Back in 2007, Dan Rather filed suit against CBS claiming that they had led a biased investigation into a piece he did about President Bush’s National Guard service.   Many thought the lawsuit would be dismissed fairly quickly and nonetheless Rather put 2 million of his own dollars towards the suit and according to The New York Times he might just be getting something for his trouble:

Using tools unavailable to him as a reporter — including the power of subpoena and the threat of punishment against witnesses who lie under oath — he has unearthed evidence that would seem to support his assertion that CBS intended its investigation, at least in part, to quell Republican criticism of the network.

Among the materials that money has shaken free for Mr. Rather are internal CBS memorandums turned over to his lawyers, showing that network executives used Republican operatives to vet the names of potential members of a panel that had been billed as independent and charged with investigating the “60 Minutes” segment.

I have to give Mr. Rather some props for his efforts.  Even though the chances of his winning the lawsuit are minimal, he has been vigilant in trying to uncover the truth and evidence that CBS was compromised when they announced that they were unable to stand behind the documents that backed up the report Rather made about Bush receiving favorable treatment in the Texas National Guard.

In the words of Mr. Rather:

I want to go the distance,” Mr. Rather said recently over a lunch of chili and cornbread at a barbecue restaurant. “Like any good reporter, I want to get as many as facts as possible; I want to get to the bottom of the story.”

It’s just sad that finding the truth costs so much.  Most people don’t have 2 million dollars to spend getting to the bottom or corporate and political scandal.

takepart to read the entire article.

*photo from charlois’s flickr stream (creative commons)