A judicial hearing officer allowed Dan Rather’s conspiracy laden lawsuit to go forward today, but threw out all the silly conspiracy portions of it, which in effect rendered the suit nothing more than your typical contract dispute.

The lawyer said it was hard to see how the ex-anchor’s assertion of a conspiracy between CBS and the Bush administration “will have any traction going forward”.

Instead of accepting responsibility for his incredibly shoddy journalism and simply apologizing, Rather claimed the whole “Rathergate” scandal was a conspiracy between the White House and CBS News executives. The convoluted story Rather laid out in his lawsuit was so preposterous that it almost makes you almost feel sorry for him.

A man once considered a titan of journalism has been reduced to a crazy old guy mumbling to himself about his former employer conspiring with The White House to do him in.

-Chris Jones