Sep 29, 2009 04:23 PM
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New York, 6:11 PM
Tue Feb 9
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It's all over but the cryin' for Dan Rather. A New York appellate court today tossed out his lawsuit against CBS News for breach of contract and fraud. So there's really no reason to pay attention to him anymore.
Rather's $70 million suit, which claimed among other things that CBS violated his contract by "putting him out to pasture" and continuing to pay his $6 million salary after he humiliated himself and his colleagues by putting completely bogus documents on the air with literally no idea where they cam from, was supposed to be his vindication. But the New York Supreme Court's appellate term has thrown it out. We were pretty excited about the suit, mostly because once discovery got going there would be a lot of fun depositions and e-mails leaked—like the disclosure that CBS News contemplated hiring Ann Coulter, Pat Buchanan, Rush Limbaugh, and Matt Drudge to investigate Rather's story about Bush's Texas Air National Guard Service.
But it was not to be. The legal issues are arcane, but basically it all hinges on the fact that CBS inserted the words "[e]xcept as otherwise specified in this Agreement" into Rather's contract, which let them do whatever they wanted, including pay Rather not to work after he became an insufferable embarrassment to the network.
Rather's lawyer has pledged to appeal the decision, but he's going to lose, because let's face it: Dan Rather is a loser.
You can read the full decision here.
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