Appeals court dismisses Dan Rather's suit vs. CBS

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090929/tv_nm/us_rather_cbs_1 ^ | 9/29/09 | Edith Honan

[dangerdoc]

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A New York state appeals court on Tuesday dismissed former TV newsman Dan Rather's lawsuit against CBS Corp in which Rather claimed he was made a scapegoat in a scandal over a 2004 report on then-President George W. Bush's military record. The ruling on Tuesday by a panel of judges of the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division said Rather's $70 million complaint should be dismissed in its entirety and that a lower court erred in denying CBS's motion to throw out the lawsuit. Rather says CBS breached his contract by not giving him enough on-air assignments after he was removed as anchor of the "CBS Evening News" in March 2005. The appeals court ruled he failed to sufficiently support his claim that he lost business opportunities due to CBS's failure to release him to seek other employment. Rather sued CBS, parent of the CBS television network, Viacom and others in September 2007, claiming he had been made a scapegoat to "pacify the White House." CBS was part of Viacom until the companies split in 2006.

[dangerdoc]

DU will be crying.

[Redleg Duke]

Better put some ice on it, Dano.

[mrmeyer]

[Rodney Dangerfield]

He should have been arrested for treason, seeing how he tried to affect the outcome of a Presidential election by fraud, during wartime and using forgeries in an attempt to defeat the sitting President.

If that isn’t Treason, then what is?

[I see my hands]

[Rome2000]

On September 8, 2004, Dan Rather cited “exclusive information, including documents” to justify major CBS Evening News and 60 Minutes stories alleging that George W. Bush shirked his duties when he was in the Texas Air National Guard in the 1960s and 1970s. Within a few hours of those documents being posted on CBS News’s Web site, however, typography experts voiced skepticism that the documents had actually originated with their alleged author and Bush’s former commanding officer, the late Lt. Colonel Jerry Killian. As the evidence mounted, Rather stubbornly clung to the idea that his story was bulletproof, and he derided critics as partisans and Internet rumormongers. When he “apologized” on September 20, Rather would not concede that the documents were forgeries, only that he and CBS could “no longer vouch for their authenticity.”

CBS Disregarded Experts, Challenged Laura Bush: ABC’s Brian Ross reported on the September 14 World News Tonight that “two experts hired by CBS News say the network ignored concerns they raised prior to the broadcast about the disputed National Guard records.” But over on CBS, reporter John Roberts wondered why President Bush wasn’t taking those memos seriously: “The President has yet to weigh in on new documents about his National Guard record made public last week by 60 Minutes.” Roberts also chastised First Lady Laura Bush for doubting CBS’s memos were authentic: “Laura Bush offered no evidence to back up her claim, and CBS News continues to stand by its reporting.”

Sticking By His Smear: On September 10, Dan Rather responded to charges the memos he cited as proving Bush’s dereliction were forged, telling his CBS Evening News audience that the memos were genuine and attacking any doubters as partisan rumor-mongers. “Today, on the Internet and elsewhere, some people, including many who are partisan political operatives, concentrated not on the key questions of the overall story, but on the documents that were part of the support of the story,” Rather castigated. But his lame defense ignored key challenges to the documents’ typography and content, and the doubts voiced by the widow and son of the supposed author, the late Lt. Col. Jerry Killian. Instead, Rather chose to repeat his indictment of President Bush’s National Guard service. Rather arrogantly concluded: “If any definitive evidence to the contrary of our story is found, we will report it. So far there is none.” (CyberAlert, September 11, 2004)

[dangerdoc]

I missed the previous thread. Please pull.

[clintonh8r]

Hotter than a Texas tick on a bull scrotum at high noon on the Fourth of July....../rather voice

[GoDuke]

Courage.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Courage!

[Ikemeister]

What’s the frequency, Kenneth?

[Charles Henrickson]

DU will be crying.

Hee! Hee!

[Dem Guard]

Suing a dead CBS for 70M, Dan always was a dreamer!

[TwelveOfTwenty]

This issue showed we CAN beat the MSM.

[Incorrigible]

Honorary Buckhead Bump!

[Scanian]

Rather has so little credibility that not even See BS wants to put him on the air.

[dancusa]

FOTFLMAO! That is funny!

[TwelveOfTwenty]

Don't forget the link.

[mowowie]

Some good news here today...

[Trajan88]

dan blather... OWNED.

Go put some Windex on it Dan (and don't go away mad).

[Lockbox]

I'm sure Dan believes he fought the ‘good’ fight, just had bad ammo...........

[seekthetruth]

No pity from me. Dan's loss in court does not give him enough pay back for all the lies he has reported through the years! But then, what can one expect from the media folks who hate America and can't report the truth. It is just too bad that the Main Stream Media is overrun with folks like him who will not report the truth.

[xtinct]

d.r.o.p. .. k.i.c.k. ... score

[DeFault User]

This is really sad, Dan's suit dismissed. Why, with just a few more years languishing in the legal system, attorneys sparring, conferring, writing briefs, taking depositions, racking up an embarrassing number of billable hours; CBS and ol' Dan could both be filing for bankruptcy. Well, it was amusing while it lasted.