Return to Rathergate

TheHill.com

Byron York

This has been O.J. week on cable TV. But the most interesting story out of the courts — and the world of TV news — is Dan Rather v. CBS Corporation, Viacom Inc., Leslie Moonves, Sumner Redstone and Andrew Heyward.

Rather, the former anchor of the CBS Evening News, is still really, really mad about losing his job in the wake of the George W. Bush/Air National Guard/phony documents story. And now he is telling his version of events in the form of a $70 million lawsuit against his former employers.

You remember the story. Aired at the height of the 2004 presidential campaign, Rather reported that Bush received preferential treatment to get into the Guard during the Vietnam era.

Rather based his conclusions on newly discovered documents purporting to prove that preferential treatment.

Of course, it turned out the documents were phony, or at least impossible to verify. CBS retracted the story, and Rather apologized.

Now Rather is making some rather astonishing allegations.

First, he claims that, after the report stirred controversy, top CBS management conducted a sham investigation of the story for the purpose of making sure that damaging information about George W. Bush be kept secret.

“CBS announced that it was conducting a thorough independent investigation into the underlying story of the broadcast and its production,” the lawsuit says, “when in fact its intention was to conduct a biased investigation with controlled timing and predetermined conclusions in order to prevent further information concerning Bush’s Texas Air National Guard service from being uncovered.”

This fake investigation, Rather charges, was done so that CBS could “pacify the White House” by making Rather the “scapegoat” of what would become known as Rathergate.

Rather also reveals that while all this was going on, he strongly believed in the Bush story — he apparently still does — and threatened to hire his own private investigator to keep looking into it.

CBS, according to Rather, then hired its own private eye, whom Rather says came to the conclusion that “the [documents] were most likely authentic, and that the underlying story was certainly accurate.” But Rather alleges that CBS — not wanting to do anything to hurt the Bush White House — kept the investigator’s findings under wraps.

Perhaps you were unaware of CBS News’s unwavering support of George W. Bush. I certainly was. I would bet that the White House was, too.

In any event, Rather alleges, CBS bigwigs forced him to apologize, even though he believed no apology was necessary.

Finally, according to Rather, on Nov. 3, 2004 — the day after Bush was reelected — CBS told Rather he “was being terminated as anchor of the CBS Evening News.”

Rather’s move wasn’t made public until weeks later, when it was cast as his own decision, one made apart from the Bush/Air National Guard controversy.

Will this end up in a courtroom? It’s hard to say.

But CBS will have to defend itself, even if the case only reaches preliminary skirmishes.

And what interesting skirmishes they might be.

On one side, you’ll have Dan Rather arguing that the CBS News Bush Air National Guard report was legitimate.

And on the other side you’ll have CBS News arguing that the CBS News Bush Air National Guard report was … well, not legitimate.

CBS management will have to argue what nearly everyone, except Dan Rather, knows: that the Bush report was no good, that it should never have been broadcast, and that CBS made a mistake by airing it.

Now that will be a story.