Dan Rather's Lawyer: This Is Not a Defamation Claim

Last week, lawyers for CBS filed a motion to dismiss Dan Rather’s $70 million civil lawsuit against them in New York State Supreme Court.

One of their arguments is that Mr. Rather is essentially bringing a defamation charge against the network. Yesterday we caught up with Mr. Rather's lawyer, Martin Gold.

“What they’re saying is that a claim for damage to reputation is a claim to defamation,” he said. “There’s no other way in the world of CBS that someone can hurt someone’s reputation other than defaming them. But defamation is making a false statement about somebody, which damages their reputation. We haven’t alleged false statements that they’ve made about Dan … What we’ve alleged is a scheme.”

We'll have more from Mr. Gold in tomorrow's NYTV column.