Dan Rather’s Lawsuit Shows Role of G.O.P. in Inquiry

[spanone]

When Dan Rather filed suit against CBS 14 months ago — claiming, among other things, that his former employer had commissioned a politically biased investigation into his work on a “60 Minutes” segment about President Bush’s National Guard service — the network predicted the quick and favorable dismissal of the case, which it derided as “old news.”

So far, Mr. Rather has spent more than $2 million of his own money on the suit. And according to documents filed recently in court, he may be getting something for his money.

Using tools unavailable to him as a reporter — including the power of subpoena and the threat of punishment against witnesses who lie under oath — he has unearthed evidence that would seem to support his assertion that CBS intended its investigation, at least in part, to quell Republican criticism of the network.

Among the materials that money has shaken free for Mr. Rather are internal CBS memorandums turned over to his lawyers, showing that network executives used Republican operatives to vet the names of potential members of a panel that had been billed as independent and charged with investigating the “60 Minutes” segment.

Mr. Rather attracted the ire of Republican bloggers and talk radio in particular after the segment, which was broadcast on a weekday edition of “60 Minutes” in September 2004. It purported to have unearthed evidence about favorable treatment extended to President Bush during his Vietnam-era service in the Texas Air National Guard.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/business/media/17rather.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

[Wapsie B]

1. The truth about this story will come out after * leaves office.

The reason the rwingers were swarming over Rather like they did was due to the fact that the gop couldn't afford to have the real story out there. There is no way they could have the AWOL story damage their hopes for a 2nd term for *. But now, the story will be allowed to come out. We'll be able to say I told you so to the staunch low-information gopers we know. However they will have already moved on. It'll be irrelevant to them.

[spanone]

2. it won't be irrelevant to rather....i imagine at the least he'll write a book on it....

[Warpy]

3. I think it goes farther back than that

all the way to a contentious interview with Poppy in 1988 featuring raised voices and which was aired in its embarrassing entirety. I think that made him a target of that family.

The whole thing had "vendetta" written all over it and went beyond removing an inconvenient newsman.

[glitch]

7. That is what they are all about.

Just be glad you aren't like them, must be a miserable existence that wealth and power can't cure.

[unpossibles]

4. We can say "I told you so"

But they won't believe it, listen, or otherwise learn from it anymore than the people who still claim that a WMD program was found in Iraq or that Hussein was behind 9/11.

Facts don't seem to matter to those people.

[Wapsie B]

5. That's right facts don't matter to them.

Those that do believe the story will shrug their shoulders saying, "Well, both sides are crooked," and leave it at that, rationalizing their continued support of the gop in a myriad of ways.

[H2O Man]

6. Interesting.

Important, too.

Thank you for posting this.

Nominated.

[spanone]

8. thank you