CBS

All three evening newscasts on Wednesday and the morning shows on Thursday identified disgraced former Congressman Chris Lee as a Republican. On the February 10 Today, Kelly O'Donnell twice tagged the ex-representative, who resigned after shirtless photos of him surfaced online, as "conservative."

The NBC reporter asserted, "The former Congressman is a former businessman, considered an up and coming conservative." Just seconds later, as a picture of the politician appeared, she added, "This is the image, shirtless and flexing, that tanked the political career of Chris Lee, a conservative, Republican Congressman from Western New York."

Continuing to made ideological references, O'Donnell pointed out: "He had even been given the plum job of delivering the weekly Republican address last spring."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared on all three morning shows, Wednesday, but only Meredith Vieira on the Today show seemed to assume a second term for Clinton's boss, Barack Obama. After questioning how long she'd stay in the job, the NBC co-anchor wondered, "Do we expect any time soon that you are planning to retire like defense Secretary Gates?...How about the second term?"

On CBS's Early Show, Erica Hill also asked Clinton about her future plans, but simply noted that the Secretary of State planned on staying "at least through this first term."

[See video below. MP3 audio here.]

CBS has struck back against Dan Rather's lawsuit alleging the network made him a scapegoat for his discredited Air National Guard story about President Bush shortly before Election Day 2004.

The network filed a 30-page motion in New York Supreme Court Thursday to dismiss the case claiming it was "mystified and saddened by the baseless and self-serving allegations and distortions of fact raised in his lawsuit."

As reported by the New York Observer (h/t Charles Johnson, emphasis added throughout):

"Dan Rather is one of the most important figures in the history of broadcast journalism, and for more than 40 years was one of our most valued colleagues," CBS said in the statement. "That is why we at CBS are mystified and saddened by the baseless and self-serving allegations and distortions of fact raised in his lawsuit."

"Today we are filing a motion to dismiss," added the statement. "If we are required to proceed beyond this point, we will defend the case vigorously and demonstrate that the lawsuit is wholly without merit, and that the bizarre allegations by Mr. Rather are untrue."

Maybe even better, CBS questioned Rather's motives for the suit: