The Dan Rather is out for blood in lawsuit against CBS

I like Dan Rather, and it is clear that CBS gave him a raw deal. I can remember him covering Hurricane Carla for Houston Channel 11 in the early 1960's, and he has covered important stories ever since. I also think CBS gave him the raw deal because they were giving the American public a raw deal and Dan refused to go along with them. So I am delighted that he is now suing CBS. A lot of people don't understand that this is going to be so much more than just a lawsuit.

Kevin Drum said something really stupid about the Rather-CBS lawsuit the other day.

Rather is getting some very, very bad advice here. What he should be hoping for is that this entire incident sinks slowly and quietly out of sight. Instead, he's decided to reignite public interest in it by filing a lawsuit arguing that he was just reading from a script and never did anything wrong. This is not going to do wonders for his reputation.

Or in other words, Dan isn't going to win this lawsuit so it is just going to look bad for him to try. Drum's advice to Dan? Shut up and move on.

I'll agree that Dan isn't likely to actually win the lawsuit, although this is a suit over CBS' failure to live up to their contract - it will be easier to win that Westmoreland's libel suit a few decades ago. But I don't think winning the law suit is really what Dan sees as "winning." I think he is out to expose CBS and Bush for the liars and scam artists they are.

What happened is that Bush scammed the American public in 2000 and since, and that CBS was complicit in the scam. Dan tried to expose a major element of the scam (Bush's failed Air National Guard stint and its cover up) and when he did, the Bush administration put pressure on CBS to cover it up - and they did. They smeared Dan and fired him for attempting to present what should have been the most important news story in 2004.

When the Bush administration and CBS did that they created a dangerous enemy. Dan has had a long, proud career as a CBS newsman. That's over. Now he is an independent journalist who is going to take down George Bush and the CBS News managers who made him their enemy. Since Dan no longer has the CBS News anchor desk as a platform, he has chosen to use his reputation and the law courts to present the story to the American public. Those slimeballs are going to be exposed.

I'm sure that Dan will be pleased if he also wins the lawsuit, but I strongly doubt that is how he will measure winning. If he were just going to go after CBS for breach of contract, he could have started the lawsuit a couple of years ago. I suspect that he knew who he was after and that he has been researching them since he left CBS, and only just now filed the lawsuit because he has his ducks in a row and because the Bush administration is at it's nadir and is especially vulnerable, while CBS has committed suicide as a news organization as demonstrated by the utter idiocy of hiring Katy Couric as a news anchor.

Bush and CBS created their own worst enemy. They are both drowning, and Dan Rather is handing them an anchor.

It has already started. Greg Sargent at TPM Muckraker has been going through the filings of the lawsuit and has already begun reporting on how the CBS executives held up and tried to kill the reporting of Abu Ghraib. Go read it.

Here is what Greg Sargent gleaned from page 11 of the complaint in the lawsuit:

38. In late April 2004, Mr. Rather, as Correspondent, and Mary Mapes, a veteran producer, broke a news story of national urgency on 60 Minutes II — the abuse by American military personnel of Iraqi prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison. The story, which included photographs of the abusive treatment of prisoners, consumed American news media for many months.

39. Despite the story's importance, and because of the obvious negative impact the story would have on the Bush administration with which Viacom and CBS wished to curry favor, CBS management attempted to bury it. As a general rule, senior executives of CBS News do not take a hands-on role in the editing and vetting of a story. However, CBS News President Andrew Heyward and Senior Vice President Betsy West were involved intimately in the editing and vetting process of the Abu Ghraib story. However, for weeks, they refused to grant permission to air the story, continuously insisting that it lacked sufficient substantiation. As Mr. Rather and Ms. Mapes provided each requested verification, Mr. Heyward and Ms. West continued to "raise the goalposts," insisting on additional substantiation.

40. Even after obtaining nearly a dozen, now notorious, photographs, which made it impossible to deny the accuracy of the story, Mr. Heyward and Ms. West continued to delay the story for an additional three weeks. This delay was, in part, occasioned by acceding to pressures brought to bear by government officials urging CBS to drop the story or at least delay it. As a part of that pressure, Mr. Rather received a personal telephone call from General Richard B. Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, urging him to delay the story.

41. Only after it became apparent that, due to the delay, sources were talking to other news organizations and that CBS would be "scooped," Mr. Heyward and Ms. West approved the airing of the story for April 28, 2004. Even then, CBS imposed the unusual restrictions that the story would be aired only once, that it would not be preceded by on-air promotion, and that it would not be referenced on the CBS Evening News.
[highlighting mine - Edotor WTF-o.]

Remember those names.

• CBS News President Andrew Heyward and
• Senior Vice President Betsy West

Those people are dangerous right-wing fanatics who are working to turn America into an authoritarian state, one in which they can personally exert more power and make more money.

The lawsuit has started. The people it is aimed at are some of the most disgusting and dangerous people in America, and they are about to be named and exposed and they own the Republican Party. So get ready for the fireworks. Real Americans are really going to enjoy the show as the conservatives and their fellow-travelers get their heads handed to them.