Dan Rather Wins One

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Dan Rather has won access to a whole bundle of internal CBS documents in his lawsuit against his former employers. This all goes back to a controversial “60 Minutes” report on George W. Bush’s time in the military. The report was disputed, and CBS ended up essentially firing Rather. He sued in 2007, saying the panel CBS set up to review the 60 Minutes report was biased. Now Rather’s lawyers will have access to e-mails between CBS and the law firm that it hired to investigate the segment. Media Matters’ Eric Boehlert explains why this new development is important [emphasis mine]:

The picture painted by the CBS memos and documents already reviewed by Rather suggest a craven news organization that was less interested in uncovering the truth about the disputed memos, and more interested in appeasing Rush Limbaugh. It wanted to “mollify the right,” as one internal CBS memo put it.

You can probably expect this to get juicy.

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With just hours left, we need a huge surge in reader support to get to our $400,000 year-end goal. Whether you've given before or this is your first time, your contribution right now matters. All gifts are 3X matched and tax-deductible.

Managing an independent, nonprofit newsroom is staggeringly hard. There’s no cushion in our budget—no backup revenue, no corporate safety net. We can’t afford to fall short, and we can’t rely on corporations or deep-pocketed interests to fund the fierce, investigative journalism Mother Jones exists to do. That’s why we need you right now. Please chip in to help close the gap.

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