Yes, He's Still Rather Dumb...

Dan Ra^ther is suing CBS because he says, they made him a Scapegoat.

"Mr. Ra^ther, 75, asserts that the network violated his contract by giving him insufficient airtime on “60 Minutes” after forcing him to step down as anchor of the “CBS Evening News” in March 2005. He also contends that the network committed fraud by commissioning a “biased” and incomplete investigation of the flawed Guard broadcast and, in the process, “seriously damaged his reputation.”

Dan Ra^ther can try rewriting history all he likes, but the fact of the matter is that this is dredging up a 3 year old story to try to milk it for some extra bucks. After all, if it worked for Don Imus, and CBS did finally agree to settle with him, then maybe it will work for Dan Ra^ther as well. The problem is that Don Imus had a case. It was written into his employment contract with CBS that he be outrageous and say provocative things. Dan Ra^ther had no such contract with CBS giving him the journalistic license to air stories against sitting presidents that he could not verify.

This was not the first time Dan Ra^ther foisted untrue information to his viewing public. In 1988, CBS aired an hour long documentary in which Dan Ra^ther interviewed men who said they had committed various atrocities in Vietnam. The documentary, titled The War Within was later proved to be almost completely false by B G Burkett, a Vietnam veteran and author of the book Stolen Valor, How The Vietnam Generation Was Robbed Of Its Heroes and Its History All of the information Ra^ther used in putting together the damning documentary against Vietnam veterans could have been easily verified under information provided by The Freedom Of Information Act. Ra^ther chose not to bother with fact checking.

Which is exactly the same tactic he used in accusing President George Bush of receiving special treatment while he served in the Texas National Guard. Only this time the internet was a functioning tool in preventing such libelous stories from going unchecked. Dan got caught with his lies hanging out all over the place, and he received exactly what he deserved -- to lose his job as a "respected" (that word has ceased to have much meaning any longer) journalist and to have his reputation destroyed.

Now Ra^ther has decided to go the crybaby route and try to squeeze some money out of CBS and his immediate superiors at the time of the scandal which brought him down. It will be interesting to see how on earth Dan intends to go about making his case.

As Dan himself once said, "If a rooster squawks, don't be too quick to strangle him. He might be trying to tell you something." That old rooster might just be telling Dan to sit down and STFU; he's making a fool of himself.