New Delhi: Former CBS anchor Dan Rather has filed a $70 million lawsuit against the CBS television network and thereof its top executives for breach of contract and fraud.
He claims his former bosses ousted him because of pressure from the government.
Rather claims that they made him a "scapegoat" for a discredited story about US President George W Bush's military service during the Vietnam War.
Rather, 75, whose final months on the job were clouded by controversy over the story, said the actions of the defendants damaged his reputation and cost him significant financial loss.
The lawsuit, filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, claims the network intentionally botched the aftermath of the story about the US president's time in the Texas Air National Guard and had Rather take the blame to "pacify" the White House. He was removed from his job on CBS Evening News in March 2005.
"These complaints are old news, and this lawsuit is without merit," said Dana McClintock, a CBS spokesman. Viacom, the parent company of CBS, had no comment.
Rather narrated a September 2004 report saying Bush had disobeyed orders and shirked some duties during his National Guard service, and that a commander felt pressured to make Bush's record look better.
In his lawsuit, Rather maintains that the story was true, but that if any aspect of the broadcast was not accurate, he was not responsible for the errors.
The story relied on four documents, supposedly written by Mr Bush's commander in the Texas Air National Guard, the late Lt-Col Jerry Killian. Critics suggested the documents were forged.
A CBS review determined the story was neither fair nor accurate. CBS fired the story's producer and asked for the resignation of three executives because it could not authenticate documents used in the story, and Rather was forced out of the anchor's chair he had occupied for 24 years.
Rather's lawsuit says he was forced to apologise, although "as defendants well knew, even if any aspect of the broadcast had not been accurate, which has never been established, Mr Rather was not responsible for any such errors."
By making Rather apologise publicly, "CBS intentionally caused the public and the media to attribute CBS's alleged bungling of the episode to Mr Rather," the lawsuit claimed. As a result, some news media called the event ‘Rathergate’.
He also claimed that after removing him as anchor of the CBS Evening News, the network gave him fewer and less important assignments. At the time, Rather was making £3 million a year.
Rather claims that his departure was ultimately caused by Sumner Redstone, the chairman of Viacom, who found it best for the company to please the Bush administration by damaging Rather.
An "enraged" Redstone said the newsman and anyone associated with him had to go, according to the lawsuit.
(With agency inputs)
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