We all remember Dan Rather, right? CBS News reporter, proponent of “advocacy” journalism, made his rep by getting up President Nixon’s nose, tried to burn President Dubya about his National Guard service with faked-up documents, got caught by the blogosphere and wound up ending his career on an obscure cable show.

I guess the Rathergate incident really got up his nose, to the point that he wants to change the ending. He’s suing CBS News. Here’s Howard Kurtz on the subject:

CBS management “coerced” the veteran news anchor “into publicly apologizing and taking personal blame for alleged journalistic errors in the broadcast,” says the $70 million suit, which also names Sumner Redstone, chief executive of the network’s then-parent company, Viacom; CBS Chairman Les Moonves; and former CBS News president Andrew Heyward.

Several former colleagues said they were baffled by the move. “I think he’s gone off the deep end,” said Josh Howard, who was forced to resign as executive producer of “60 Minutes II” after CBS retracted the story. “He seems to be saying he was just the narrator.

“He did every interview. He worked the sources over the phone. He was there in the room with the so-called document experts. He argued over every line in the script. It’s laughable.”

Speaking of laughs, you know — you just know — that Iowahawk is going to do something with this.

As for Dan, it’s sad, but he’ll have to accept that he screwed himself sooner or later. Rathergate should serve as an object lesson to all journalists, a warning that even a high-profile pressman will be held accountable for his mistakes.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 20th, 2007 at 09:27 and is filed under International, Media Watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.