Two More Details on the Rather Complaint

Hey! Howie Kurtz has decided to do some reporting!!

He has two pieces on the Dan Rather lawsuit today. In a piece based on an interview of Rather, he notes that Moonves and Heyward demanded Rather resign the day after Bush was re-[s]elected.

Rather insisted to reporters on Nov. 23, 2004, that his decision tostep down as anchor the following spring was entirely voluntary. Butyesterday he said Heyward and Moonves, the CBS chairman, had called hisagent 20 days earlier — the morning after Bush’s reelection — andsaid that he had to relinquish the chair immediately. Rather wound upstaying until March 2005, which he says is close to the time he hadplanned to step down anyway.

So apparently, now we’re making continued employment for journalists based on who is President?

In an earlier piece, Kurtz reveals why Rather decided to sue. Rather investigated the PI who was purportedly hired to complete the investigation of Bush’s record. And he discovered that the PI was actually out investigating him and Mapes–and had determined the documents to be authentic.

Asked why Rather would sue more than a year after leaving CBS, Goldsaid the former anchor was "a bit appalled" at new information he saidhad emerged involving a private investigator, Erik Rigler, who washired by the network during the 2004 controversy. Rigler, a former FBI agent, "was trying to dig up dirt on Dan and Mary Mapes," Gold said, declining to elaborate.

When CBS came under fire over the story, Gold said, Rather told Heywardhe wanted to hire an investigator at his own expense, but Heywardresponded that CBS would retain such a person. Gold said, again withoutproviding evidence, that Rigler concluded that the Guard memos wereauthentic and the story accurate. He was interviewed by theThornburgh-Boccardi panel, which accused Rather and CBS of a "myopiczeal" to rush the story to air five days after obtaining the disputedpapers.

Reached by phone, Rigler declined to comment last night.

And in Kurtz’ later piece, Rather explains a little more about Rigler.

Here Rather wades deep into the weeds, talking about how a privateinvestigator he hired dug up information on a "mystery man" — an ex-FBI agentretained by CBS to look into the story once it came under fire. Rathersaid the network ignored this consultant’s allegedly supportivefindings and more recently, accused the former anchor of "harassing"the man.

In the aftermath of the 2004 segment, Rather said, he wanted to keepinvestigating the Guard story himself, but CBS executives "shut itdown." CBS, for its part, was trying to obtain an independentassessment at a time when Rather’s reporting was under attack.

For Howie Kurtz, "deep in the weeds" generally means "Howie doesn’t understand."

So here’s what appears to have happened: Rather told CBS he was going to pay for an investigation himself. Instead, CBS paid this guy Rigler to do so. Since then, Rather has hired his own PI (PI squared, as it were),

He said he hired "a team of people," with "money out of my own pocket,"to investigate CBS’s handling of the story that led to his downfall asanchor.

…Who discovered certain things about Rigler: that he basically found the documents to be authentic, that he told the committee investigating the story as much, but that somehow that never made the report. Oh–and just as important–that Rigler was investigating Rather and Mapes.

Elsewhere, Rather talks about doing this to get people under oath. I’m wondering whether he’s thinking of Rigler … or Moonves.