Follow Your Bliss

CBS better cough it up!

2007-09-19T21:27:55Z

Rather Files $70 Million Lawsuit Against CBS
Dan Rather, whose career at CBS News ground to an inglorious end 15 months ago over his role in an unsubstantiated report questioning President Bush’s Vietnam-era National Guard service, filed a $70 million lawsuit this afternoon against the network, its corporate parent and three of his former superiors.

Mr. Rather, 75, asserts that the network violated his contract by giving him insufficient airtime on “60 Minutes” after forcing him to step down as anchor of the “CBS Evening News” in March 2005. He also contends that the network committed fraud by commissioning a “biased” and incomplete investigation of the flawed Guard broadcast and, in the process, “seriously damaged his reputation.” As plaintiffs, the suit names CBS and its chief executive, Leslie Moonves; Viacom and its executive chairman, Sumner Redstone; and Andrew Heyward, the former president of CBS News.

In the suit, filed this afternoon in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, Mr. Rather charges that CBS and its executives made him “a scapegoat” in an attempt “to pacify the White House,” though the formal complaint presents virtually no direct evidence to that effect. To buttress this claim, Mr. Rather quotes the executive who oversaw his regular segment on CBS Radio, telling Mr. Rather in November 2004 that he was losing that slot, effective immediately, because of “pressure from ‘the right wing.’ ”

He also continues to take vehement issue with the appointment by CBS of Richard Thornburgh, an attorney general in the administration of the elder President Bush, as one of the two outside panelists given the job of reviewing how the disputed broadcast had been prepared.

In a statement CBS said, "These complaints are old news and this lawsuit is without merit."

For both Mr. Rather and CBS, the filing of the suit threatens to once again focus attention on one of the darker chapters in the history of the network and its storied news division, at a moment when it is already reeling. Mr. Rather’s successor as evening news anchor, Katie Couric, has languished in third place in the network news ratings since taking over the broadcast a year ago, behind not only Charles Gibson of ABC and Brian Williams of NBC, but also the ratings performance of the “CBS Evening News” in Mr. Rather’s final years.

The portrait of Mr. Rather that emerges from the 32-page filing bears little resemblance to the hard-charging, seemingly fearless anchor who for two decades shared the stage with Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings as the most watched and recognizable journalists in America.

By his own rendering, Mr. Rather was little more than a narrator of the disputed broadcast, which was shown on Sept. 8, 2004, on the midweek edition of “60 Minutes” and which purported to offer new evidence of preferential treatment given to Mr. Bush when he was a lieutenant in the Air National Guard.

Instead of directly vetting the script he would read for the Guard segment, Mr. Rather says, he acceded to pressure from Mr. Heyward to focus instead on his reporting from Florida on Hurricane Frances, and on Bill Clinton’s heart surgery.

Mr. Rather says in the filing that he allowed himself to be reduced to little more than a patsy in the furor that followed, after CBS — and later the outside panel it commissioned — concluded that the report was based on documents that could not be authenticated. Under pressure, Mr. Rather says, he delivered a public apology on his newscast on Sept. 20, 2004 — written not by him but by a CBS corporate publicist — “despite his own personal feelings that no public apology from him was warranted.”

He now leads a weekly news program on HDNet — an obscure cable channel in which he is seen by only a small fraction of the millions of viewers who once turned to him in his heyday to receive the news of the day.

In filing his suit now — three years after the now-disputed report was first broadcast, and more than a year after he reluctantly left CBS, as his last contract wound down — Mr. Rather is following, by a matter of weeks, the announcement by CBS that it had settled a similar lawsuit by Don Imus.

Mr. Imus had sued CBS over his firing in the aftermath of derogatory remarks he made about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team. While some Imus associates suggested last month that his final payment was at least $20 million, CBS Radio has characterized that figure as too high.

Mr. Rather’s suit seeks $20 million in compensatory damages and $50 million in punitive damages.

Among the pivotal points of contention in Mr. Rather’s suit are the definitions of the words “full-time” and “regular.” As quoted in the filing, Mr. Rather’s contract — which he signed in 2002, and which called for him to be paid a base salary of $6 million a year as anchor — entitled him to a job as a “full-time correspondent” with “first billing” on the midweek edition of “60 Minutes,” should he leave the anchor chair before March 2006, his 25th anniversary in the job.

As it turned out, Mr. Rather would leave the anchor chair a year early, and would indeed be reassigned to the midweek edition, known as “60 Minutes II.” When that broadcast was canceled a few months later, Mr. Rather’s contract called for him to be reassigned to the main “60 Minutes” broadcast on Sunday evening, where he would “perform services on a regular basis as a correspondent.”

Over the next year, Mr. Rather would have eight segments broadcast on the main “60 Minutes” — including reports that took him to North Korea, China and Beirut. While that would seem to be a substantial portfolio of work, Mr. Rather notes that other correspondents had more than twice as many reports appear on the program during the same period, and that several of his reports had been effectively buried, broadast on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day when far fewer people than usual were likely to tune in.

“He was provided with very little staff support, very few of his suggested stories were approved, editing services were denied to him, and the broadcast of the few stories he was permitted to do was delayed and then played on carefully selected evenings, when low viewership was anticipated,” the filing contends.

Among the most egregious indignities he suffered, Mr. Rather says, was the network’s response to his request to be sent as a correspondent to the scene of Hurricane Katrina in the fall of 2005.

“Mr. Rather is the most experienced reporter in the United States in covering hurricanes,” his lawyers write in the suit. “CBS refused to send him,” thus “furthering its desire to keep Mr. Rather off the air.”

i will be 21 soon.

2007-07-16T17:54:53Z

i find it imperative that i point out the fact i will soon be 21 and hitting up the hipster joints in Maine, then i'll have a few pints with the post-hardcore and famous at the Station.

and i get to do it with my bestest and my lover.

my life is better than it ever was.

polaroidofyou @ 2007-06-20T10:23:00

2007-06-20T14:23:48Z

I'm happy. That's all.

Goodbye past. Hello future.

2007-06-07T14:49:17Z

IN NOT EVEN 6 HOURS THE PRESALE WAS SOLD OUT - FUCK YOU CANADIANS!

2007-03-10T02:02:29Z

polaroidofyou @ 2007-02-22T00:56:00

2007-02-22T05:56:36Z

Smosh fucking pwnz. Their success story = priceless.

polaroidofyou @ 2007-02-18T01:22:00

2007-02-18T06:30:30Z

Things I learned on Saturday, February 17, 2007

New friends can be just as cool and awesome as old friends
Underground rap is pretty fucking cool
I suck at getting cars out of snow piles
The Vagina Monologues are funny as hell
SoCo is pretty much tasteless & pretty much perfection
SAE is not as sketchy as their reputation had led me to believe
Virginity is overrated
Sometimes you get interested in the most random people!

I ~~liked~~ LOVED 021707 & I am amazed it occurred during this dreadful month!

I hope you all remember who's important to you & be sure they know how much they mean to you.
Love to my bests, my favorites, my corruptible freshman. You should know who you all are. :)

polaroidofyou @ 2007-02-12T00:08:00

2007-02-12T05:11:12Z

Two roads split off from here,
and my life goes running in opposite directions.
Exaggerating the barrier between who I am,
and who I want to be.

I wanted to be the breath of fresh air,
When everything smelled so insincere.
But this taste still lingers in my mouth,
Deceit has ways of sticking around.
And I'm ready to disappear,
Vacation seems far... seems far from here.

Note to self:
I miss you terribly.
This is what
we call a tragedy.
Come back to me,
Come back to me,
To me.

Note to self:
I miss you terribly.
This is what
we call a tragedy.
Come back to me,
back to me,
To me.

I can feel my mind,
wandering again.
Into what I dont know,
and will I ever get home?
Time starts moving,
faster than I can.
And I'm sick of this scene,
I need to break the routine.
(repeat)

Two roads...
Split off from here,
and my life goes running in opposite directions.
Exaggerating the barrier between who I am,
and who I want to...

Which part of me is lost?
I feel so close,
and yet I am so far.
Which part of me is lost?
I feel so close,
and yet I am so (far)

Where are you to get me through this all? I need you terribly. I still think of you from time to time and everything you've done for me. Happy birthday.

i have an addicton for realz.

2007-02-06T06:34:50Z

Srsly what the hell!

1007 + 564 = 1571 plays
1571 plays = 6284 minutes (roughly)
6284 minutes = 104.733 hours
104.733 hours = 4.364 days

Dallas Green is my 2nd longest relationship with a man.

:D

2007-01-23T05:56:24Z

I'm happy these days.
Great classes, great friends, great new people I'm meeting.
Or perhaps just person?
My hair is supershort but everyone swears it's cute.
I think they're all blind.
My professor for 2 of my classes is gorgeous.
I start New Media Society next week.
I'm addicted to Mythbusters.
I'm officially a huge dork.
But a happy dork.
Yay!

polaroidofyou @ 2006-12-08T01:21:00

2006-12-08T06:21:03Z

We drive tonight,
and you are by my side.
We're talking about our lives,
like we've known each other forever.
The time flies by,
with the sound of your voice.
It’s close to paradise,
with the end surely near.
and If I could only stop the car
and hold onto you,
and never let go...
(and never let go)
I’ll never let go.
(I'll never let go)
As we round the corner
to your house
you turned to me and said,
"I’ll be going through withdrawal of you
for this one night we have spent."
And, I want to speak these words
but I guess I’ll just bite my tongue,
and accept 'someday, somehow'
as the words that we'll hang from.

And I... I don't want to speak these words.
Cause I, I don't want to make things any worse.
And I... I don't want to speak these words.
Cause I, I don't want to make things any worse.

Why does tonight
have to end?
Why don't we hit restart,
and pause it at our favorite parts.
We’ll skip the goodbyes.
If I had it my way,
I’d turn the car around
and runaway,
just you and I.

And I... I don't want to speak these words.
Cause I, I don't want to make things any worse. (any worse)
And I... I don't want to speak these words.
Cause I, I don't want to make things
and I, I don't want to make things... any worse.
Matchbook Romance - Tiger Lily

I'm a big loser but that's ok.
Sometimes, people just get so under your skin that you really don't realize it until you're forced to deal with the fact they're leaving.
I feel like a dumbass for being so upset but sometimes...
I just don't know.
Shoot me in the morning.

You have to let go of your past in order to have a future.

2006-11-19T19:41:09Z

Back me down from backing up
Hold your breath now it's stacking up
Etched with marks, but I can deal
And you're the problem and you can't feel
Try this on, straightjacket feeling
So maybe I won't be alone
Take back now, my life you're stealing

Yesterday was hell,
But today I'm fine without you
Runaway this time without you
And all I ever thought you would be,
That face is tearing holes in me again

Trust you is just one defense
Off a list of others, you don't make sense
Beg me time and time again
To take you back now, but you can't win
Take back now, my life you're stealing

Yesterday was hell
But today I'm fine without you
Runaway this time without you
And all I ever thought you would be
That face is tearing holes in me again,

But today I'm fine without you
Runaway this time without you
And all the things you put me through
I'm holding on by letting go of you

And when that memory slips away
There will be a better view from here
And only lonesome you remains
And just the thought of you I fear
Grip falls away

Yesterday was hell
But today I'm fine without you
Runaway this time without you
And all I ever thought you would be
That face is tearing holes in me again,

But today I'm fine without you
Runaway this time without you
And all the things you put me through
I'm holding on by letting go of you

"Straitjacket Feeling" - The All-American Rejects

polaroidofyou @ 2006-10-18T14:51:00

2006-10-18T18:52:01Z

I have no idea what's going on with my life anymore. Can I just quit?
This is not me depressed, but rather just confused, frustrated, irritated, wanting change.
Basically, rather than :( I am :/

Ths deserves a post all its own

2006-10-12T00:05:11Z

I motherfucking love Cursive.

polaroidofyou @ 2006-09-30T15:56:00

2006-09-30T19:58:20Z

Just fucking forget me already.
I fucking quit.
I give the fuck up.
How many days until I leave this state?
Waaaaaaaaaay too fucking many.
This chick = done.

I'm warm inside from the memories of puddle-jumping with you

2006-09-17T15:43:26Z

Plain White T's
"A Lonely September"
I'm sittin' here all by myself
just tryin' to think of something to do
Tryin' to think of something, anything
just to keep me from thinking of you
But you know it's not working out
'cause you're all that's on my mind
One thought of you is all it takes
to leave the rest of the world behind

Oh, I didn't mean for this to go as far as it did
And I didn't mean to get so close and share what we did
And I didn't mean to fall in love, but I did
And you didn't mean to love me back
but I know you did

I'm sittin' here tryin' to convince myself
that you're not the one for me
But the more I think, the less I believe it
and the more I want you here with me
You know the holidays are coming up
I don't want to spend them alone
Memories of Christmas time with you
will just kill me if I'm on my own

Oh, I didn't mean for this to go as far as it did
And I didn't mean to get so close and share what we did
And I didn't mean to fall in love, but I did
And you didn't mean to love me back

I know it's not the smartest thing to do
we just can't seem to get it right
But what I wouldn't give to have one more chance tonight
one more chance tonight

I'm sittin' here tryin' to entertain myself with this old guitar
But with all my inspiration gone it's not getting me very far
I look around my room and everything I see reminds me of you
Oh please, baby won't you take my hand
we've got nothing left to prove

Oh, I didn't mean for this to go as far as it did
And I didn't mean to get so close and share what we did
And I didn't mean to fall in love, but I did
And you didn't mean to love me back
but I know you did

And I didn't mean to meet you then
when we were just kids
And I didn't mean to give you chills
the way that I kiss
And I didn't mean to fall in love, but I did
And you didn't mean to love me back but I know you did
Don't say you didn't love me back 'cause you know you did
No, you didn't mean to love me back
But you did

It's times like these when I miss you and everything you've done for me.
I wouldn't be here now if it weren't for you, and that's the God's honest truth.
You know what I mean and that's all that matters.
You were my first for so many things but certainly won't be my last.
But September will always be the month I think of you.

SEXY PICTURE POST!!!

2006-08-02T20:01:47Z

HI! I am so bored, I'm gonna post lots of pictures of men I would fuck. I don't care if you disagree on any, it just means all the more sexings for me.

PATRICK STUMP / FALL OUT BOY
Patrick is a sexy beast in that awkward way. It gives him a mysterious quality- you don't know whether he'd be a nice boy, a bad boy, a shy boy, a gay boy, whatever!

CLIVE OWEN
Clive is everything I want in a foreign lover- tall, dark, brooding, handsome, older. His voice is just...GAH! And I'm not talking about the accent.

PAUL BANKS / INTERPOL
I have wanted Paul in my pants since I was 15/16. I'm not that into blondes but damn. His talent makes him all the more beautiful.

MAT DEVINE / KILL HANNAH
Words cannot even describe how absolutely amazing Mat is, holy shit. He is the embodiment of perfection, from his hair to his toes and everything in between.

PETER WENTZ / FALL OUT BOY
As pompous and egotistical as I think Peter probably is, I'd still tap that. Twice. Or more.

COLIN FARRELL
An Irish alcoholic, need I say more?! (note: while searching for a picture, I totally found the sex tape)

JASON STATHAM
I like British. I like older. Jason is both.

GAVIN DEGRAW
I wasn't any sort of fan until I saw him in concert. He puts on a damn good show and looks hot as FUCK.

CONOR OBERST / BRIGHT EYES
It is my dream to even just speak to Conor let alone sleep with him. He's just amazing in every way!

JARED LETO / 30 SECONDS TO MARS
I've wanted to do him since he fought in Fight Club and had a fucked up face. Actually, that's a lie, I wanted to do him since before Requiem for a Dream. And now he's all scene. Fuck yeah.

BRAD PITT
Duh.

IAN SOMERHALDER
Ian is the owner of the most beautiful eyes on the planet. And a beautiful everything else! But those eyes make me melt.

JORDAN BLILIE & JOHNNY WHITNEY / THE BLOOD BROTHERS
I can't imagine fucking one and not the other. At the same time. The Blood Brothers frontmen are a package deal.

ADAM LAZZARA / TAKING BACK SUNDAY
Adam was my very first emo/scene crush and we're still going strong, OH YEAH!

CHRIS HEAD / ANTI-FLAG
This guy cannot only talk good politics, have great morals/ideas/goals, and is a kickass musician, but he looks damn good when he does it.

BEN JORGENSEN / ARMOR FOR SLEEP
Ben has such a dorky way about him, much like Patrick's awkwardness. It makes me giggle and think he's gorgeous.

TYSON / SCARY KIDS SCARING KIDS
He has amazing lungs & vocal chords and, of course, looks damn good in tight pants doing what he does.

SHANE TOLD / SILVERSTEIN
Shane is one of my musical heroes, the way he can so evenly switch between screaming and softly singing is amazing.

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE
No comment other than his new song is so fucking hot.

50 CENT
He's one of the few men I just LOOOOOVE with big muscles. Yeah. Oh my, Yum.

NIC / GATSBY'S AMERICAN DREAM
Another of my musical heroes, I've met this hottie. He's so sweet. <3 him!

There are plenty more, I just figure I should stop looking up hot men before I combust. Yes.