Dan Rather Sues CBS - Bodog Odds

Today’s lesson - don’t screw with Dan Rather. It’s one that CBS and Viacom are learning the hard way, possibly to the tune of $70 million.

SUING HIS OLD BOSSES

Last month, the former anchor of the CBS Evening News filed a lawsuit against CBS News, Viacom, their respective presidents, and his former supervisor, Andrew Heyward. Rather has accused them of fraud and violating obligations of contract and good faith. The $70 million is to offset damages to his reputation. Man, I wish somebody would do $70 mil worth of damages to my reputation.

A FALLING OUT

Rather was hired in 1962 and covered Vietnam, the assassination of JFK, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Irag, the fall of the Soviet Union, 9/11 and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He served as the anchor of the CBS Evening News from 1991 until 2005.

But his career was basically over after he did a story in 2004 on 60 Minutes Wednesday. The story concerned President George W. Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard and how his father pulled stings to keep him out of Vietnam.

While this was already common knowledge, Rather had produced a source and also had memos from Bush’s commander in the National Guard who complained about the easy treatment of the future president. But after the story aired, the source for the memos changed his story about how he had obtained them. This immediately cast doubt on the authenticity of the documents.

Rather publicly apologized, but it wasn’t long before he was canned as the network’s top anchor. Four other employees were also fired or asked to resign by CBS.

After that, CBS put Rather on the shelf, keeping him away from any stories of importance. He wasn’t even sent to cover Hurricane Katrina, despite the fact that he had more hurricane experience than anyone else at the company.

THE FINAL STRAW

Through it all, CBS maintained that it would use Rather in the future and even extend his contract. But with a few months left on his $6-million-per-year contract, he was tossed out onto the street by the network. CBS has even went so far as to remove any archival videos or tributes of Rather on their site, opting to replace them with promos featuring hottie singer Gwen Stefani.

BODOG ODDS

So the big question is, will Dan Rather win his lawsuit? Well, you can head on over to Bodog and make your wager on the subject. The result must be made public by December 31st, 2008 for there to be action, and the maximum wager allowed is $50. Here are the current odds:

Yes, he will win the lawsuit -135

No, he will not win the lawsuit -105

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Dan Rather Sues CBS - Bodog Odds