Dan Rather Gets Discovery-CBS LAWSUIT-Moves Forward

[kpete]

Dan Rather Gets Discovery
By: emptywheel Wednesday January 9, 2008 8:52 pm

Great news. Dan Rather will join the 5,732 other people (in addition to the American public as a whole, of course) who have a legal claim to see all those emails the White House has already disappeared (h/t pontificator). The judge in Rather's lawsuit has decided to grant him discovery for his lawsuit.

It Just Happened
1/ 9/087:35 PM
Don't Bet the Trailer Money Yet: Rather Lawsuit Moves Forward

Breaking: It looks like former CBS News anchor Dan Rather will indeed get his day in court. On Wednesday evening Justice Ira Gammerman of the New York Supreme Court in Manhattan made a preliminary ruling denying the TV network's motion to dismiss Rather's $70 million lawsuit. "I think discovery should go forward," said Gammerman. Rather's suit, you'll recall, claims CBS unfairly shuffled him off the air after that infamous 60 Minutes Wednesday story about Bush's performance (or lack thereof) in the Texas National Guard. Rather alleges that being shown the door was just the network's misguided attempt to placate the White House and shield CBS's then-parent company Viacom from political fallout. You know, the usual reasons for dismissal from a high-profile media job.

Now that the case will be moving forward, Rather's lawyer Marty Gold wants CBS to start forking over internal emails and documents to prove his case, including exchanges between network brass and the White House. Naturally, this has CBS lawyers asking the court to limit the scope of the discovery. "It seems pretty clear they don't want to produce (the documents)," said Gold.

more at:
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/01/photo_getty_imagesbreaking_it.html

State Secrets? The White House would have to claim that CBS was party to its biggest secrets, thereby proving that CBS is nothing but a party propaganda organ. Though of course, that's effectively what they've said about Judy Judy Judy, both before and during Iraq.

Executive Privilege? For a case intimately involving whether Bush cheated his way out of military service? It doesn't matter who it is, they're not going to want to admit that anyone close enough to invoke privilege was "deliberating" about those TANG documents.

Which pretty much leaves the last refuge of the Bush Administration: the dog ate my emails. All of them.

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/

[OneGrassRoot]

1. There is tremendous potential in the Dan Rather saga, IMHO...

to FINALLY EXPOSE B*shco and the complicity of Corporate Media.

He is an investigative journalist, a dinosaur these days, and still has a lot of fight in him based on what I've seen/read of late.

Help us reclaim your reputation and, in turn, our democracy, Mr. Rather!

:kick:

[H2O Man]

2. Great!

Fasten your seltbelts, CBS.

[ThomWV]

3. The claim will be that CBS is part of the Executive Branch and thus deserving of immunity.

Nothing to see here, move on.

[rocktivity]

4. On the tails of the controversy around the coverage of the Dem primaries

this could really be significant. Cue the Vonage theme!

:woohoo:
rocknation

[blondeatlast]

5. YES! I'm ready for a good ol' showdown flick. Pass the popcorn and GO, GO, GO,

Dan Rather!

'Bout damn time the good guys WIN! :popcorn:

[NoFederales]

6. Recommended.

NoFederales

[DemReadingDU]

7. Great news!

Go Dan Go!

[helderheid]

8. GO DAN!

[bluesmail]

9. Oh Happy Day

A story to get my mood up there as I go out the door to work.

[sendero]

10. My first huge grin of the day..

... this could be real trouble for people who richly deserve to be in real trouble.

Go Dan!

[bleever]

11. Excellent news.

:kick: for Dan Rather.

[judaspriestess]

12. Good Luck Dan

[pacalo]

13. What makes this hopeful & very interesting is that there are 2 parties with e-mails to fork over.

If the dog could eat all of the e-mails at the White House, would it fly if CBS turned in the same excuse?

[DCKit]

14. Yeah, and they're going to blame that pile on the carpet on the dog too.

In my opinion CBS isn't even the worst of the bunch and this is going to put the fear of God into more than one Defense/Broadcasting/Tobacco/Liquor/Publishing/
Healthcare/Insurance/Communications multi-national mega-corp monopoly.

Go get 'em Dan.

[spotbird]

15. I will always wonder why

Dan didn't do this sooner.

Great news, anyway. Dan had better stay out of small planes.

[malaise]

16. This should be fun

Go Dan!

[Dawggie]

17. K&R, Good luck, Dan! But please keep doing Dan Rather Reports

Best News show out there!

[HCE SuiGeneris]

18. Investigation number 4813, and counting...

Damn that stupid disappearing table.

K & R

[elizfeelinggreat]

19. hooray!

[Elspeth]

20. Woohoo!!!!!!!

Go DAN!

[2Design]

21. kpete - good find n/t

[BattyDem]

22. Go Dan!

:applause: :patriot:

[Canuckistanian]

23. The WH can't possibly claim Executive Privilege

That would raise all sorts of issues about the independence of the fifth estate.

Obviously, the WH would be seen as covering up for CBS.

They might even try to use the "State Secret" provision but again, that would raise some very serious issues about CBS's relationship to the government and it's editorial independance.

Either way, either the WH, CBS or both are going to get screwed in this discovery process unless they cooperate.

I love it.

[Subdivisions]

24. Ouch! Some very harsh replies below that article.

Rather was nothing but a pampered and highly overpaid 3rd place newsman his WHOLE anchor career. He fancied himself greater than Cronkite and got raises every contract even though he placed LAST!!!! Now he wants more money from CBS because he had no idea that proportional spacing, something any modern day 3rd grader could easily identify as latter day computer technology, was not on typewriters of the 60s. Then later he said that the documents were "fake but true". I think Nixon is laughing at him from the grave. "Say Dan, I think you are promoting an 'Us versus them' mentality. Did you not always say that was bad, at least when you were accusing others of doing it?" What a hypocrite!
Report

By bmcnew on 01/10/2008 at 2:01am

[drm604]

25. Obvious disinformation.

I have a hard time imagining anyone spontaneously composing and posting that comment on a whim. Either bmcnew is obsessed with Rather or this is part a smear campaign.

[SpiralHawk]

28. YUP - It's just republicon Black Ops

The republicons are totally into the occult -- and this is just one example of their propaganda mind-fuck crapola. Totally un-American.

[laylah]

26. As he should!

May Dan prevail. He was screwed six ways from Sunday.

[SeattleGirl]

27. Nice!

I'm very glad to see this.

Fuckers buckled under to White House pressure, and wimped out on Dan.

Hope he gets 'em good!

[Divine Discontent]

29. this is HUGH!!!!

it may not be as HUGH as the story that's being reported all around the world that our OWN govt was behind a lot of the uprising and power of those behind the war on 'terra', but it's pretty damn big.

GO Dan!

I hope these people will face their day in court ---- and head on to their sentences.

[mzmolly]

30. Ooooooh, this is gonna be goooood!

:popcorn:

And, just in time for the coming election I hope?

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

31. Can we add our names as plaintiffs?

Seriously!!!!!

[Seabiscuit]

35. That was the first question that popped into my head, too.

See? Great minds DO think alike. :)

[jasmine621]

32. HOORAY!!! nt

[ooglymoogly]

33. This is wonderful news. Dan may yet go down in history as one of the

heroes that in the end saved the constitution and America as a democracy.

[Seabiscuit]

34. If "CBS was a party to (the White House's) biggest secrets", then Bush has already

waived any phony "executive privilege" claim it might try to make b y sharing such secrets with a private third party (CBS) which has nothing to do with the executive branch of government. I'm sure Rather's attorneys are aware of this.

[Usrename]

36. Way to go Dan!

Great to see someone who isn't afraid to stand up to them.