Dan Rather Trial: Les Moonves, Andrew Heyward Scheduled To Testify, Sumner Redstone Also Expected

New York Times:

The chief executive of CBS and the former president of CBS News have agreed to answer questions from lawyers for Dan Rather, who has accused the network of violating his contract by giving him little to do after forcing him off the "CBS Evening News" in 2005.

Lawyers in the case told a New York State Supreme Court judge, Ira Gammerman, late Wednesday, that Andrew Heyward, the former president of CBS News, will give a deposition in late July, and Leslie Moonves, the chief of CBS, would do so in September. Mr. Rather is also seeking to depose Sumner Redstone, the executive chairman of CBS.

Among other claims Mr. Rather is seeking to prove is that CBS mishandled his removal from the anchor chair he had held for nearly a quarter century in the fallout over a September 2004 report for the weeknight edition of "60 Minutes." The report, for which Mr. Rather had served as a correspondent, sought to raise new questions about whether President Bush had received preferential treatment during his Vietnam-era service in the National Guard. After bloggers in particular raised questions about the veracity of the documents that had been used to support the report, CBS said it could not verify their authenticity.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[Eric8869]

The fact is that the documents were only a piece of that report on Bush's national guard service. The report had severel interviews with people saying they had never seen him serve.

If CBS had any balls they would have said "we had a report with documents that we can't prove the legitimacy of but we stand by the rest of our report".

I would have taken it further and RERUN the report without the documents.

CBS caving in and firing rather is just shameful all around. When a government controls the media WATCH OUT!

[MissingAmerica]

We all know that Dan Rather was another victim of the Bush lies, and one of the few to live through it. I always respected his integrity as a newsman and a human being, and do to this day. When he was terminated, there was no question that the Bush lies were behind it and that nobody was asking the right questions. I would ask how Bush and his gang can sleep at night, but I guess it's easy to do when you have no conscience, no heart and no soul.

I hope this trial brings the justice for Mr. Rather that he deserves, and I really hope that it starts bringing to Bush and his cronies the justice they deserve. THAT is something I want to live to see!

[quoveritas]

I fail to see why the most important question was never posed to the Bush Administration: How did you know the document(s) Mr. Rather presented were not originals?

uhhh.....because we have them locked away (illegally) and no one has access....­.eehhem...­.because we just know!

Rather did a hit piece on Bush, then Bush did a hit piece on Rather. In the end, we found out who was more powerful than whom. Didn't we?

[bayside]

Thank you Dan. When all other media cowered in their corners, afraid of what the cons would do to them or their loved ones if they investigated, you didnt flinch..We owe you for standing up to them, abu graib pictures, national guard AWOL, etc. I cannot think of one instance the cons have told us the truth but have seen many in the media that have covered up for them..They should be ashamed..You reap what you sow...They wont get away with it....There is a special place in heaven for you, We used to have more like you..Thanks Dan..

[kassandrasduplex]

And the false meme continues: Dan Rather forged documents.
And the truth, that the Bush Administration used PROVEN forgeries to convince the world that Saddam Hussein was trying to buy Nigerian uranium...well, that just isn't in the public consciousness. Isn't modern propaganda wonderful? Repitition, omission, distortion. All centrally controlled by a handful of colluding media executives.
And let me repeat once again, the CBS Air Texas National Guard memos used in Dan Rather's report WERE NEVER PROVEN TO BE FORGERIES. The Thornburg Report did not attempt to and did not prove them so.
But the Bush Niger uranium documents WERE proven forgeries and that story is lost to the memory hole.

[rwe]

Rathers downfall was his fake report which was NEVER proven true... Prograssivelibs have spewed the falsehood that rather was correct as much as they have about the Swift Boat charges being false,, Repeating these false hoods as often as possible does not make them true

[RoloTomassi]

And neither does your repeating of the same GOP BS defense; just because they can't be backed up by a paper trail [likely destroyed on purpose] doesn't mean he was wrong in his assertion about Dubbya--it's merely inconclusive--you rethugs don't mind that concept, as long as it's working for you and not against you.

And while I was no big Kerry fan, the Swift Boat crap was indeed crap, and you know it.

[Hopeforward]

"Fake"? those documents have never been porven to have been fake. In fact, the interview with Marian Carr Knox was very interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rathergate

CBS interviewed Marian Carr Knox, a secretary at Ellington Air Force from 1956–1979 and Killian's assistant on the dates of the memos. Although Knox felt the memos reflected the truth about Bush's alleged service failures,[89] she also stated she did not type the memos, they were not written by Killian, and that she had no firsthand knowledge of Bush's time in the Guard.[91] Knox said, "The information in here was correct, but it was picked up from the real ones," she said. "I probably typed the information and somebody picked up the information some way or another."[92] The New York Times' headline, including the phrase "Fake but Accurate," became a widely-used derisive comment from right-leaning critics of CBS

[ohmercy]

Good Luck DAN!@
I hope you knock them on their butts.

I sure wish I could hear you say one of your ratherism's about it!
;-)

I love Dan and really miss him.
He was the best. I doubt I've watched Network News a half dozen times since he's been gone--though cable news is becoming so absurd I think I'll have to go back.

Damn IO hope he gives them hell.

[lthuedk 1]

Fascism took the White House. CBS responded.

Thanks, Dan.

[NTO08]

GO, Dan, Go...

Kick those lying sack of sh--ts to the curb...

Take THAT, neocon trash!

[dr4Will]

Go get them Dan--they are just political hacks for bush and have little integrity for media CEO's

[DMcD]

I hope they have to eat their shorts for not standing behind this , the last true MSM "journalist" --and-- for injecting Ms.Cutesie in his place (no comparison).

[soundfury]

I don't give a sheet whether it has been proven genuine or not. This man and others at CBS did not deserve to lose their jobs over the goon in the WH. Who is not convinced that the goon found some way through his daddy's connections to avoid Vietnam, while his opponent risked his life? The one who deserved to lose his job was the goon GWB.

[Ramirez]

Dan Rather and his crew felt the same way you do, but unfortunately their hatred got in the way of their professionalism and clouded their judgement. There are hundreds of ways to lay down a television hit piece without making stuff up and a hundred ways to spin your way out when you get caught. But they blew it like amateurs.

The result: the president was reelected and Dan Rather is out of a job.

[Ergon]

Subsequent research showed Rather got it right.
He hardly ever reported for duty with the National Guard.

[Tommygun264]

While I believe it is high time for Dan Rather to get the record set straight, even if he is 100% successful in his lawsuit against CBS, this is only a civil matter and it will do nothing to correct the greatest injustice - the one perpetrated against the American public. The CBS executives in question will probably never be brought to justice with regard to their roll in orchestrating a propaganda campaign which helped to produce an election with such a razor thin margin between the two candidates, that it allowed the dozens of cases of small-time election fraud - 10,000 votes switched here, 50,000 ballots lost there - succeeded in influencing the outcome of the election, thereby allowing an incompetent head of a thoroughly corrupt administration to continue to drain our national treasury into the pockets of his political cronies and war profiteers for another four years.

[whiteboyblues]

No worries CBS execs, just claim executive privileges, then leave the country for an extended stay abroad. Works for our Government, should work just fine for you guys too!

[abouttime]

"Among the claims in Mr. Rather’s original lawsuit, filed in September, is that the network committed fraud by commissioning a “biased” and incomplete investigation of the National Guard broadcast in order to “pacify the White." --- NYT

The fraud commited was by the opposition to the proof of letter outlinning Bush's AWOL and special elitist treatment in avoiding his commitment to serving in the military. There is no doubt about these provable facts. The infamous letter that cost jobs of CBS employees was investigated by government panel. They could not prove, and contrary to news and blog reports, DID NOT proove the letter was forged. That the White House interfered with CBS is also a fact.
The trial will not be televised.
Rather is my hero and deserves compensation from the CENSORS for the smear on his reputation.

[Ramirez]

It is the responsibility of Dan Rather to prove the document is genuine, not the responsibility of bloggers to prove it is false.

[azureblue]

In light of the fact that the report has been proven to be true, I doubt CBS has much of a leg to stand on.

[Ramirez]

The document was never proven to be true.

[NTO08]

False...Bush was a liar...always has been.