On September 19, 2007, Rather filed a $70 million lawsuit against CBS, its former parent company [[Viacom (2005–present)|Viacom]]; CBS President and CEO [[Leslie Moonves]]; [[Sumner Redstone]], chairman of both Viacom and CBS; and [[Andrew Heyward]], former president of [[CBS News]]. Rather accused the network and its ownership and management of making him a "[[scapegoat]]" in the Killian story. A CBS spokesman claimed that the lawsuit was "old news" and "without merit."<ref name="foxnews.com"/> On September 21, 2009, Rather's lawyers claimed that Bush's military service would be proven to be a sham and Rather would be vindicated.<ref name="Martinez"/> On September 29, 2009, a New York state appeals court dismissed Rather's lawsuit against CBS.<ref name="web.archive.org"/><ref name="Honan"/> On January 12, 2010, New York's top court refused to reinstate Rather's $70 million breach-of-contract lawsuit against CBS Corp. In his book, "''Rather Outspoken''", Rather states that the lawsuit, "took a big wack out of my time, my psyche and my bank balance, but even so, it was worth it". <ref>{{Cite web|last=Byers|first=Dylan|title=Dan Rather: CBS lawsuit was 'worth it'|url=https://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/04/dan-rather-cbs-lawsuit-was-worth-it-121602|access-date=2020-12-15|website=POLITICO|language=en}}</ref>On May 18, 2012, Rather appeared on ''[[Real Time With Bill Maher]]'' and claimed he had been fired for reporting a story about George W. Bush's year of absence from the reserve unit he served with, and that the news corporations had been "very uncomfortable" with running the story.<ref name="Verizon Media"/>