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Dan Rather sues CBS, former bosses over `Rathergate'

Dan Rather filed a US$70 million lawsuit against CBS and his former bosses, claiming they made him a "scapegoat" for a discredited story about US President George W. Bush's military service during the Vietnam War.

The 75-year-old Rather, whose final months on the job were clouded by controversy over the story, said the actions of the defendants damaged his reputation and cost him significant financial loss.

The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, claims the network intentionally botched the aftermath of the story about Bush's time in the Texas Air National Guard and had Rather take the blame to "pacify" the White House.

He was removed from his job at CBS Evening News in March 2005.

Aside from CBS Corp, the suit named former CBS parent company Viacom Inc, CBS president and CEO Leslie Moonves, Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone and Andrew Heyward, former president of CBS News.

The suit sought US$20 million in compensatory damages and US$50 million in punitive damages.

"These complaints are old news and this lawsuit is without merit," CBS spokesman Dana McClintock said. Viacom had no comment.

Rather narrated a September 2004 report saying Bush had disobeyed orders and shirked some of his duties during his National Guard service and that a commander felt pressured to make Bush's record look better.

In his lawsuit, Rather maintains that the story was true, but that if any aspect of the broadcast was not accurate, he was not responsible for the errors.

The story relied on four documents, supposedly written by Bush's commander in the Texas Air National Guard, the late lieutenant colonel Jerry Killian.

Critics questioned the documents' authenticity and suggested they were forged.

A CBS review determined the story was neither fair nor accurate.

CBS fired the story's producer and asked for the resignation of three executives because it could not authenticate documents used in the story and Rather was forced out of the anchor chair he had occupied for 24 years.

Rather's lawsuit says he was forced to apologize, although "as defendants well knew, even if any aspect of the broadcast had not been accurate, which has never been established, Mr Rather was not responsible for any such errors."

By making Rather apologize publicly, "CBS intentionally caused the public and the media to attribute CBS' alleged bungling of the episode to Mr Rather," the lawsuit claimed.

As a result, some news media called the event "Rathergate."

He also claimed that after removing him as anchor of the CBS Evening News, the network gave him fewer and less important assignments and little airtime on 60 Minutes and 60 Minutes II.

At the time, Rather was making US$6 million a year, the lawsuit said.
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