Days after Cronkite Passes with Little Notice from CBS, Rather Gets Discovery
One of the indignities of Walter Cronkite’s death on Friday was that CBS ignored his passing in favor of their regular crappy Friday night lineup. The many big names whom Cronkite had mentored instead appeared on the cable news shows to give Cronkite a proper tribute. And as reporter after reporter described Cronkite being cut from CBS, I couldn’t help but wish that Dan Rather (who of course was on the cable news paying tribute to Cronkite as well) would get discovery in his suit against CBS.
Today, the Judge in Rather’s suit ordered CBS to give Rather 3,000 documents.
Dan Rather won significant victories Tuesday in his suit against his former network, CBS. He won access to more than 3,000 documents that his lawyer said were expected to reveal evidence that CBS had tried to influence the outcome of a panel that investigated his much-debated “60 Minutes” report about former President George W. Bush’s military record.
Mr. Rather also won an appeal to restore a fraud charge against CBS that had been dismissed. Martin Gold, the lawyer representing the former anchor of the “CBS Evening News,” called it “a very successful day for us; we got everything.”
Mr. Rather called it a “good day” for his side and — referring to the name for the CBS headquarters — “a bad day for Black Rock.”
Jim Quinn, the lawyer representing CBS, called it “a minor skirmish in a long battle” and predicted that the fraud charge would be dismissed again because “it’s frivolous.”
CBS’ lawyer can scoff all he wants–the big point here was always to get discovery. Among other documents, Rather will get emails between CBS’s panel investigating Rather and the law firm CBS paid to investigate the TANG story, drafts of the investigative panel’s report, and separation agreements of a bunch of CBS employees who were silenced when they left the network.
Maybe I’m overly optimistic that these documents will reveal how CBS caved for the Bush Administration and in so doing sacrificed Rather. But it all does feel like CBS’s bad karma is catching up to it.
You are so unbelievable, EW! I was just dragging the link to the news article over here and you’ve already got a whole post on the subject. You are amazing.
These apparently minor breaks–technical courtrooom findings–are the stuff of history, are they not?
The history of the Bush administration is being “written” by the country’s judges, and it’s not any history that the Bushes have in mind!
No it was a very significant. And reinstatement of the fraud count bodes very well for getting a lot of the evidence Rather just obtained, and that he will get from leads from this set, into evidence at trial. A huge day.
At the very least, he’s making people who caved to BushCheney skirm.
I doubt this will ever lead to unearthing whoever set up the CBS crew with the Bush AWOL documents, but it will still unpeel some interesting things.
Gutsy of Rather to keep pushing it.
I didn’t say it right. My feeling is this: the courts, one case at a time, are writing the story. Rather’s case is huge; it’s also one of 10000 (to judge from the range of work being done on this excellent blog).
I like the way Rather didn’t, and doesn’t, roll over for CBS. They were very diligent at trashing a good man.
That’s great news. Maybe Rather’s lawyers need some help crawling through those weeds…
At least Rather hasn’t lost his sense of humor.
Sorry to go so off topic so early, but this is pretty hot.
“One big, tall Caucasian American”
A detainee who survived a massacre of Taliban prisoners is among those who claim there were American witnesses
By Mark Benjamin
July 22, 2009 | “Allegations of a massacre near Dasht-e-Leili, Afghanistan, by Taliban forces soon after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan began to surface during U.S. law enforcement interviews with detainees at Guantánamo. Roughly 10 detainees described similar stories of the mass killing in late 2001 by asphyxiation in shipping containers. Some detainees also alleged that U.S. forces stood by but did nothing to stop the massacre, though the number and specificity of those claims remains unclear. The document reprinted below, heavily redacted, records an interview with one detainee who reported seeing a “big, tall, caucasian [sic] American.” The Criminal Investigative Task Force, or “CITF,” named below refers to an investigative task force drawing on such agencies as the FBI, CID and NCIS.”
More.
Just posted.
Just saw it, too! You’re faster than greased lightening!
I wish Rather would talk with Mickey Herskowitz (sp?) who was asked by W to write his biography. Herskowitz’s notes and computer were yanked by W’s minders and given to Karen Hughes when they realized that their boy was spilling rather too many beans. Herskowitz says that W admitted to not fulfilling his TANG obligations, but that he had been – I can’t remember what term he used, but he indicated that it had been fixed in some way.
Gosh, karma can be a bitch, can’t she? Best of luck to Dan Rather…
And, to Walter Cronkite, thanks for the memories! Walter Cronkite was always the strong voice in our home, and I will always remember his inflections and nuances… I will miss him!
Please excuse this long post, but here is the interview with Herskowitz. I’ll bold the TANG portion. It is a fascinating article, if true.
Published on Thursday, October 28, 2004 by GNN.tv
Two Years Before 9/11, Candidate Bush was Already Talking Privately About Attacking Iraq, According to His Former Ghost Writer
by Russ Baker
HOUSTON — Two years before the September 11 attacks, presidential candidate George W. Bush was already talking privately about the political benefits of attacking Iraq, according to his former ghost writer, who held many conversations with then-Texas Governor Bush in preparation for a planned autobiography.
[edited for fair use]
According to Herskowitz, Bush was reluctant to discuss his time in the Texas Air National Guard – and inconsistent when he did so. Bush, he said, provided conflicting explanations of how he came to bypass a waiting list and obtain a coveted Guard slot as a domestic alternative to being sent to Vietnam. Herskowitz also said that Bush told him that after transferring from his Texas Guard unit two-thirds through his six-year military obligation to work on an Alabama political campaign, he did not attend any Alabama National Guard drills at all, because he was “excused.” This directly contradicts his public statements that he participated in obligatory training with the Alabama National Guard. Bush’s claim to have fulfilled his military duty has been subject to intense scrutiny; he has insisted in the past that he did show up for monthly drills in Alabama – though commanding officers say they never saw him, and no Guardsmen have come forward to accept substantial “rewards” for anyone who can claim to have seen Bush on base.
Herskowitz said he asked Bush if he ever flew a plane again after leaving the Texas Air National Guard in 1972 – which was two years prior to his contractual obligation to fly jets was due to expire. He said Bush told him he never flew any plane – military or civilian – again. That would contradict published accounts in which Bush talks about his days in 1973 working with inner-city children, when he claimed to have taken some of the children up in a plane.
~~~ModNote: In the future, copyrighted material needs to be limited to 200 words for FDL to remain within Fair Use guidelines. Thanks.~~~
oops, here was the paragraph I should have highlighted:
According to Herskowitz, Bush was reluctant to discuss his time in the Texas Air National Guard – and inconsistent when he did so. Bush, he said, provided conflicting explanations of how he came to bypass a waiting list and obtain a coveted Guard slot as a domestic alternative to being sent to Vietnam. Herskowitz also said that Bush told him that after transferring from his Texas Guard unit two-thirds through his six-year military obligation to work on an Alabama political campaign, he did not attend any Alabama National Guard drills at all, because he was “excused.” This directly contradicts his public statements that he participated in obligatory training with the Alabama National Guard. Bush’s claim to have fulfilled his military duty has been subject to intense scrutiny; he has insisted in the past that he did show up for monthly drills in Alabama – though commanding officers say they never saw him, and no Guardsmen have come forward to accept substantial “rewards” for anyone who can claim to have seen Bush on base.
Mod, I’m sorry, I posted the second one before I saw your note. Thanks for the cautionary advise. Victoria
I wonder if the reward offers still stands. Nine years and no one has come up with any evidence he finished his service obligation.
http://web.archive.org/web/200…..4023b.html
http://www.awolbush.com/
Great news. thanks ew/
Will Rather be able to assure Chuck Todd that he will only use the emails for good and that there won’t be any consequences that attach to their turnover?
Did the Judge even bother to seriously address the Todd Standard?
Did the Judge even bother to seriously address the Todd Standard?
{Snort!}
Maybe the appellate court will be more au courant…
Seriously, though, this is an irreversibly outstanding ruling, isn’t it? If the whole point was discovery, then there’s really nothing CBS can do to unfry the egg once Rather has the documents?
I think it’s pretty good – depending on what hasn’t been destroyed to date.
Another avenue worth exploring is that GWB was actually AWOL while living in Cambridge and attending Harvard Business School.
As for the Rather/CBS suit, do you think Mary Mapes or other CBS personnel were shown the real documents initially and then a fake was substituted. It has Rovian fingerprints on it if you look at history of creating fake controversies like the bugging of his own candidates office and the campaign ad that was supposedly “stolen” from a campaign office.
“Bad karma.” ABC is the worst of all on that count. Sorry for the slight diversion.
I met Dan Rather at a Harvard event a couple of years ago. Riding down in the elevator I compared his fight to John Henry Faulk’s, also a former CBS employee I do believe. Rather said he was flattered by the comparison.
My mother took me to Faulk’s trial to see the lawyer Louis Nizer work. It was the day one of the guys from Red Channels, the blacklisting magazine, was testifying. Nizer asked him about the notes he had been taking through the trial. The witness answered that he was, among other things, noting who sat next to Mrs Faulk. Nizer then asked him to point out Mrs Faulk and he pointed out a red-haired woman in the gallery. Nizer asked her to stand and tell the court who she was. She most emphatically was not married to John Henry Faulk.
Perry Mason couldn’t have done it better.
I hope Rather’s lawyer is just as good.
Rather’s lawyer, Marty Gold, is very good.
Wow, cool field trip that your mom took you on.
I was watching Rather on Rachel Madow the night Cronkite died. I noticed that the camera on Rather kept pulling to a profile view and sometimes cut away from him. And then that soft Texas voice seemed to fail at the end of an answer to one of Rachel’s questions…
And I realized Dan Rather was crying.