Dan Rather, who ended his reporting and news anchor career in disgrace, has sued CBS and company executives Chief Executive Leslie Moonves, Viacom (VIA-B), Viacom Chief Executive Sumner Redstone and Andrew Heyward, the former president of CBS News, for $70 million.
The lawsuit claims that Rather suffered "significant financial loss and seriously damaged his reputation." Is this a "duh" moment? Of course he did, and deserved to.
Rather suffered the disgrace when he attempted to make President Bush look like he received preferential treatment during his years of service in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War era. The problem was he based his conclusions on documents that had been falsified.
After a public outcry and exposing the documents as a hoax, CBS (CBS-A) was forced to retract the story 12 days later.
An independent panel concluded that Rather, and those with him in it, disregarded basic principles of journalism in order to quickly put the piece on the air. The panel said their "myopic zeal" led them to take the actions they took.
This is a dumb move to me. All Rather is doing is reminding everybody of what a baffoon he was in doing what he did.
While the producer of the segment and three other employees were fired, Rather was allowed to keep his job, although he quit CBS in June 2006, when he alleges they didn't give him any more assignments.
Rather now works for HDNet, a subscription channel for HDTV owners, owned by billionaire Mark Cuban.
CBS commented, saying, "These complaints are old news and this lawsuit is without merit."
When are people going to learn to take personal responsibility? He wasn't given anymore assignments because he had compromised the journalistic integrity of the news show. I hate how letigious US society is.
Posted by: Kimberlee Morrison | September 20, 2007 11:42 AM | Permalink to Comment