Dan Rather says he was made a scapegoat to pacify the White House.
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In his first interview since filing a $70 million lawsuit against CBS and his former bosses, Dan Rather told Larry King on Thursday night that he was motivated by principle and not monetary gain.
“The central thing here is, you can’t have freedom of press if you have large corporations and big government intimidating newsrooms,” he said. “We need to eliminate or alleviate big corporate pressure. … We have to get back to integrity in the news.”
Rather, 75, filed suit Wednesday, claiming CBS made him a "scapegoat" for a discredited story about President Bush's military service during the Vietnam War. The story aired on “60 Minutes II” just weeks before the 2004 presidential election.
Rather narrated a September 2004 report saying that Bush had disobeyed orders and shirked some of his duties during his National Guard service and that a commander felt pressured to sugarcoat Bush's record.
In his lawsuit, Rather maintains that the story was true, but that if any aspect of the broadcast wasn't accurate, he was not responsible for the errors.
CBS says Rather’s complaints “are old news and this lawsuit is without merit.”
Thursday night, Rather told King:
That in contrast to former “60 Minutes II” Executive Producer Josh Howard’s assertion that Rather has “gone off the deep end, or should I say, deeper end," “I’ve never been clearer on anything in my life. … This is the right stand.”
“Our problems began when we did the Abu Ghraib story. We did it on ‘60 Minutes II.’ After that, the network wanted to cancel ‘60 Minutes II,’” but an ensuing outcry stopped CBS from doing so.
“I was told the morning after the 2004 election that I was going to be taken out of the anchor chair.”
“I’m ready to go under deposition. The question is, are they [CBS executives]?”
He will “absolutely not” agree to a purely financial settlement with CBS to dismiss the lawsuit. “It’s not about the money; it’s about the principle.”
If he wins his lawsuit and gets money from CBS, he will donate a portion to committees dedicated to furthering investigative news and to protecting journalists.
That he did his best at a time when there was a confluence of major events at the same time: a hurricane, former President Clinton’s heart surgery, and the Republican National Convention.
“I challenge anybody to check my record and see if I was a reporter or a talking head.”
He’s been criticized for sticking by “my people,” but doesn’t regret that because he’s always been a team player.
When he read an on-air apology weeks after the Bush story aired, “I didn’t know then what I know now. A lot has come out. … They [CBS executives] shifted whatever blame away from themselves and put it on me and other good people in the organization.”
He did not write the apology. He thinks most of it was written by the network.
“I didn’t want to apologize. I didn’t think we needed to apologize. … This was all designed to put the blame on me and exonerate the network.”
“I thought we were a team. As it turned out, they were looking for a scapegoat.”
That former Bush administration Attorney General Richard Thornburgh, who headed an independent investigation into the scandal, participated in a fraud. He described Thornburgh as “a Republican and a good friend of President Bush’s.”
He wasn’t invited to the final screening of the “60 Minutes II” report, but CBS News executives and “the president of the news division was there. … They were the ones responsible for putting it on the air.”
He doesn’t watch Katie Couric on the “CBS Evening News” very often because he’s so busy. “When I have seen it lately there’s a little more international news and hard news. I like that.”
That legendary “60 Minutes” reporter Mike Wallace should’ve kept his opinion to himself instead of telling King that Rather should’ve resigned when other CBS News employees were fired after the scandal mushroomed. “He shouldn’t answer for me.”
“I’ll let that pass,” when asked if he was hurt by Wallace’s statement.
He still has friends at CBS News, and he has great respect for them.
CBS News has been “hollowed out” by the network.
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