ANOTHER SCANDAL AT CBS

                             ANOTHER SCANDAL AT CBS                              

My name is Steve Patten.   I am a journalist, editor of Lee & Grant International (www.leeandgrantinternational.com) reporting on the War on Terror and other national security issues.  I have a concern as a CBS shareholder, which I have been since the 1980s.    CBS has another scandal on its hands.

I was a correspondent for CBS News reporting on television and radio from wars in the Far East, Middle East, and Central America in the 1970s and 1980s.  As I was about to take up a new assignment from CBS News as correspondent in the Beirut, Lebanon bureau the CBS News foreign editor called to tell me, “The word on the streets of Beirut is you’re dirty.”  He explained CBS News had been told I was actually a CIA agent using journalism as a cover.   I told him that was ridiculous and demanded to know where they got this. 

CBS would never reveal its secret sources and when I continued to demand it reveal those sources CBS News fired me, giving me a one-day notice of termination from my post as correspondent for CBS News in Seoul, South Korea.  In another obvious sign that CBS News believed this CIA allegation about me, CBS News refused to honor my final expense reports for $14,000. in expenses I properly and legitimately incurred working as a correspondent for CBS News in South Korea, in accordance with my contract with CBS.

That was 1985 and CBS News has never reimbursed me for those expenses, in spite of my many requests to do so.  I offered in a January 2016 letter to CBS News president David Rhodes to accept the $14,000. figure if paid within 30 days.  I warned him if not paid I would add late fees and interest to run from the 1980s that would substantially increase CBS indebtedness to me.

His response?  Mr. Rhodes had a staff member e-mail me to say I was submitting these expenses 30 years too late and so CBS would not pay.  Balderdash.  Hogwash.  CBS News got these expense reports three decades ago and, as I wrote to Mr. Rhodes in response, I can easily document that.  My billing to CBS now includes late fees and interest, which have increased this $14,000. to currently over $26 million. 

I mailed acting CBS CEO Joseph Ianniello letters September and November 2018 with copies of the letters to CBS board members and then faxed the letters last week asking   Mr. Ianniello to direct Mr. Rhodes to pay the monies CBS News owes me.  No reply yet.

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For more information on Steve Patten vs. CBS, please refer to the book, "Foreign Correspondent," by Patricia L. Mosure and Stephen G. Patten, available at Amazon.com (ISBN: 978-0-9968185-0-6) or contact Steve's office at ppmntpatti@aol.com or 1-800-533-4726.  You can also go to www.facebook.com/thebookforeigncorrespondent for more information.