CBS fought very hard on this because it believed and believes that there's a principle at stake here. The principle is that Dan Rather doesn't work for the police, and that people that speak to Dan Rather understand that he's a journalist and not a police agent.
“In each colony in 1750 were to be found two sets of governing organizations, - the local and the general.”
“What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.”