Tag Archives: CBS

Dan Rather Sues CBS

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Don Imus calls black women “nappy-headed hos,” gets fired, sues, and CBS settles for $20million.
Dan Rather is forced out over a true report about how George Bush evaded his military service commitment. So it makes sense that he should finally sue CBS.
The right-wingers will tell you Rather used “forged” documents in the report. Except no one has ever shown they were forged, the person who typed the originals says this was what she typed, AND there is no question that the content of the documents and the story was accurate. Bush did evade his military service.
Here is the story:
Rather Sues CBS, Saying It Made Him a ‘Scapegoat’,

Dan Rather, whose career at CBS News ground to an inglorious end 15 months ago over his role in an unsubstantiated report questioning President Bush’s Vietnam-era National Guard service, filed a lawsuit this afternoon against the network, its corporate parent and three of his former superiors.
… He also contends that the network committed fraud by commissioning a “biased” and incomplete investigation of the flawed Guard broadcast and, in the process, “seriously damaged his reputation.”

CBS News Provides Free Airtime To Vets For Freedom Action Fund – A Campaign Organization

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This piece originally appeared on The Patriot Project

Wade Zirkle, Executive Director of Vets for Freedom Action Fund was invited last week to present a “free speech” commentary segment on the national TV “news” show CBS Evening News With Katie Couric.  There is a problem with this. Vets for Freedom Action Fund is a “527” group – a campaign organization that appears to exist soley to support one candidate – Joe Lieberman’s Connecticut campaign for the Senate.  So Zirkle’s presentation was not “commentary,” by definition it was a campaign speech supporting a partisan cause, delivered to a national audience a few weeks before an election.

CBS identifies Vets for Freedom Action Fund as a “bipartisan” organization.  But it is not.  Vets for Freedom Action Fund is entirely founded and controlled by Republican Party-aligned individuals, and its formation follows a pattern of formation of Party-aligned front groups for election-campaign purposes.  In the August post Behind the Front: The Creation of Vets for Freedom, Patriot Project exposed Vets for Freedom as a Republican front group.  From that post,

This "non-partisan" organization’s website was designed by The Donatelli Group/Campaign Solutions, which previously had worked with the infamous Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, as well as the White House-associated Judicial Confirmation Network, yet another well-financed, party-affiliated front group. Other Donatelli Group/Campaign Solutions clients include Bush-Cheney 2004, The Republican National Committee, the 2004 Republican National Convention…

The "non-partisan" Vets for Freedom originally had a privacy statement on their website that read, "We may from time to time share the information our visitors provide with other Republican candidates and other like-minded organizations."

The "non-partisan" Vets for Freedom included William Denman "Wade" Zirkle, who had helped run Republican Jerry Kilgore’s 2005 campaign for governor of Virginia, and was campaign manager for Republican Todd Gilbert’s 2005 race for the Virginia House of Delegates.

Because Vets for Freedom is a political, Party-affiliated election-campaign "527" organization supporting Joe Lieberman’s Senate Connecticut bid, CBS’ contribution of several minutes of airtime may be an improper corporate campaign contribution. 

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