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

Let me suggest that it is what happens in the ninth inning that counts, not what happens before the ninth inning that counts...

"freeisbest" <demeter547opine@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:9bd58316-8540-4b78-927b-74398cd5a3bd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/business/media/17rather.html?em

November 17, 2008
Rather’s Lawsuit Shows Role of G.O.P. in Inquiry
By JACQUES STEINBERG

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.

The network eventually responded to its critics by saying it could no
longer vouch for the authenticity of the documents on which the report
had been based. The network also commissioned an investigation led by
*** Thornburgh, a prominent Republican and former United States
attorney general, and Louis D. Boccardi, a former chief executive of
The Associated Press, not so much to verify the documents, but to
determine how the segment got on the air.

In its final report, which was issued in January 2005, the panel cited
a breakdown in standards by CBS in rushing the Bush segment onto the
air but found no evidence of liberal bias in CBS’s preparation of the
segment.
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