US News

DAN’S BAD NEWS DAY

Dan Rather’s $70 million lawsuit against CBS is getting whittled down like a redwood at an Alabama beaver party.

A Manhattan judge yesterday threw out two more of Rather’s claims against the network, including his charge that his former bosses committed fraud by falsely promising to help restore his reputation after he became a “scapegoat” for a discredited story about President Bush’s military career.

“We are extremely gratified that the court has now dismissed the vast majority of Mr. Rather’s claims,” CBS said in a statement.

Rather’s lawyer, Martin Gold, said that despite Judicial Hearing Officer Ira Gammerman’s ruling striking down two of their remaining four claims, their suit is still alive.

“The whole story is coming out,” he said, predicting that Rather will prove claims that he was railroaded by his longtime bosses so they could curry favor with the Bush administration.

Rather filed suit against CBS last year, charging they hung him out to dry after the uproar over a flawed story on the president’s days in the Texas Air National Guard.

The report, which aired during the 2004 presidential race, said Bush avoided Vietnam by pulling strings to get into the Guard, and then shirked his duties once he was in.

The story came under fire when some of the documents the report relied on were revealed to be forgeries.

The suit maintains the story was accurate but the network forced Rather to apologize for it.

Network honchos decided to ax him in order “to pacify the White House,” the suit says.

Gammerman said he was throwing out Rather’s fraud claim not because he wasn’t duped, but because he didn’t suffer any damages from the alleged trickery. The judge noted that Rather, 76, was still paid the money he was owed under his contract, and is still gainfully – and lucratively – employed by HDNet.

He said Rather’s claims for breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty can go forward.

Rather’s side contends the network violated his contract by failing to give him enough work on “60 Minutes” and “60 Minutes II” after stripping him of his anchor job.

They contend that CBS essentially put his career into a deep freeze for 15 months until his contract expired, while his reputation continued to take a beating.

“That extra 15 months was poison to his career,” said Gold, who called the breach-of-contract claim “a slam dunk.”

CBS lawyer Jim Quinn said it’s only a matter of time until the last two claims are also tossed.

“We didn’t breach the contract. We paid it out and more,” he said, adding there was no set number of times Rather was supposed to appear on the news magazine.

dareh.gregorian@nypost.com