| They weren't the only ones on the list. There were much more temperate choices, too. But to even jokingly consider any of the above names.... well, it's pretty obvious that appeasing the right was big on CBS's mind. Searching for truth? Again, not so much.
This week, there's new news on the case, and Rather's team is about to get its hands on a whole lot more documents that could further expose CBS's bad faith dealings, as well as its craven disregard for the truth.
Remember, the very same women who said on-air that the documents weren't authentic also said that what their contents were true. Besides the fact that the memos weren't even needed to make the case that Bush had been given credit he hadn't earned in order to pretend he had completed the military obligation he had actually deserted.
The NY Times reported:
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."
Don't you just love it when corporate lawyers talk like rightwing hacks? It does so much to dispel the bad impressions in good old Exhibit J.
The Times went on to report:
The judge in the case, Ira Gammerman, of the New York State Supreme Court, ruled in Mr. Rather's favor on three motions, all of which could end up aiding his pursuit of background information about the panel of experts that CBS selected to look into "60 Minutes" report.
Most significant may be documents that include e-mail messages between the panel members and a law firm it hired to do investigative work on the case. The firm, K&L Gates, had opposed turning the documents over to Mr. Rather's lawyers on the grounds of lawyer-client privilege.
But Judge Gammerman ruled that the work done by the firm was not covered by privilege and ordered the documents be turned over to Mr. Rather's side within 10 days.
Judge Gammerman also pushed the lawyers for each side to take the case to trial within four months.
All those documents! And trial within four months! This should be gooood!
Eric Boehlert wrote a brief note over at Media Matters under the headline, "This is not going to end well for CBS".
Odds are very much that Boehlert is right--unless CBS can somehow keep this from going to court. Rather and his fired producer Mary Mapes have already told enough of their side about how unprofessionally the investigation was done. The internal documents should be a legal goldmine, even if they don't produce another shocker like Exhibit J. The plain fact was, this all happened in late 2004, early 2005, before Bush flamed out on privatizing Social Security, exploiting Terry Schiavo, hiding from Cindy Sheehan and ignoring Hurricane Katrina. In other words, folks like CBS were not just scared shitlless by right, they were petrified. And the chances of treating Rather honestly and fairly?
Snowballs in hell, baby. Snowbgalls in hell.
Which is about where CBS may well be finding itself very soon.
July 23, 2009 11:28 am ET by Eric Boehlert
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