MRC/NB's Rich Noyes Blasts Dan Rather: 'He's the Perpetrator'

By NB Staff (Bio | Archive)
September 19, 2007 - 23:39 ET
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In a story on Dan Rather's lawsuit against CBS, Rich Noyes, Research Director at the MRC and Senior Editor of NewsBusters, got two soundbites Wednesday night on the 11pm news on WUSA-TV, channel 9 (ch 34 DT), the Gannett-owned CBS affiliate in Washington, DC. Reporter Gary Nurenberg traveled to the MRC's offices to tape Noyes at about 6:30pm. In Nurenberg's story, Noyes blasted Rather:

This is a story attacking President Bush at the height of a campaign that they raced onto the airwaves. And now Dan Rather's complaining that the investigation was biased and he's the victim in all of this. He is not the victim. He's the perpetrator.

After Nurenberg noted how “the conservative Media Research Center has criticized Rather for years,” viewers heard from Noyes again: “His undoing was his own reporting.”

Video clip (35 secs): Real (1 MB) or Windows Media (1.1 MB), plus MP3 audio (200 KB)

WUSA-TV's Web site has streaming Windows Media video of the entire story (link to page with the video player and an article) as aired on the September 19 newscast, which will likely repeat during the 5 to 7am news on Thursday morning.


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Typical

September 20, 2007 - 01:37 ET by Slickster

Same old liberal scam, the perp as the victim, can't wait to hear about all Dan's pain and suffering.

}}---> Poor Dan

September 20, 2007 - 01:45 ET by Cool Arrow

Walter Cronkite won't invite him over for frog gigging on weekends.

~LYDSEXICS UNTIE!~

Whoa, Rich, extreme closeup!

September 20, 2007 - 05:11 ET by Tim Graham

Whoa, Rich, extreme closeup! Awesome soundbite, and on a CBS station. It never would have happened when Rather was on the Anchor Throne.

"the conservative Media

September 20, 2007 - 08:29 ET by mattm

"the conservative Media Research Center..."

The use of this adjective is biased journalism.  They never say "the Liberal" media matters, or the "Left-wing group" MoveOn dot org...but even if they did , the adjective is still a subjective descriptor.

 

Crux of Dan's Complaint

September 20, 2007 - 09:09 ET by allanf

Rather's contract with CBS expired November 25, 2006.  

Dan Rather held contract renewal negotiations with CBS in the summer of 2004. The crux of Dan Rather's complaint is that a letter from Les Moonves, President of CBS, dated November 22, 2004 (after the scandal broke) stated that the network would engage in good faith contract renewal negotiations starting in November 2005 "along the lines of of our prior discussions of  that possibility earlier this year"

Rather claims to have had flushed out an agreement in the summer of 2004 which was not reduced to writing. 

Rather states that when his agent approached CBS in November of 2005 about a contract extention, the network said it was not interested in extending his contract.  Rather claims breach of implied convenent of good faith against CBS and Fraud. Rather was removed as anchor on November 9, 2004 and his last broadcast as anchor was in March 2005.    How he could try to hold CBS to unsigned terms discussed in the summer of 2004 in November of 2005 boggles the mind.

He also claims breach of contract. His contract stated that if he were removed as anchor of the CBS Evening News:

CBS Shall assign Artis as a full-time Correspondent on 60 Minutes II and Artist shall continue to receive first billing.

He claims the contract obliged CBS to give him optimum air time.

So he is suing for breach of contract.

Of course it does not enter into Mr. Rather's calculus the committed misconduct which hurt CBS and its reputation.