims his former bosses made him the “scapegoat” for the controversy story that was later discredited regarding President Bush’s military service during the Vietnam War.
You’ll recall 75-year-old Rather was removed from his anchor job at “CBS Evening News” in March 2005. He was later replaced by short-term successor Bob Schieffer and eventually by current anchor Katie Couric. Since his firing Rather has maintained that the network “intentionally botched” the story highlighting Bush’s time in the Texas Air National Guard and had him take the fall to “pacify” the White House.
Rather is now suing CBS saying the actions of his bosses (CBS President and CEO Leslie Moonves, Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone, and Andrew Heyward, former president of CBS News, whom he specifically names in the lawsuit) damaged his reputation and cost him significant financial loss.
A spokesperson for CBS responded to Rather’s actions by issuing this statement: “These complaints are old news, and this lawsuit is without merit.”
I’m not so sure about that.
I don’t know Dan Rather, but I worked in the TV news business for more than a decade and know first hand that much of what network anchors and reporters voice on air is not written by them (once you get in the big leagues there are scores of writers, researchers, and producers who compile stories for anchors to read). Rather narrated the September 2004 CBS report that claimed Bush had disobeyed orders and neglected to perform all of his duties during his stint with the National Guard and that officials tried to cover up his flaws. After the story aired, critics questioned the authenticity of CBS’ sources. In the end it was discovered that a producer and three news executives failed to authenticate the documents in question and everyone associated with the report got axed—-including Rather.
Rather’s lawsuit maintains that the story was true, but that if any aspect of the broadcast wasn’t accurate, he was not responsible for the errors since he trusted that the producers and writers who put the story together did so in a professional and accurate manner. Basically, Rather is saying that since he didn’t write the story (and all he did was lend his voice to it) he should not have been thrown under the bus and forced to leave the anchor chair he had occupied for nearly a quarter of a century.
Now here’s where the legal aspects come into play. Rather must prove that the defendants’ actions caused damage to his reputation and cost him monetary damage. I am no legal expert, but I have to say that Rather has a pretty good chance of winning this case. Rather claims he was forced to publicly apologize for the broadcast, which he did. According to the lawsuit making Rather apologize publicly, “CBS intentionally caused the public and the media to attribute CBS’ alleged bungling of the episode to Mr. Rather.” Consequently, some media outlets called the event “Rathergate.”
What’s more, at the time of the controversy, Rather says was making $6 million a year.
Since his parting with CBS, Rather went to work on a weekly news show on cable’s HDNet channel. But his stories are available in only 4 million homes, a tiny fraction of his CBS audience.
I’m not sure if Rather will be awarded the entire $70 million, but I would venture to guess that he will walk a way with a tidy sum of money in the end.