Rather Sues CBS for $70 Million

Dan Rather isn't quietly going away:

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."

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.'"

CBS treated him horribly, tarnishing his reputation by forcing his retirement not long after the controversy. He didn't deserve it, after four decades of a distinguished journalistic career with the network.

Rather was sacrificed to the conservative wolves desperate to bury legitimate questions about Bush's military service by making him the issue. Thanks to cowardly CBS, they succeeded.

Give 'em hell, Dan.



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