Judge rejects parts of anchor’s €44m claim

A NEW YORK state judge has thrown out parts of Dan Rather’s $70 million (€44m) lawsuit against CBS but preserved several key elements, including the former news anchor’s breach of contract claim.

State Supreme Court Judge Ira Gammerman dismissed Rather’s fraud claim, saying he was too late in filing it, and rejected Rather’s charge that CBS executives damaged his future job prospects, saying Rather could not support the claim.

The judge let stand the portion of the suit in which Rather says the network breached his contract by not giving him enough on-air assignments after he was removed as anchor of the CBS Evening News in March 2005, following a scandal over a report on US President George W Bush’s military record.

CBS later acknowledged that documents used in the report, which aired on September 8, 2004, could not be authenticated. CBS aired the report two months before the presidential election.

In September 2007, Rather sued CBS chief executive Leslie Moonves, Viacom chief executive Sumner Redstone and Andrew Heyward, former head of CBS News, claiming he had been made a scapegoat to “pacify the White House”.

CBS was part of Viacom until the firms split in 2006.

Rather kept reporting for the weekly news programme 60 Minutes, but was dumped by CBS in June 2006 after 44 years with the network.

Martin Gold, Rather’s lawyer, said the judge’s decision left in place the essence of Rather’s lawsuit against CBS and Viacom.

“Although not every legal theory of the case survives, as a result of the decision, the court has permitted discovery and a trial of all of the factual issues that form the basis of Mr Rather’s lawsuit, including his $70m claim for compensatory and punitive damages,” Gold said in a statement.

James Quinn, a lawyer for CBS, viewed the decision differently.

“We’re very happy about it. Basically what’s left is a garden-variety contract dispute based on whether Dan Rather got enough air time on 60 minutes,” said Quinn.