'CBS Evening News' Gives Barely 20 Seconds to Rather's Lawsuit

September 19th, 2007 10:07 PM

Wednesday night, Katie Couric read this short item on the "CBS Evening News:"

Dan Rather filed a $70 million lawsuit today against CBS. He accuses the network of making him a quote, “scapegoat” for a discredited story about President Bush's National Guard service. In a statement today, CBS said Rather's “complaints are old news” and his “lawsuit is without merit.”

On ABC's "World News," anchor Charles Gibson allocated about the same amount of time to the lawsuit, but Gibson gave a glimpse of Rather's paranoia, pointing out how “he accuses the network of punishing him to pacify the White House.” Ron Allen included that claim in a full story on Wednesday's "NBC Nightly News."

Related: Tim Graham's earlier item, “Rather Warned Us Years Ago: Some Americans 'Sue at the Drop of a Hat,'” with video.