The New York Observer reports that the three CBS employees asked to resign over the biased "60 Minutes" story that resulted in RatherGate are lawyering-up and are still drawing paychecks from CBS.
Five weeks later, the crisis is not yet behind Mr. Moonves. And far from resolving the problem of the network’s credibility, the independent report commissioned by CBS appears instead to be leading to a confrontation, with defenders of both the ousted CBS staffers involved in the debacle and top CBS management asserting two different truths from the same document.
Mr. Howard and two other ousted CBS staffers—his top deputy, Mary Murphy, and CBS News senior vice president Betsy West—haven’t resigned. And sources close to Mr. Howard said that before any resignation comes, the 23-year CBS News veteran is demanding that the network retract Mr. Moonves’ remarks, correct its official story line and ultimately clear his name.
Mr. Howard, those sources said, has hired a lawyer to develop a breach-of-contract suit against the network. Ms. Murphy and Ms. West have likewise hired litigators, according to associates of theirs, and all three remain CBS employees and collect weekly salaries from the company that asked them to tender their resignations.
The article is fascinating and illustrates that CBS is as incompetent in employment law as it is in determining whether a document is faked.
The three sacrificial lambs designated by CBS are going to cost CBS a lot of money, not to mention even more public ridicule.
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