Rather, CBS Back in Court
By Marisa Guthrie -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/12/2008
Attorneys for former CBS News anchor Dan Rather filed an amended fraud complaint last week in New York against CBS, detailing the alleged damage to his reputation caused by his longtime employers.
The complaint, filed after a judge rejected the original fraud allegations in Rather's $70 million lawsuit against the network, provides several examples of the indignities he says he suffered in the wake of the flawed National Guard story that precipitated his early retirement from The CBS Evening News.
The complaint contends that Rather, through his agent Richard Leibner, was in contact with several networks including Fox, HBO, A&E, History, National Geographic and Discovery (where Ted Koppel eventually landed after retiring from ABC News), about post-CBS News employment opportunities. However, each network balked over Rather's "baggage."
He now anchors Dan Rather Reports for Mark Cuban's small HDNet, which has about 6 million subscribers, a far cry from those of Discovery or MSNBC, where Tom Brokaw frequently appears.
