Gay-bash victim takes aim at CBS

Former CBS News producer Dick Jefferson slapped the company with a $10 million lawsuit yesterday in Manhattan Supreme Court, claiming anti-gay bias.Jefferson first made unwelcome headlines last year when he and a CBS colleague were brutally gay-bashed on the island of St. Maarten while on vacation.But Jefferson says he feels like he was "attacked again" when he went back to work, allegedly because the company was uncomfortable with his efforts to publicize the crime. "I think [CBS] decided they wanted all publicity directed toward Katie" Couric, Jefferson told me yesterday. "There was an underlying, unconscious bias that 'we just don't want this talked about.'" CBS terminated the 18-year veteran with a year left on his contract. He says they told him he was "too tough." CBS fired back in a statement: "This complaint reveals a stunningly selective recall of the 'facts,' both real and imagined, including omission of the extraordinary lengths to which CBS News ... went to airlift him to safety and better medical treatment at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars paid for by the Company." Source