CBS Will Get to Keep Documents of Interest in Dan Rather Suit Away from the Public; But Redstone Must Speak!
Dan Rather and his lawyers were back in a Lower Manhattan courthouse late Wednesday afternoon for yet another round in Mr. Rather's ongoing $70 million civil lawsuit against his former employers.
Over the course of a 45-minute hearing in front of Justice Ira Gammerman, tempers occasionally flared as the lawyers for both sides argued over a number of issues, ranging from the scheduling of depositions to the transparency of the discovery process.
On the latter issue, Mr. Rather and his lawyers petitioned the justice to release a number of key documents turned up in discovery. Mr. Rather's lead attorney, Marty Gold, suggested to Justice Gammerman that the documents, if released, would help refute CBS's repeated, public characterization of Mr. Rather's claims in the suit as a fantasy. He said that of the thousands of documents handed over by CBS, Mr. Rather would like to give the public access to roughly 10.
But the justice was unmoved. He reiterated that while he had no intention of imposing a gag order in the case, he considered the request to release the documents a distraction. He said he would continue to uphold CBS's request to keep the documents from discovery out of the public eye.
"We think the cat's already of out of the bag," said Mr. Gold.
"We can close the bag now," responded Judge Gammerman.
Judge Gammerman noted that eventually everything will come out to the public if the case goes to trial, as early as this November.
The other thorny question was about who should get deposed for this suit; in the process, it became clear who has delivered depositions already.
"Our position is that Sumner Redstone should not be deposed in this case," a lawyer for CBS told the judge in another part of the arguments yesterday afternoon.
Judge Gammerman was again unmoved, and said that he was inclined to order the deposition of Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone but would wait until the other depositions had taken place before ruling on CBS's objection.
Throughout the course of the hearing, it became much more clear for the first time who has already been deposed in the case, and who will be deposed in the coming months. According to proceedings today, Mr. Rather has already been deposed; so, too, former F.B.I. agent and Navy aviator Erik T. Rigler. Former CBS News president Andrew Heyward, on the other hand, is tentatively scheduled to be deposed on July 29th and 30th. Ditto CBS president Leslie Moonves, who is penciled in for a deposition on Sept. 24th.
Others who will be deposed according to today's hearing:
- Jeffrey Fager, 60 Minutes executive producer
- Gil Schwartz, CBS executive vice president, communications
- Sandy Genelius, spokesperson for CBS News
- Linda Mason, CBS News senior vice president, standards and special projects
- Patti Hassler, CBS News executive editor of 60 Minutes Global
fyi
Go get 'em Dan.
Wonder what CBS is trying to hide? Imagine a NEWS ORGANIZATION arguing to keep things from the public. The hypocrisy is too rich to pass by.
Why is this walking, lying sleazeball suing CBS? It should be the other way around.
We can only hope that this will all be laid out for us and made clear on a 60 minutes piece.
Dan has got the legacy rehab team in full swing. Sorry Dan - nothing will rewrite the fact that you could not overcome your zeal to discredit a president you despised. Fake documents and a rush to press are not good or ethical journalism. And you deserved to be terminated from CBS.
"Thomas says: We can only hope that this will all be laid out for us and made clear on a 60 minutes piece."
- Yes with supporting documents presented as "fake but accurate"
Maybe old king breaker Dan will win and W will slap him with a suit for slandering his TANG service. What goes around ,comes aroung. Rather should have seen that by now.
I think they're all a bunch of liars! CBS supported the story (BIG NEWS) and Dan Rather was already a falling star. We hear very little about the case in the news these days. If Bush or one of his subordinates got a parking ticket there'd be Headlines galore.
Let me guess the documents will say that they were happy to dump him and glad he cut his own rope, they will probably even use some disparaging language about him. These bad corporation coming down on his poor man what is he to do? It wasn't his fault he single handedly wrecked his career.
Rather needs to be slapped. He is the definition of the worse kind of anchor - his ego grew too large for his own good, and he felt he owned the news to tell it as he saw fit, rather than as an objective reporter of the facts. I hope this case is thrown out, all the dirt comes out, and this senile bag of hot wind is shown to be the biased scum that we all know he is - a second rate hack who never deserved to be on the air at all.
That would be hilarious, to see docs on a 60 minute piece labelled false but accurate!
I have just received an offer from Lucy Ramirez to turn over thousands of CBS internal documents, I will be meeting with her at Kinky Friedman's place next week, she suggested Kinko's Copy Center but I think some of Bush's buddies are watching the place.
fyi, aluminum foil is on sale at all Wal-Marts this week, stock up before the NSA increases the voltage on their Echelon satellite brain-wave surveillance system. Lucy told me about that too.
And Dan? TRUST NOBODY with a stutter that sounds like the ignition circuit on a '57 Chevy Belair on the side of the road with rust showing through all four hubcaps and armadillos living in the back seat, ok? (to everybody else, that was a coded message, don't try to decipher it)
Disrespectfully Yours,
Billy :|
That would be hilarious, to see docs on a 60 minute piece labelled false but accurate!
Geez, Rather could have saved some money by getting Bill Clinton and Jesse Jackson to chip in and make it a "legacy rehab class action lawsuit". What's the common thread between lawyers, Rather, Clinton, and Jackson? Lying! It would be like a perpetual motion machine...priceless!
(Rather needs to be slapped)
Agreed.
Dirty Dan had been "aching for a breaking for a long time.
Here's the thing - in legal proceedings, the goal is to try the matter in a COURT OF LAW, not the COURT of PUBLIC OPINION. Typically, when documents are leaked as part of your trial strategy, the goal is to sway the potential jury pool to your side, NOT impart impartial information the general public has an overriding interest in knowing.
Makes me think Mr. Rather's Dream Team would prefer to taint the jury pool as soon as possible and THEN move forward with the case.
This is what CBS deserves for promoting and protecting this lunatic over the decades. If Roger Mudd had succeeded Cronkite in 1981, as he was supposed to, things would have been very different. The management of CBS has much to answer for--but not on Rather's behalf.
come on dan, give us all the docs...So your crack former team can fill a commercial free 60 minutes! Or do you only approve fake documents to be given to the unwashed masses??? You are such an aragant hypocrite. My prediction Dan's just in it for the money and will settle to keep these docs private. Then our only hope of uncovering the truth will be 48 Hours.
Dan Rather is a great man and his credibility has been tarnished for political reasons. None of the neocons had any problem with Mr. Rather when he risked life and limb to cover the Afghanistan VS. USSR war circa 1980's. It could be argues that Dan Rather's newscasts served to support the neocons secret funding of the Taliban as well. You Fox network sycophantic propaganda spinning morons are truly astonishingly unpatriotic in your zeal to discredit Mr. Rather using FOX/Republican talking points. Isn't the TRUTH good enough?
CBS is Rather biased...
I was in the Air Force for 28 years, and we didn't use the memo format (that was supposedly used about Bush) until the 90s. Such fraud should, indeed, be punished. There is a major difference in reporting the news and making up the news to suit your own biases and axes to grind...
I am 100% with Tom's comments Rather hated Bush so much he could not wait to come out with this discredited smear have seen him twice on msnbc's morning show. Dan hang it up!! you are finished.
I hope Dan blows CBS out of the water. The big networks need to be taken down several notches.
Go Danno!!!!
Too bad the rules aren't "loser pays". That way, when Dan Blather loses this second lawsuit, he would have to pay CBS lawyers, all court costs, deposition costs, the whole enchilada. Maybe that will show those in the media what will happen if they make up stories and phony documents regarding a president.
He should have quit yearsd ago. It is amazing that people fall for the old BS that is always lying around. Rather needs to be institutionalizes for being such an idiot. Yeah Bush aint great, but making up the news??? Come on, my 2 year old knows better. It is called lying. He needs to go.
Oh come on, Kermit. The same can be said about McCain and his time in Viet Nam. He too put his life on the line. But that doesn't make him perpetually a truthful person. Admit it, Rather is and always has been an arrogant, self centered news anchor that has always persued the presence of any given Democrat with some power. You know, as all of us do, Rather Lather hates GWB and was trying to take him down any way that he could.
nuf said.
Dan Rather should be referred to as, "Dan Rather, the disgraced former journalist." He has always insisted upon a one-dimensional view of Richard Nixon, most often referring to him as, "the disgraced former president." That he would consistently and cavalierly, over decades demonstrate such bias and venom towards Nixon, is clear proof that he never has been a reliable source for news. Rather most often fails to provide reasonable context in his coverage, whatever he claims to be covering. He's a melodramatic showman with little ability to calibrate his emotions or opionions in a reasonable manner. I'll always remember his hysterical reports from Myrtle Beach, several years ago, warning of the monster hurricase that would devestate the South Carolina coast. He was wrong, then, as usual. What he may have believed about George "W" Bush and his crafty, cynical avoidance of real military service and action may very well have been true. But, his obvious, zealous manipulations in trying to put forth
his beliefs, short of having the actual proof, shows how Rather's bias makes him unworthy of being considered a "journalist."
Producer Mary Mapes, who dug up this turd of a story, HATED President Bush. She's a left-wing liberal to the core. This was her effort to get John Kerry get elected. Rather has a well know personal hatred for the entire Bush clan. No one at CBS, and I mean no, had the balls to stand up to Rather and Mapes. If anyone had, their careers would have ended. When you saw them walk down the hallway, you moved out of the way. Even Andrew Heyward, President of CBS News at the time, kept his mouth shut and hid in his office, sending emails to cover his ass. CBS News has still not recovered from the Rather/Mapes damage. Lots of decent people, including most of 60 Minutes II employess, lost their jobs because of Rather and Mapes. GO AWAY DAN and take that old hag Mapes with you. You made millions and millions of dollars and left a path of destruction that destroyed the lifes of a lot of fine people along the way. It nice to see that CBS lawyers are fighting this one, for a change. Rather's lawsuit is baseless and insulting. CBS stockholders should be suing Rather and Mapes for all the damage they caused.
CBS and Rather deserve each other. Neither has much respect deserved in my eyes.
The pompous arrogance of News in general and Rather in particular appalls me. News departments not wanting to release documents is comical as they are always filing FOIA's against anyone that seeks privacy. On the other hand, if Rather was anyone else but Dan Rather and reported a story based on lies he would be fired immediately (this would be true in the business world as well) no questions asked and would probably loose any chance at working in the media again. Instead he is hailed as a martyr for news. No wonder media outlets are loosing viewers and readers by the droves. Edward R. Murrow must be spinning like a top in his grave.