Dan Rather Crazy or Crazy Like a Fox

If you don't know by now, Dan Rather has initiated a $70 million lawsuit against CBS for wrongful dismissal as news anchor of CBS news. Most pundits and many bloggers are calling Rather "pathetic" or a "loser". Maybe he is....but maybe not.

Sidney Blumenthal has an interesting article at Salon.com suggesting that this lawsuit, if accepted, could "set in motion an inexorable mechanism that will grind out answers to other questions as well." Such as how media giants "work" with the White House to suppress important stories.

In making his case, Rather will certainly establish beyond reasonable doubt that George W. Bush never completed his required service in the Texas Air National Guard. Moreover, Rather's suit will seek to demonstrate that the documents used in his "60 Minutes II" piece were not inauthentic and that he and his producers acted responsibly in presenting them and the information they contained -- and that that information is true. Indeed, no credible source has refuted the essential facts of the story.

Blumenthal says that Rather is not interested in settling this case. He wants it to go to trial because then his lawyers get to take depositions. Blumenthal goes on to say:

The widely accepted account that Mapes and Rather's original piece on Bush and the Guard was unproved and discredited has been based on the notion that the documents revealed were false. But three years after the heated controversy exploded, these premises appear very uncertain in the cold light of day.

This lawsuit could prove to be very interesting. There is nothing I'd like better than for the true Bush National Guard record to be shown in the light of day.